Online High Schools

This weeks' post was inspired by a question posed by Diana Maughan about whether distance education is another fad in education or if it is here to stay. The question got me to thinking about a commercial I heard on the radio for a new online charter high school here in the state of Utah. The high school is called Open High School of Utah (openhighschool.org). Below are a couple of videos about the school:




Why are Students Excited about Open High School of Utah? from OHSU Teacher on Vimeo.





I think a online charter school is a fascinating idea. The state of Utah now has a Statewide Online Education Program that allows high school students to take up to two online classes from an accredited online provider. Every student will have the option to take a couple of online classes over the traditional face-to-face classes. Students who enroll full-time into this school will be allowed to take all of their classes online. It will be interesting to see how this turns out and to see if it is successful. If a charter school like this ends up being successful and they are able to maintain a steady enrollment. We might just see online high schools popping up everywhere.

What are your thoughts?

Can Online Learning Work?

This week, I read an article from Tech and Learning Magazine that outlines four different measures that need to be taken in order for online learning to work. The first measure suggests that Educators at every level should move forward with the development of online-based curricula and supporting digital content. Measure two indicates that policy makers should review accreditation rules, teacher licensing requirements, copyright law, and other regulations that would unintentionally undermine online access to educational content. Measure three requests that broadband connectivity be expanded throughout the United States. Finally, measure four recommends that technology experts and policy makers explore measures to create a universal broadband support fund, to enable deployment and adoption of broadband in high-cost areas.

I completely agree with these measures and believe that they would be a continuing benefit to people everywhere young and old throughout the United States. The more access and exposure that we have to online learning opportunities, the more excitement their will be for learning and improvement of people everywhere.

In addition to these measures, I also believe that evaluative measures need to be taken for quality control of the content delivered online. I am a firm believer that quantity doesn't necessarily ensure quality as I have seen this in my own profession. It is one thing to create and provide online learning content to the masses, but it is a completely different matter to ensure that the content will be an effective medium for learning. The better the online content, the more likely people are to get on board with it.

I am excited about the future prospects of online learning and I believe it is going to continue to evolve into something greater and more useful to students of all ages!

U.S. Distance Learning Association (USDLA). "Can Online Learning Work?" Tech and Learning 31.7 (2011): 10. Print.