There are many pros and cons to virtual schools depending on the student’s needs and abilities. Only the individual student themselves can decide what the real pros and cons are. What is a pro for one person can be a con for another depending on the student’s lifestyle.
Virtual schools are not for every student and many cannot learn effectively in this environment but there are also many benefits. The first pro for virtual schools is the flexibility. Many parents decide a great portion of their child’s schedule and tailor it to the student’s needs. If the parent is the teacher they have the chance to spend a lot of quality time with their child and help create a bond. Parents can also monitor their child’s progress more closely and only teach what they find appropriate. Many skills are also learned in virtual schools such as self-motivation and becoming an independent learner.
One of the negatives of going to a virtual school is being isolated from other students. There is not the same daily interaction between classmates in a virtual school as there would be in a traditional classroom. Most of the class work is also done independently and student to student interaction in limited. There can also be a loss of social skills because of this. Virtual schools can also be missing other extracurricular activities like athletics, clubs, and organizations. It is also difficult for students to receive various forms of feedback. If there is only one teacher the feedback is limited. Students also do not get to experience various styles of teaching.
To determine the readiness of students to participate in distance delivery the student must be committed, determined, and independent. If the student does not have these qualities a virtual school would not be the right choice. To be able to teach a virtual school you would need the same qualities as a student that is ready for virtual schooling. Teachers have to be prepared for a drastic change and weigh all of the pros and cons before teaching.
Emerging Technologies Project
Every day new technologies are emerging and many provide educational value. As these new educational technologies become more readily available and affordable more and more classrooms are incorporating them in their daily routine. This will change the traditional classroom as we know it. Guest educators do not have to be physically present in the classroom, students can learn from various ways and new subjects can be introduced.
There are many websites that are committed to bring new technologies into the classroom. The first site I went to was http://www.linkslearning.org/. This site is for students, parents, teachers, principals, and superintendents. The LINKS learning site provides the latest internet technologies for a multimedia learning experience. For teachers this site is useful for finding information on mathematics, reading, and science. They can also find other useful resources for the classroom. For students there are interactive math lessons, and for parents there are strategies to help your child learn. This site will impact how students learn by providing a different learning strategy that may help many students. Students will be excited to learn from an interactive site oppose to the daily pencil and paper method.
The next site I went to was The Global Virtual Classroom Clubhouse. This is a multi-national site to help provide teachers with internet communication technologies. The clubhouse is to help classrooms around the world communicate with one another. Classrooms who participate in the clubhouse can work on projects together or send each other postcards. Classrooms participating in the clubhouse can gain culture awareness, computer skills, writing and reading skills, learn different languages, and learn a lot more from this project. Students will become more connected with the outside world and gain so much from other students.
The final site I explored was the Picasa link on the website http://www.google.com/educatores. Picasa is a free downloadable program students can use to upload, edit, and share their pictures with classmates. Picasa is a great way for student to start editing their pictures and also share them with the class. Teachers can also have albums dedicated to classroom activities or unites to capture the students’ learning in visually. The students can also share their pictures with parents by simply downloading the albums on to a photo CD. Students can learn computer skills they will use later in life and also create albums they will keep for a long time.
All of these sites are great impact on teaching and the preparation for teaching. All of the sites incorporate ways to include students, parents and teachers. There are so many different sites and new technologies at times it can be hard to keep up with. Taking time to explore the new emerging technologies can provide many benefits to your classroom.
I think that all of these sites will be useful now and also in the future. There is a great deal of information that can be found in many of the sites. I thought that the student centered sites were very interesting. I thought that finding ways to encourage students to be more involved in their education would be a great way to get them more excited about learning.
There are many websites that are committed to bring new technologies into the classroom. The first site I went to was http://www.linkslearning.org/. This site is for students, parents, teachers, principals, and superintendents. The LINKS learning site provides the latest internet technologies for a multimedia learning experience. For teachers this site is useful for finding information on mathematics, reading, and science. They can also find other useful resources for the classroom. For students there are interactive math lessons, and for parents there are strategies to help your child learn. This site will impact how students learn by providing a different learning strategy that may help many students. Students will be excited to learn from an interactive site oppose to the daily pencil and paper method.
The next site I went to was The Global Virtual Classroom Clubhouse. This is a multi-national site to help provide teachers with internet communication technologies. The clubhouse is to help classrooms around the world communicate with one another. Classrooms who participate in the clubhouse can work on projects together or send each other postcards. Classrooms participating in the clubhouse can gain culture awareness, computer skills, writing and reading skills, learn different languages, and learn a lot more from this project. Students will become more connected with the outside world and gain so much from other students.
The final site I explored was the Picasa link on the website http://www.google.com/educatores. Picasa is a free downloadable program students can use to upload, edit, and share their pictures with classmates. Picasa is a great way for student to start editing their pictures and also share them with the class. Teachers can also have albums dedicated to classroom activities or unites to capture the students’ learning in visually. The students can also share their pictures with parents by simply downloading the albums on to a photo CD. Students can learn computer skills they will use later in life and also create albums they will keep for a long time.
All of these sites are great impact on teaching and the preparation for teaching. All of the sites incorporate ways to include students, parents and teachers. There are so many different sites and new technologies at times it can be hard to keep up with. Taking time to explore the new emerging technologies can provide many benefits to your classroom.
I think that all of these sites will be useful now and also in the future. There is a great deal of information that can be found in many of the sites. I thought that the student centered sites were very interesting. I thought that finding ways to encourage students to be more involved in their education would be a great way to get them more excited about learning.
Kiosk
An interactive kiosk on a PowerPoint provides information access to many different topics. The viewer interacts with the kiosk while learning about a topic. The kiosk may include sounds, music, movies, animation and more. At the end of the kiosk presentation, there is a review test the viewer must complete. If the view does not answer the multiple questions correctly they are re-directed to the slide that contains the answer.
I had a great time working on my kiosk. I think this is a great way to engage students in a subject with fun features. What I liked about the kiosk project was the freedom to create anything you wanted and also work together to collaborate on ideas. This project was great to work in groups because of all the unique ideas everyone had. Everyone contributed to make the kiosk the best it could be.
While creating the kiosk project there were many frustrations. Most of the frustrations came from the technical difficulties we were having. For some reasons some of the slide would not show up during the slide show. We looked for them afterwards and they were there. We had to delete and recreate some of the slide in order to make them work. Another problem we had was that for some reason some of the links to other slides were wrong and we had to re-direct them as well. While viewing the kiosk the sound did not work as well. This was really frustrating because we had worked so hard to find the sounds and music for the kiosk and in the end they did not work.
Kiosks can be incorporated in the classroom in many ways. Teachers can use kiosks in every subject area. They are a great way for students to work individually as well as in groups. Kiosks can be used as an assessment tool or just for a fun activity for students. When using it as an assessment, teachers can relate what they are learning in class to the kiosk and then ask the students questions at the end. As a fun activity students can just view the kiosk and a test at the end is not necessary.
I had a great time working on my kiosk. I think this is a great way to engage students in a subject with fun features. What I liked about the kiosk project was the freedom to create anything you wanted and also work together to collaborate on ideas. This project was great to work in groups because of all the unique ideas everyone had. Everyone contributed to make the kiosk the best it could be.
While creating the kiosk project there were many frustrations. Most of the frustrations came from the technical difficulties we were having. For some reasons some of the slide would not show up during the slide show. We looked for them afterwards and they were there. We had to delete and recreate some of the slide in order to make them work. Another problem we had was that for some reason some of the links to other slides were wrong and we had to re-direct them as well. While viewing the kiosk the sound did not work as well. This was really frustrating because we had worked so hard to find the sounds and music for the kiosk and in the end they did not work.
Kiosks can be incorporated in the classroom in many ways. Teachers can use kiosks in every subject area. They are a great way for students to work individually as well as in groups. Kiosks can be used as an assessment tool or just for a fun activity for students. When using it as an assessment, teachers can relate what they are learning in class to the kiosk and then ask the students questions at the end. As a fun activity students can just view the kiosk and a test at the end is not necessary.
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