Virtual Schools

Tom Clark's chapter on "Virtual and Distance Education in North American Schools" reinforced the idea that distance education is important, not just at the university level, or even high school level, but throughout all of school. It was interesting to see how over the past 80 years various forms of virtual schools have taken place, with a variety of technologies. Clark reports that there "were about 300,000 K-12 online-learning enrollments in public and private schools in 2002-2003, up from an estimated 40-50,000 in 2000-2001. That is amazing growth!

Some of what I read reminded me of Clayton Christensen's Disrupting Class.

Christensen and his coauthors state that a key problem in schools is students learn in different ways and that schools are not built to customize student learning to the different needs that students have. The authors argue that disruptively deploying computer-based innovations is a key to customize educational resources for students. They state, “student-centric learning is the escape hatch from the…hierarchical cells of standardization. The software is emerging. Student-centric learning opens the door for students to learn in ways that match their intelligence types in the places and at the paces they prefer by combining content in customized sequences” (38-39).

Their point is not that more computers are needed, but that computers need to be used differently. For example, consider a class in Arabic. Because the class is not offered, nobody takes the class. Through the use of video conferencing, a class in Arabic could be offered to interested students. In addition, video conferencing could allow students to be paired up with peer learners in Arabic speaking countries who are trying to learn English. Although the quality of this type of educational opportunity might not be as good as a live classroom (at first), it is better than the alternative (no Arabic instruction). Over time, as the technology improves, it is conceivable that this form of education could become as efficacious as face to face classroom instruction.

Christensen predicts that by 2020 a majority of high school students will be in "virtual schools." Looking at the graphs presented by Clark it seemed to me that the growth that has been shown in virtual schooling could continue to dramatically increase. As technology improves and access increases it may become an increasingly attractive choice.

The Open High School of Utah could be an interseting labratory in which to study a "virtual high school" in our own backyward.