Blog Number 5- Week 14

Wow I never realized that schools were obligated to offer online courses for students who wanted to take; them let alone elementary schools being obligated to offer these different online courses, I always thought if a school offered them it was an advantage I did not know that it is mandatory for schools to offer them.  I have not heard of any schools that publicize this information to its students, I even asked my nieces and nephews and they said they have never had any of their teachers bring up an online course. Districts are already so overwhelmed with all that is going on in the education system right now I do not see how schools/teacher will be fully equipped and trained on these different online courses that need to be offered, teachers already have so much on their late it will be difficult to make the time on getting them prepared for it. Let alone many school districts have a very low budget for spending especially for technology, if a school provides an online course they are required to provide enough computers  for the students and have the latest technology on their device, I’m not sure how lower income schools will provide these features for students.  These changes are going to take at least a couple of years for districts to start following, I feel as if schools will not provide these services until they get in trouble a few times for not providing students with this opportunity.  If schools are not advertising and promoting these courses how will students even know they are allowed to enroll in these courses?   The school I am at right now is a K-8 private school and offers no such courses even if a student was to ask to be enrolled in an online class our school would not provide that for the student, being a private school we are not funded by the government so rules and regulations might be different I’m not quite sure.  

Post Number 2- Online Learning

Based on the readings we were required to read, I feel as if I covered a basic amount of what online schooling actually is although, I did miss a lot. I researched deeper then the articles that we were required to read and saw that many different places offer a full-time online program although an article we were required to read talks about cyber learning, I never felt as if there was certain times you were required to be participating in a online program. 

When starting college in 2006 I was super excited to take an online course because I always heard about the number seven myth that online classes were much easier. With it being my first year of college I was super excited to have an easy class, but that defiantly was not the case my online course was a million times harder and required a tremendous amount of participation and interaction with classmates, I definitely agree number 7 is a myth. 

I've always said I would never want my children to participate in a online school because they would be socially awkward especially at such a young age, with that being said I am totally wrong. I know agree with the truth about number 4, now that I have been taking more and more of these online course I feel as if I have gotten to know my classmates way better then I've ever gotten to know any of my classmates in a class setting, you are required to interact much more with students in a online course.  Also, I believe with the fact that typically most students only take 1 or 2 classes this allows students to focus and give their fully attention to these courses. 

Online schooling has come a long way and follows all state standards and requirements, I definitely have changed my views about online schooling and would consider having my children take online courses in the near future, they are looking to build a future for all different types of students.