The Upside of Virtual Classrooms and Online Learning

Recently, I featured a story about how the Miami-Dade County Public School System put over 7,000 students into virtual and online classes for core academic courses.  The reason so many students were put into these classes was to fulfill a Florida state quota that limited class size (by class, meaning a traditional classroom with a teacher rather than a facilitator in a computer lab).  Many students and parents did not approve of the move, and I discussed some of the downsides of virtual classrooms.  While I discussed the positives of using virtual classrooms for programs such as credit recovery, I mainly emphasized the negatives of such a program.

It just so happens that Lisa Nielsen, who I have recently had the pleasure of getting into a friendly debate over medication and ADHD (see here and here) has also written about this story.  She features several of the positives of classrooms via the computer.  Nielsen discusses them further in depth at Huffington Post, but I think it is important to highlight those positives to give balance to this topic.  She goes into more detail with each one in her post, but I will list what they are here:

1) Students can sleep in
2) Students can pursue their passion
3) Students can learn without distraction from their classmates
4) Students can learn at their own pace
5) No competition to share thoughts and ideas
6) More interesting class choices
7) Learn when the schedule meets the needs
8) Learning is possible despite health issues that get in the way in a traditional classroom
9) Easy communication with teacher
10) Easy communication with other students

It should be said that what Nielsen discusses is different than what is featured in the New York Times story on two counts.  First, this list primarily focuses on virtual learning outside of a school building, whereas the Times article primarily focuses on classes in a large computer lab with many of the features of a traditional school (same hours, surrounded by peers, etc).  Secondly, and more importantly, Miami never gave many students a choice is putting them in virtual classrooms.  As Nielsen discusses, there are many great benefits to this type of learning, and it is important to promotes those benefits.  However, parents and students should be given a choice in this matter (and I am not one who normally falls down on the side of what many consider to be "school choice" these days).

The Limited Capabilities of Virtual Classrooms

 Photo from NYT/Carolina Hidalgo

In 2002, Florida voters passed a ballot amendment limiting class sizes.  This does not include virtual schools and online classes, which are becoming increasingly common across the country.  In Miami-Dade County Public Schools, over 7,000 students are enrolled in a program where core academic subjects are taken in a computer lab.  There is no teacher, but a facilitator making sure you are doing your work and "making progress".  All coursework is done by logging onto a website.  This is fine and all but there is a problem. 

In order to meet state classroom requirements in Florida (no more than 18 in lower elementary school classes, 22 students in 4th-8th grade school classes, and 25 in high school classes), many students in the Miami-Dade area have been put into these virtual classes without a choice.  And surprise, not every student is taking their online educational experience very well.  Take Alix Braun:

Alix Braun, 15, a sophomore at Miami Beach High, takes Advanced Placement macroeconomics in an e-learning lab with 35 to 40 other students. There are 445 students enrolled in the online courses at her school, and while Alix chose to be placed in the lab, she said most of her lab mates did not.

“None of them want to be there,” Alix said, “and for virtual education you have to be really self-motivated. This was not something they chose to do, and it’s a really bad situation to be put in because it is not your choice.”

I don't want to diminish the unique opportunities virtual education can provide for students who do not do well inside a traditional classroom.  For example, the article mentions how Chicago High Schools use virtual classrooms for credit recovery.  The high school I work does the same thing, and number of students benefit from it.  But just shoving students into a computer lab to take a class is not an acceptable solution to lowering class sizes.  Virtual schools are only great programs to be in, provided a) you can read at grade level, and use a computer; b) you are a self-motivated learner.  This sounds simple enough, but those who work in education know that such criteria are only applicable to a certain segment of the student population.