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Digital Learning: A Popular Option

“Virtual learning gains popularity”
by Rachel Brown
Dalton Daily Citizen
January 2, 2012

For Ellison Beard, learning a new language online is an experience in expanding horizons and unexpected challenges.

To not be interacting in the same room with classmates and a teacher was definitely an unusual experience, the Northwest Whitfield High School junior said, but through video chat sessions, voice recordings and constant feedback, he was able to get the hang of beginner Spanish.

“I still think I was exposed to a larger variety of words than I would have been in a typical classroom,” he added.

Beard is one of several local students who take classes at their home schools through Georgia Virtual School, a statewide, online-only public school that offers high school classes to anyone anywhere. The classes are paid for with state funding.

Virtual learning is a small but growing area of academia that many educators are beginning to tap into at unprecedented levels — and not just at Northwest. For the past fall semester, close to 6,000 students were enrolled in classes through Georgia Virtual alone. Of those 12 were at Coahulla Creek High School, 10 were at Northwest, 14 at Southeast Whitfield High School and three at the Whitfield Career Academy. Nine students in Murray County Schools were enrolled in at least one course, and there were 22 at Dalton High School.

Georgia Virtual employs 12 full-time teachers and another 100 to 175 adjunct faculty members. Teachers must meet the same education and certification requirements as regular classroom teachers, said director Cristina Clayton.

Still, virtual learning isn’t the best fit for every student, said Rebecca Jenkins, the Georgia Virtual facilitator for Northwest. Students are given all their assignments up front at the beginning of the semester, but they’re responsible for meeting deadlines and seeking help on their own when needed. Students are given a block of time during the day to work on virtual classes, but they ultimately must pace themselves.

“Anyone can use the program… (but) it is not for everyone,” Jenkins said. “You have to be self-motivated. You have to be someone who can keep up with your assignments.”

Not having personal, face-to-face time with your teacher can be a drawback to virtual school, Northwest junior Kayla Herndon said, but the other benefits outweigh it.

“I think a definite pro is being able to do it on your own time,” added Northwest junior Sarah Kate Fearing.

Morris Innovative High School, a special purpose school originally created for students who had fallen behind in their work, opened with practically all virtual-only classes in 2009, using a different program. Principal Jennifer Phinney said students and teachers quickly discovered online-only school wasn’t practical.

So this year, they switched to a combination of methods. Some classes are entirely online. Some classes are led by a teacher on campus. Many students take some of each kind of class.

Virtual classes allow students to quickly get up to speed, work at their own pace, and study subjects their school might not offer or that might not fit into their schedule. Yet spending an entire school day at a computer can be boring, Phinney said many teachers reported, and students miss out on the opportunity for more real-world, hands-on learning.

Enter “blended learning,” a method designed to draw from the best of both worlds.

Coahulla Creek High School, which issued digital tablets to each of its 750 students when it opened this fall, will begin a pilot blended learning model this spring for Georgia Virtual School.

Coahulla Creek Principal Phillip Brown said he expects between 300 and 500 of the school’s students to be working through the pilot program when spring semester begins. He said the school used some of Georgia Virtual’s resources from the time they opened.

Coahulla Creek faculty will still teach the courses, but they’ll be using lessons, resources, tests and so on the virtual school makes available. Clayton said Georgia Virtual is working toward offering blended learning statewide by fall of 2013.

“We tried it out this past fall and liked a lot of the assignments they had and decided it was something we wanted to pursue a little deeper,” Brown said. “I can’t wait to see the whole breadth of the courses. They’ve done a really good job developing some hard-to-teach concepts.”

Parent Tricia Beazle said her freshman daughter, Victoria Laird, enjoys the school’s use of technology. Coahulla Creek is the first school in the area to issue students digital tablets instead of hard copy textbooks.

“So far, she seems to like it,” Beazle said. “We’ve always been a rather high-tech family, so a lot of it she was already used to.”