This posting might be slightly off topic, discussing online high schools.
OLU mentioned this Business Week article, that describes the entry of big online higher ed players such as Kaplan and Apollo Group into the arena of online high schools. In my opinion, the move of such deep pocketed players, together with the stagnation in US-based academic enrollments, means that significant resources will be mobilized to increase the number of high school students who study online.
What are the benefits? Firstly, more hybrid (blended) courses that combine the best of online with the best of face-to-face should be encouraged at any age beyond which we are comfortable placing a child in front of a screen and keyboard. Secondly, those 700,000 precollegiate mentioned in the article who had enrolled to at least one online course surely benefited, as I already discussed before.
But, what are the challenges? Obviously, I would be very concerned about children and adolescents for whom the majority of social interactions take place online. It is true that social learning is a lifelong effort, but it is during the high school years that we acquire significant parts of these skills. Online social skills build upon those skills acquired offline, and it worries me to try and imagine a person whose skills were developed only online. But my concerns are beyond that. Some learning skills such as the taking of notes in a lecture (I mean one that can't be rewound or paused...) or that of browsing a (physical) library are mainly "offline" skills. How will purely online students acquire them? Moreover, as the article mentions, standards for assessing the learning of online high schools have not yet been established, and the combination of competing, bottom-line oriented companies, with vague or non existent standards for measuring outcomes, is an explosive combination. Lastly, online education requires more discipline than face-to-face. Will the average teenager find that discipline?
I would suggest that a key to successfully making the transition, is to learn from those who have dealt with similar challenges for decades, namely the home schooling movement, and distance learning organizations such as the Distance Education Centre Victoria in Australia. I have no doubt that it is possible to effectively teach high school students online. I am also quite sure that we still have a way to go before we can be confident about what is the best way to achieve that effectiveness.
