Distance Learning

Virtual Schools

Michigan Virtual school

Lisa Magnusson

Identify and briefly discuss 5 advantages of distance education.

1) Offered for a trimester, semester, and/or summer sessions. Not all schools run on trimester or semesters. Having this feature of allowing it to match up with school they may already have will help them plan better and treat the course like any other one.

2) It goes along with the state standards learning target. Making sure that the class will count towards what you are needing credit wise is very important.

3) This web site also helps with career development and what steps you can take after high school. There is an entire project the students can do to help plan what they should do after they graduate. This can be a very confusing time for some, and having a little bit of input of the type of person they are may help steer them in the right direction.

4) It helps for students to be able to make up classes. I have heard of many cases where students have gotten mono or there is some kind of emergency that has them miss a lot of class. Distance learning allows for you to make up these credits while continuing school.

5) This allows for any type of student to take these classes, it is open to all. There are no restrictions on who can do distance learning!

Identify and briefly discuss 5 disadvantages of distance education.

1) There is no face to face interaction. I believe building a professional relationship with your professor or teacher is crucial because some teachers have a lot to teach you and that may not all be able to be taught through the internet.

2) As we have all experienced, sometimes web sites are very stubborn and just stop working. If an important paper is due by a certain time and the site is down students may become very frustrated that they are unable to post it.

3) I think we have started to take internet access for granted. Sometimes we assume everyone has internet when that is definitely not the case. As a distance teacher, you would need to be aware that not everyone has internet within their households.

4) Because this is done independently, it is extremely easy for students to get behind. They do not have a teacher reminding them everyday in class to complete their homework by the end of the week.

5) Students may not be able to get answers right away. Like our class discussion, some students went for weeks without hearing from their distance learning teacher. If students are confused they need answers quickly so they do not keep performing the task incorrect.

How you would determine the readiness of students to participate in distance education?

There are a couple qualities that the school of Michigan has identified as being a good candidate for distance learning. If student is: a self starter, independent, responsible, discipline and drive, ability to critically analyze and discuss issues through writing, superior writing skills.

What would you need to do to be ready to teach in an online environment?

There is one face to face meeting followed by four weeks of online training. This way the soon to be teachers can decide what teaching methods do and do not work over the internet. (Teachers need to be certified in the state of Michigan prior to applying)