Online Learning: The Virtual Classroom Appeal
Homeschool is not a new concept. Families have opted to homeschool their children when mainstream schools were no longer teaching in a fashion that was best for them. With the dawn of the Internet, the resources for homeschool students and parents have multiplied exponentially.
As students get into higher grade levels, their parents may not have the expertise or knowledge to teach particular subjects, such as trigonometry or biology. Are these students, many of whom have been in a homeschool setting throughout their education, being forced to go to a mainstream school for high school? With the dawn of virtual classrooms, homeschool remains a viable option for students in higher grades.
Virtual classrooms have now offered homeschool students the ability to maintain their level of education and still study at home. Distance education courses have been around for decades. On the other hand, virtual schools are newer concepts that have been made possible with the incredible advancing speed of the Internet and its capabilities. In order for students to homeschool via a virtual school, all they need are a high-speed Internet connection and a home computer. There are teachers on the other end who hold virtual classes that the students can sit in on, and the students can work at their own pace.
There is a higher level of accountability with some virtual schools: some offer the teachers the ability to peek at the student's screen to see what they are working on. This is also effective in helping a student who is having difficulty with a particular assignment. Teachers are available online to answer questions and offer help to homeschool students thousands of miles away. This new concept is taking the homeschool world by storm.
It is not just higher grade students who are taking advantage of virtual classrooms. Many primary school students and their families who have opted to homeschool are also utilizing virtual classrooms to help their children. Homeschools in a partnership with virtual classrooms are offering degrees of flexibility that were not available even a few short years ago.
Mainstream (public and private) schools are also taking advantage of virtual classrooms, particularly in schools in rural districts where they may not have a biology professor to teach their students. In these cases, the school offers a virtual classroom, so students can be taught a higher level of education right from their own hometown.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, author, children's rights advocate, and Founder and C.E.O. of Learning by Grace, Inc. She and her husband of almost 3 decades reside with their 8 children in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. because "our current system of education has broken its promise..." Learning By Grace, Inc. delivers Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children in the United States and throughout the world.
Rothschild has authored a number of books about education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Home Education News Blog contains feature stories on alternatives in education.
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