Online
degree programs are highly advertised today – we hear tons of supposed
“success” stories where mothers or full-time workers earn degrees at home in
their spare time online. Many
conventional university students also supplement their educations with
web-based classes, such as those offered by Penn State’s World Campus. It is also becoming popular for high school
dropouts to enroll in online GED programs.
However, many people today are questioning the value of these
programs. I recently read an article on
MSNBC.com. revealing that many online GED programs are not
actually credible and are not accepted by employers or universities. Similarly, many graduate institutions and
medical/law schools regard online classes as less rigorous and less beneficial
to students. It makes sense: I took two online classes through a community
college in high school, and they were definitely less valuable to me then the
conventional college classes I’m taking now.
Communication with professors was limited to brief emails, class
discussions were non-existent, and quizzes and tests were taken with an open
textbook on the desk beside me. I just
didn’t learn as much because my educational experience was not as rich, and I
think the same thing could be said of most online degree programs.
What
really concerns me is the increasing prevalence of cyber schooling for
elementary and high school students.
More and more students who struggle in a classroom setting are being
pulled out of public schools and enrolled in online programs that in my opinion
are absolutely incomparable to traditional classroom exposure. Cyber schools follow state standardized
curricula, so they supposedly provide students with the same knowledge bases as
conventional schools. However, cyber
school students lack some of the very critical lessons of the classroom such as
the ability to interact with peers and adult, the discipline of sitting still
and remaining quiet for long periods of time, and the etiquette of appropriate
social behavior. If a child is having problems in the classroom, there are
underlying social issues that need to be addressed. Pulling the child out on an environment where
he can practice his personal conduct and communication skills with others will only deepen the problem.
Being
the first generation of students with the opportunity to receive educations
online, we really don’t know yet how this alternative form of schooling will
affect us in our later lives and careers.
Personally, I’m worried about the children and adults who no longer attend
formal classes. There’s just something
missing when school is not a dynamic social environment but instead the inside
of a computer screen. Only time will tell how successful such an education can be.
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=cyber+school&um=1&hl=en&client=safari&sa=N&rls=en&biw=1440&bih=838&tbm=isch&tbnid=cuxPVhrR1efzjM:&imgrefurl=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi%3Ff%3D/c/a/2003/08/31/MN150541.DTL%26ao%3Dall&docid=xviVrfgwXUf3IM&imgurl=http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2003/08/31/mn_cyberschool046lh.jpg&w=580&h=400&ei=pF1rT9WWDorV0QG404XWBg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=1146&vpy=50&dur=1115&hovh=186&hovw=270&tx=150&ty=103&sig=109290321251259403933&page=1&tbnh=157&tbnw=210&start=0&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:17,s:0
It truly is amazing what modern technology is capable to do and I too am afraid that it will (in a way) "take over" in certain valuable aspects of our lives. This reminds me of the issue with ebooks and Kindles, also. The ease in which you can just download a book-- but, personally, I would rather read a paper book. It's just simply the experience of the book that is lost when it is replaced with technology.
ReplyDeleteOf course I have seen the hundreds of commercials promoting online GED programs and college classes, but I had never heard of elemantary schooling being done online before reading this blog. Like you mentioned I also agree parents choosing to pull their kids from a conventional classroom will have very negative affects for the child in the long run. I think integration back into a classroom enviornment will be extremely difficult.
ReplyDeleteI find online classes as a joke. You can take your online degree get an online job. You are missing valuable parts of education when you take online classes and it is not even close to being comnpatible.
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ReplyDeleteI've always been skeptical of online schooling programs because of the quality of the education. I'm sure that there is some level of benefit of choosing this over no education at all. For example, if a high school graduate with a child wants to go back to school, this may be the only option because of time commitments. But if someone chooses this over going into a real classroom (and can afford either one), I would say that that would be a terrible decision.
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