Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for August 17, 2007 VIRTUAL TEACHERS

More caring...so warm and fuzzy!

From eSchool News...

Still the oldest and largest K-12 virtual school, FLVS is a model for online instruction

From eSchool News staff and wire service reports

As a seventh-grader, Kelsey-Anne Hizer was getting mostly Ds and Fs and thought teachers at her Ocala, Fla., middle school weren't giving her the help she needed. She was ready to give up.

But after switching schools for eighth grade, Kelsey-Anne is receiving more individual attention, making As and Bs, and is enthusiastic about learning--even though she has never been in the same room as her teachers.

Kelsey-Anne transferred to the Orlando-based Florida Virtual School (FLVS), one of the nation's oldest and largest online schools. At least 2,700 full-time and up to 52,000 part-time students in grades six through 12 get lessons over the internet from teachers scattered across the state and nation. The students, from Florida and 35 other states, communicate with their teachers and each other through chat rooms, eMail, telephone, and instant messaging.

"It's more one-on-one than regular school," Kelsey-Anne said. "It's more they're there; they're listening."

Virtual learning is becoming ubiquitous at colleges and universities but remains, in many ways, in its infancy at the elementary and secondary level, where skeptics have questioned such factors as its cost and its effect on children's socialization.

Virtual schools are growing fast, though, at an annual rate of about 25 percent. Estimates of elementary and secondary students taking virtual classes range from 500,000 to 1 million nationally, compared with total public school enrollment of about 50 million.

There are now 25 statewide or state-led programs and more than 170 virtual charter schools across the nation, according to the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL). FLVS is a pioneer and a model for many of these other programs.

FLVS, part of the Florida's public education system, is the leader among K-12 virtual schools in terms of innovation, depth of courses, rigor, and enrollment, said Bill Tucker, chief operating officer at Education Sector, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

Founded 10 years ago, it offers more than 90 courses ranging from such basics as English and math, to specialties that include keyboarding, computer programming, web design, Chinese, marine science, Earth-space science, macroeconomics, and microeconomics.

Advocates say virtual learning has almost unlimited potential.

"We hope that it becomes just another piece of our public schools' day, rather than still this thing over here that we're all trying to figure out,'" said Julie Young, FLVS president and CEO.

Her school's motto succinctly spells out its advantages: "Any Time, Any Place, Any Path, Any Pace."

Struggling students, such as Kelsey-Anne, who reportedly suffers from attention deficit disorder, can take more time to finish courses, while those who are gifted can go at a faster speed.

Casey Hutcheson, 17, finished English and geometry online in the time it would have taken to complete just one of those courses at his regular high school in Tallahassee.

"I like working by myself because of no distractions, and I can go at my own pace rather than going at the teacher's pace," he said.

But he thinks virtual learning has its limits. Hutcheson said it's OK for basics such as English and math, but he wants the hands-on approach of a traditional classroom in college, where he plans to study aviation maintenance science.

Virtual learning also can help alleviate classroom overcrowding, and it permits students to take classes not offered by their local schools.

Katie Thornton, 15, who lives in the tiny north Florida town of Cross City, took Latin online because she's interested in a medical career.

"There's no possibility of her taking Latin here," said her mother, Connie Thornton. "There's only Spanish at Dixie County High School."

Virtual schools have benefits for teachers, too.

Kelsey-Anne's language-arts teacher, Cindy Knoblauch, was so impressed by her three children's FLVS classes that she applied for a job. After a 19-year career in the classroom, she's been teaching online from her home in Havana, Fla., a small town outside Tallahassee, for the past four years. She said she can get more up close and personal with her students, even though they might be hundreds of miles away.

"In the classroom, you have to be careful of what you're saying to a student that all students are hearing," Knoblauch said. "In a virtual world, it's me and the students."

Latin teacher Nicole Sellers of Tallahassee switched to FLVS four years ago, because she often went to Texas to care for her ailing mother. She can teach online no matter where she is.

"I could travel and not have to worry about getting a substitute teacher, which for something like Latin you just really cannot find," Sellers said. Some of her students are athletes and dancers who compete across the country and even overseas.

FLVS also serves home-schooled and private school students and those who move out of state when their military parents are transferred. It has partnerships with several out-of-state school systems, and in July it launched the Florida Virtual Global School, with worldwide open enrollment at $750 per credit--$4,500 per year for a full load of six courses.

Kelsey-Anne did so well in the eighth grade that she plans to remain a full-time virtual student for high school, said her grandmother, Sue-Anne Reeg.

"This is no child left behind--not this other baloney that they're talking about," Reeg said.

For all its potential, though, virtual schooling has its critics and skeptics, including those who worry it will stunt children's social growth.

Only 5 percent of Florida Virtual students are full-time. The state, though, also contracts with two private companies, Florida Connections Academy and Florida Virtual Academy, which provide full-time online classes for stay-at-home children from kindergarten through eighth grade.

"There is something to be said for having kids in a social situation, learning how to interact in society," said Florida state Rep. Shelley Vana, D-Lantana. "I don't think you get that if you're at home."

But according to Susan Patrick, president and chief executive of NACOL in Vienna, Va., virtual students get a different kind of social experience that is just as valuable.

"We should socialize them for the world that they live in, and how they're going to have to work and collaborate and network and be creative and innovative," she said.

Many policy makers approach virtual learning with dollar signs in their eyes, expecting big savings from schools that don't need buildings, buses, and other traditional infrastructure. And FLVS, despite its success, isn't immune to this second-guessing.

"We should not, as stewards of public money, be automatically paying the same or even close to the same amount of money for a virtual school day as we pay for a conventional school day," said Florida Senate Education Committee Chairman Don Gaetz, R-Niceville.

FLVS this year is slated to get $6,682 for every full-time equivalent student, compared with a statewide average of $7,306. Florida will pay the two companies that run the K-8 program $5,050 per full-time equivalent student.

Gaetz and other lawmakers plan to ask why the savings are not greater when the Florida Senate holds hearings on virtual education later this year.

FLVS's Young said her school has expenses that traditional schools don't.

"Our data infrastructure is our building," said. "That's where we live."

Education Sector's Tucker said it's shortsighted to focus on cost savings while virtual learning still is trying to gain a foothold in public education.

"Any time you're really early in something, it generally takes greater investment," said Tucker, who wrote a June report on virtual schooling titled "Laboratories of Reform." (See story: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=7170.)

Teachers unions also have opposed spending public dollars on some virtual schools, mainly those that are privately operated or function as charter schools.

Florida Education Association spokesman Mark Pudlow said the state's contracted K-8 program is, in effect, a voucher system that flies in the face of the state constitution's requirement for a uniform public school system. The union will continue to oppose it legislatively, but a legal challenge would be a last resort, Pudlow said.

Indiana lawmakers this year refused to fund virtual charter schools. Opponents argued they are unproven and would have siphoned millions of dollars from traditional public schools. (See story: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=7118.)

Michigan's legislature, though, boosted virtual learning last year by passing a requirement for students to complete some type of online experience to earn a high school diploma. (See story: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=6223.)

FLVS's Young said she plans to recommend that Florida follow Michigan's example.

"If we are going to prepare our kids for the higher education of today--not tomorrow, but of today--and we do not give them an opportunity to take an online course, we're doing them a tremendous disservice," she said. "It's become the way of the world."

Links:

Florida Virtual School
http://www.flvs.net

Education Sector
http://www.educationsector.org

North American Council for Online Learning
http://www.nacol.org