Distance Education

5 pros of virtual schools:
1) This program helps students learn to be independent, especially those in high school.
2) Lets parents keep their child at home for their own reason
3) Doesn’t cost anything
4) Program can be done anywhere
5) Teachers get more money and a more flexible time
5 cons of virtual schools:
1) Requires a lot of work for parents
2) Children don’t have social interaction with other kids
3) It’s hard to assess student work to make sure its theirs and they aren’t getting help from parent
4) There may not be someone around who is capable of helping and explaining lessons
5) Students spend most of their on the computer all day instead of outside or moving around in a classroom
Discussion of three issues:
Personally, I do not like this program. First of all, it requires a ton of work for parents to prepare for the next day lessons. This would be an added stress to me as a parent. I would rather have a professional trained teacher teach my child instead of me, the parent, who doesn’t know much about teaching. Secondly, this program does not allow for student-to-student interactions. These interactions and socializations between students are very important for the growth of young children. Therefore, the fact that this program does not have this it is a downfall. These interactions between students are necessary in my mind. Thirdly, by having everything online students have to spend the entire day staring at a computer. This is terrible for children. Even taking breaks would not help much because they have to continue to do this every day. For these reasons and many more, I do not really care for this program.
Skills that would be necessary to teach within a virtual school:
In order to be successful as a virtual school teacher I would need to have many skills. Some of them would include organization, strong technology skills, communication skills, time management skills, and multi-tasking skills. All of these are very important and necessary to be successful. So far, I am already good at most of these necessary skills; however, I would need to improve on my technology skills before I become a teacher on this program. I do not think I would be interested in this type of a teaching job. It is nice that you get to teach from anywhere and that it allows you a flexible schedule, as well as the fact that you earn more money. However, I am excited about having my own classroom and seeing my students faces every day. Plus, I believe seeing them in person would help most of them become more successful and learn better.