First Post (PA Cyber School)
For my first post I would first like to say a bit about my self before I get to into it. I am an instructional designer at a Company that does compliance training. I have spent the last couple of months designing and developing game/activities to incorporate into our existing or new courses. We are trying to make active strides to create an engaging and dare I say fun learning environment for an area that has a little to no fun policy.
With that said I would like to move on to my gripe for today. As I listened to my radio while driving to work and, I heard some familiar words, “learn from home” and, “distance learning”. Well being an Interactive Technologist/Instructional Designer who deals in e-learning every day you could say my interest was peeked. Then the rest of the commercial reared its ugly head.
“PA Cyber Charter School, have your child get a genuine education right from their free laptop and high-speed internet”.
Having my background you may think that I support an innovative idea. The truth is this may be the worst idea in the history of distance learning. I am all for computer tutoring and online references for current public school students, but to take them out of a class room would be a travesty. By doing so you are giving this child a false sense of comfort. Sure they don’t get bulled, or have their heart broken at the 9th grade dance, but why shelter children from theses experiences. These are the experiences that make it possible for humans to function in a social environment.
Who is to blame? Well both the idiots who head way this charter school not offering a blended approach, and more importantly the parents. Any parent who thinks its better to send a child to their room to go to school is completely out of their mind. Think about your child hood. Your ability to stay focused was very low. That’s why there are good teachers in regular public school that know how to focus a distracted child.
Now if we can only harness the technology from the charter school and mix it with the typically low tech public school, I think we would be on to something. Taking a blended approach to K-12 is the only way it will every make a well rounded student. So to all you PA parents out there thinking about doing this to your probably already overly sheltered child, don’t do it, let the kid live a little. In the end it will cost less in therapy bills.
