Virtual K-12 Schools

Works Cited: "K12 Inc. Ready To Expand Online Education Options. (Cover Story)." Electronic Education Report 15.4 (2008): 1-5. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Feb. 2012.

Summary: K12 Inc. is essentially an online charter school. For areas with low quality schools and for students who have yet to succeed in the traditional classroom, demand for innovative schooling is on the rise. U.S. virtual schools that use the K12 program are free for eligible parents because it’s curriculum and licensed teachers are both funded by the state. In 2007, K12 had the highest enrollment of it’s three largest competitors combined. The growing success, interest, and demand for K12 is driving the corporation to expand. To aid the development, K12 is working with both state policymakers and school districts with the hope of reaching all 50 states. K12 has also recently added a foreign language module and is working toward a Summer school module. However, becoming a well-known program attracts both cooperation and resistance. Two current obstacles for K12 are the public’s concern for using public funds for schooling that isn’t in a traditional classroom and teacher union resistance.

Assess: Having an alternative to the traditional classroom, especially when the traditional classroom has low quality, is important. It's good that K12 is attempting to reach all 50 states as well as some countries. I also believe K12 is currently the biggest competitor in the virtual classroom world because it is cheap for parents, expanding, and adding extra modules such as a foreign language and Summer school module. However, the obstacles of union resistance and the public's concern for using public funding are very real. Although it's nice to have an alternative to the traditional classroom, it's scary to think that if virtual schools keep growing, less of the tax payers money will go to the traditional classroom, where the majority of the students are, and more will go to the virtual classroom.

Reflection: Being only four-years-old, this article is still considered current. However, because online education is growing so quickly, this article doesn't contain information on all recent developments. This article also focuses alot on how much the corporation costs right now. The title leads the reader to believe the focus will be on educationa expansions within the corporation, not financial ones. This article still informed me of one of the main reasons people are switching to the virtual classroom: bad school systems.




Works Cited: Susan Patrick: Why Online Learning is a Smart Solution. Prod. Ken Ellis. Perf. Susan Patrick. Edutopia. The George Lucas Educational Foundation, 3 Aug. 2010. Web. 15 Feb. 2012.

Summary: The quality of a student's education is determined by where he/she lives. For example, Georgia lacks certified Physics Teachers. To account for this, online classes, taught by certified teachers, are now offered to students interested in Physics. Online learning is good because it allows students to not only manager their time differently but also engage in more one-on-one work with the teacher and other students. Online learning is also unique because it connects people across the country and the world. Students have shown demonstrated higher success rates in the virtual classroom than in the traditional classroom. Because of the successful in the growing virtual classroom, teachers should be prepared to teach in the digital world.

Assess: This video gives the viewer a clear idea of why people are switching to online education. Online learning seems to have many advantages; however, I dont understand how one-on-one interactions can be more common in a virtual world as opposed to a tangible world where the teacher and student are face-to-face. Also, while I'm sure online learning forces students to accept more responsibility and better manage their time, I've seen, from personal experience, that a scheduled school day is very important in time management. This video tells the viewer why students switch from the traditional classroom to the virtual one, but not why, or how many, switch back.

Reflection: Like I said above, I wish this video would have touched on both the pros and cons of online learning to give the viewer a more holistic view. I also wish there was factual evidence behind the claim that students are more successful in the virtual classroom. This video could also have been more efficient in advocating online learning if it showed examples of one-on-one learning in the virtual world. The video focused on why students choose online learning and used Georgia as a specific example, which was helpful.

 - Brooke