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High School Seniors Opt for Online Courses
May 9, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment
A typical day in the seven-day HHS rotation consists of five class periods, all one hour long with the exception of fourth period lunch block, which is an hour and a half. Senior Sean Carnes’ schedule, however, does not at all require him to spend those five periods in school each day. In fact, some days Carnes is only required to be present in school for two out of the five class periods. In addition to Honors Calculus, Honors Multicultural Literature, AP US Government & Politics, and AP Psychology, Sean is enrolled in Honors Online Physics and Virtual High School’s (VHS) Investing, the latter two being completely online courses.
Carnes’ schedule consists of 15 study periods that take the place of what would otherwise be time spent in face-to-face class with a teacher (each online class accounts for 5 study periods, with additional physics lab periods). Since his academic and disciplinary record have allowed him “senior privileges,” or the ability to leave school during study periods and lunch, Carnes is only required to be in school for 20 of the 35 class periods that meet in one rotation of the schedule. Consequently, Carnes is only required to physically be in school for 47% of that total rotation.
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Virtual high school expands students horizons
April 25, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment
Megan Sylvia, also a senior, has completed a course in mythology, and junior Margaret Crook is taking a course in marketing and e-commerce. Using distance learning, these students can take classes and exams and interact with teachers and other students without ever meeting them in person.
“It gives the students an opportunity to study a subject that we don’t offer at the high school … really exciting things that we wouldn’t have the staffing to offer,” said Mary Nancy Toscano, Westerly assistant principal and on-site coordinator for the program.
The program is called Virtual High School. Based in Maynard, Mass., the nonprofit corporation was founded in 1996 and offers more than 200 elective courses to advanced placement and honors students. Those courses include forensic science, oceanography, and pre-veterinary science.
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Log-on learning
April 12, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment
Now in its second year, the school is operated by the Greenfield school district but enrolls students from throughout the state. Full-time “virtual” schools form just a small part of the burgeoning field of online education, but they are experiencing enormous growth, with schools now operating in 30 states plus the District of Columbia and about 250,000 students enrolled. Proponents say virtual schools represent a valuable new option for the small number of students who, for reasons ranging from health issues to bullying, are not well served by traditional schools.
Full-time virtual schools have become a flashpoint for controversy over the quality of online education. Much of their growth is being driven by huge for-profit companies that critics say are more focused on returns to shareholders than student achievement. Student outcomes at many schools have been poor, and some educators recoil at the idea of children as young as kindergarten missing out on the social development that comes from attending a school with peers.
The much bigger frontier in online learning, however, involves tapping innovation to better serve students in traditional schools. Students are complementing standard in-school course loads with classes taught online. Meanwhile, classroom-based courses are integrating online technology into the face-to-face instruction provided by teachers. More than 1.8 million K-12 students nationwide are estimated to be involved in this so-called “blended learning.”
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