I found this article online: http://www.districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1884
I was interested in it because I have often thought of trying to teach online classes after I comlete my specialist degree. Cobb Couny, Georgia was one of the disticts this article examined. About 190 out of almost 6,900 teachers are involved in online teaching. That is about 2.75% of the teachers. This is definitely not the majority but I am hopeful that my specialist degree in IT may help put me in this small majority.
A survey through Boise State University found that most of the online teachers have taught 7 to 15 years in a traditional classroom setting before entering the virtual world. Many of these teachers still teach full or part time in a regular classroom while a small minority teach exclusively in the virtual world.
Most of the virtual classrooms are taught by teachers who are certified in the content area of the course as well as skilled in distance learning education. While there are some national standards for schools and districts to use when it comes to evaluating virtual teachers, most of the districts perform this function on their own.
I feel confident that this part of education is only in its infancy and will continue to grow. I would like to become a part of this movement in the near future.
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I am also a proponent of online teaching and would also like to be a part of this movement. It seems like such a win-win. As the article mentiones, it can serve students ranging from homebound situations to students in need of credit recovery. The budget aspect alone would make me think school districts would hop on board. But the struggle will continue to be evaluating quality. Hopefully this will continue to develop and more student (and teachers) will benefit from this tech advancement.
ReplyDeleteI think with the Swine Flu and sickness issues there will need to be more focus on this topic. Our school has adopted ways to make classes have online possibilities for this problem. Teachers in our Upper School are using the Smart Recorder feature to record their classes and placing it on Edline for students who were absent. Students can take quizzes and tests through this portal, also. I am hopeful that this will "spur" more teachers to use more online techniques. At the elementary level, I am a little more skeptical, because this age of student is not as self motivated as older students can be. I think it should be the job of this ages' teachers to use online techniques that will give the students the tehcnology skills needed when they get a little older.
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