Online Courses: The Future of Education?

We all have experience taking online courses, even if this is your first one, but most of us did not get to take online courses before we got to college. I stumbled upon this article in the Wall Street Journal, which talks about how online courses are steadily being more and more integrated into the public school curriculum. More than that, we are seeing that more students than ever are enrolled in all-online schools and that movement seems to be gaining popularity. The issue of online curricula in public schools certainly is interesting, and something that we, as teachers, need to keep an eye out for.  

According to the article, "It's all part of a burst of experimentation in public education, fueled in part by mounting budgetary pressures, by parental dissatisfaction with their kids' schools and by the failure of even top-performing students to keep up with their peers in other industrialized countries." While putting students in online schools may be easier on state and local budgets (by up to thousands of dollars per student every year), we need to think about what is really best for our students' education. As someone who believes that all students learn differently, I think it's important for students to have options such as these. The article points out how students with health problems, strict sports training regiments, and aspiring actors/actresses benefit from online courses, which is great. This is also a desirable alternative for students who are bullied in school or for parents who are trying to keep their kids away from peer pressure. 

Still, we must make sure the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. According to the article, students enrolled in online schools are generally not outperforming their traditionally-schooled peers on state-wide standardized tests - although this could be attributed to factors that arose before the student was enrolled. Many students are losing that face-to-face interaction with other students and teachers, although some schools are going for more of a hybrid approach. The article makes a statement about structure and interaction:  "Kids who work closely with parents or teachers do well... 'But basically letting a child educate himself, that's not going to be a good educational experience.' The computer... can't do it alone."

As future teachers, this is an option we need to be informed about. It seems as though advocates for this type of online schooling are really looking to eliminate or minimize the role of schools and teachers - and at what cost? Not all students are really going to benefit from this type of free-flowing instruction. Based on some of the students described in the article, we can see that it can really go either way. Frankly, it is scary to think about the ways this type of education is being framed - as revolutionary and radical - when all it is doing is changing the ways in which students receive the same exact curriculum.  The content itself is not being altered in any way to be more engaging or to allow for more critical pedagogy. Still, I do believe it can be a "second-best" alternative for students who, for whatever reason, can't or won't attend a traditional public school. What do you all think?