Virtual Schools and Homeschooling

http://www.distance-educator.com/Article16222.phtml

This was a very interesting article about virtual school and if education technology will change the nature of schools. It was published in Education Next in the Winter of 2009. The link above no longer shows the entire article but it can be found in here: http://educationnext.org/virtual-schools/ . They cover many interesting topics about the resistance of technology in education rather than business (competitive, for-profit organizations) but the one topic that interested me is the growth of distance education and homeschooling.

Technology has really increased the amount of distance education students and given numerous resources to home-schooled children. They discuss in the article that home-schooled children are no longer “home-schooled.” Yes, they do receive their education in the home setting but they have access to teachers, administrators and curriculum that students in the brick and mortar schools have as well.

When I began teaching at my home-school charter school five years ago, we had the traditional homeschoolers who were here just to get some free books but wanted nothing from me as an educator. Now I have a full roster of 30 students who are taking lesson plans, books and constantly seeking advice and strategies of how to teach their children at home. They are also enrolling in the online courses that we are offering that have direct access to a credentialed teacher. So I completely agree with this article that technology is doing away with traditional homeschoolers and giving them more access to the resources they need to be successful.