Saline Virtual High School?
Last week, I attended the Annual Statewide Online Learning Symposium hosted by Michigan Virtual University. The theme for this year was “Disruptive Innovation and the Future of Online Learning”. The keynote speaker was Michael Horn, coauthor of Disrupting Class, which uses theories of disruptive innovation to identify issues for schools in the 21st century.
It was a very interesting event. I was able to talk to an MSU professor who teaches web design at Traverse City West High, Ishpeming High, and Millington High – all without leaving East Lansing. Her students are earning college credit while taking her interactive course online.
There were various types of online instruction described. Some included limited face-to-face contact time while others used video clips to deliver lectures, and some were purely online. Many included classroom discussion components with chat rooms for group dialogue.
One of the items that got my attention was a graph showing the growth of online high school enrollments across the country. Based on this projection, by 2019 (only 10 years away) over 50% of high school courses will be delivered in a virtual format.
The playing field for education is changing quickly – it’s my goal to make sure Saline Area Schools is ready.
Scot Graden's Blog 
Scot,
Virtual teaching has been going on at the college level for a number of years, with good results. When you can tap into the best and brightest educators, why not?
Just another way that our kids will continue to outpace their parents in knowledge and skills.
My husband is currently getting his Masters in Education on line.
Sign me up to teach online. I got one of my master’s totally online. I just talked to about 120+ kids today about this, as a matter of fact. We talked about Moodle, and the ethical responsibilities in participating in an online classroom environment. I told them that this was going to be more and more a part of their lives, in high school and in college. We talked about how learning how to work online prepares them for the real world. Boy, I’d teach online in a heartbeat. Our middle school teachers are getting better and better at delivering content online through Moodle. Our next step? Now that we have a Mac lab, I’m going to get them podcasting audio and video. Not only are online classes cool, but they speak to the kids in a way that is really natural to them. Like they say, the kids are the digital natives and we adults are the immigrants. 🙂
I am excited about the online classroom trend. It really gets the attention of kids and keeps them interested.
I also see it as a way to be inclusive. Kids get the flu, mono, and worse and can miss a great deal of time. If their teachers have an online classroom, it can help them stay involved.