Recent legislature in Idaho has just required all high school students to take two online classes at some point in their four years in school. Like other schools with mandated digital courses there has been some worry over costs and how well the classes will be conducted. Some even wonder if the proper route for the public school system is to go digital. However, online courses in Idaho are already in use in many schools throughout the state and enrollment in them has increased by 50 percent every year since 2002. Now there are as many as 9,800 students already in the program.
Getting Ready for a Digital World
The institution of the law is an effort to prepare students for a digital world and a future where the use of online technology is ubiquitous. It also helps many rural schools expand their course offerings and give them opportunities that were before infeasible because of the limitations of individual schools and districts.
Additionally, for schools that have long been working with digital classes, most have already had chances to work on the technical glitches and pedagogical issues of online instruction. Patricia Shelden, the site coordinator for the Pirate Academy, says “technical challenges are limited now, and we can overcome them through a telephone conversation or an online chat and they are fixed.” She also describes how Idaho has invested a great deal already in training and technology and so most major issues have been solved.
Tried and True Solutions from Schools that Know
For example, schools have found that online course-taking is a great opportunity, but only for the motivated student as the student is responsible for organizing and structuring much of their work. It also helps when there is a physical teacher around who can help the student fix technological problems, answer simple questions about vocabulary, and generally just make sure the student is staying on top of their work. Also, by incorporating the class into a regular school period (rather then leaving it entirely for after-school work) the student is more likely to stay focused while studying.
Some schools are even going the extra mile in organizing offline events and gatherings, where the students come together and socialize. Some teachers have even organized extra-curricular activities with online classmates. It has been found by adding these events and opportunities to socialize students tend to be more involved in their online studies.
State Superintendent Tom Luna attempts to assuage worries. He says, “the biggest concern has been based on an assumption that an online class in limited to a student sitting in front of a computer with littler or not interaction with an Idaho-certified teacher. Nothing could be further from the truth. Online classes today are live and interactive. Students and teachers see each other, hear each other, and interact in real time. Every online course meets our state standards and is taught by an Idaho-certified teacher. The only difference is that the teacher and the student might be hundred of miles apart. Once parents and teachers learn this and realize how much distance learning is already happening in our schools, they become far more receptive to the two-credit requirement.”
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