Online education is going to require real teachers for the foreseeable future. Students need to ask questions. They need someone to occasionally point them in a direction for future study. They need better feedback on test/project/paper results than I think we’ll see for a great while to come. But the classroom teacher teaching face to face isn’t going to disappear for a very long time. I doubt it will happen in my life time. Probably not in my son’s lifetime either. And you know what? If online/virtual school becomes the norm for public schools I bet that the rich people will still pay for face to face education because it will be worth it.
I’ve taught an online course. After having done so, I snicker whenever anyone thinks that the classroom teacher is going away.
Isn’t going to happen anytime soon.
First, we’re a large urban school district and only 4 students signed up even though there was the use of a free computer.
We were on our second year with web mastering and yet, only 12 signed up. I don’t know how many finished that class, but only one of the four finished mine. And I truly believe it was because he could come by my classroom and ask questions. He’s a very self motivated student, something that is very rare.
I know him well, he took PreAP on line, and has taken AP and AP AB face to face.
For students to be successful in an online course, especially taking high school classes all day, they are going to need adult supervision. It’s cheaper to hire us and let us do it, rather than each family dedicating an adult for it. Trust me, average teenager without adult supervision is not going to do any work. Heck, there are some students I can’t get to work.
Alfred is also right about the passion thing — that’s the one compliment on get on a yearly basis — kids will tell their parents, man, I hate programming, but Ms. Weaver sure loves it. And that’s the one thing I teach best — how to get along with a passionate programmer, as they will sure need that at some point in their life.
So yeah, classroom teaching is really going away … <snicker>
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