The Move to Online Learning

Today I’ll be reviewing Edutopia’s podcast: Susan Patrick: Why Online Learning is a Smart Solution. 

With a growing lack of specialized teachers, Patrick argues that online learning is the solution to help students. She uses the example of a lack of physics teachers in Georgia. By using online classes students can have more opportunity to learn subjects that their particular school may not have been able to offer otherwise.

I think this is a great opportunity, especially in high schools, where students are beginning to explore their academic interests. If students can be in classes that truly interest them, their engagement level will be inherently higher and they will likely learn more. In that case, giving students the opportunity to engage with material they are interested in seems like common sense and a good situation for everyone involved.

Online learning, according to Patrick, allows time to be allocated differently and the teacher to have more time to work individually with each student. This definitely correlates with the computer programs in the classroom I evaluated early. It seems that much of technology in the classroom can be used to teach, which then frees the teacher to help those who are struggling.

Patrick also emphasizes that it is important to shift the professional development for teachers so that they are prepared to teach in a digital world. If technology is to be used and used well in education the teachers need to know how to use it as well. This is the reason that Fryer teaches seminars, but in order for teachers to be on the same page and working together there needs to professional development and importance put on the different aspects within the school system.

Online learning also can help students to be more self-responsible for their own learning. They would know that they need to be through certain content by a certain time and then it is their responsibility. Helping students at a high school level to learn that they are responsible for their own learning is important, especially for those moving on to college. However, it would also be important to remember that they are still high school students in need of supervision.