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Education Challenge: Educational Firsts

The Virtual High School

Message Board

Index of Student Resources

Virtual High School Questions

1. Effective Teaching: Take a look back at chapter 3 on teacher effectiveness. How would these findings apply to teaching on the Internet? Think about wait time, levels of questions, direct teaching, and the other findings discussed in that chapter, and try to apply those findings to an Internet course. Which ones do you think would still apply? Which would not? Do you see any special teacher qualities that might be appropriate for the Internet course, but perhaps not for a more traditional course? How might classroom management be an Internet challenge? And how might it be handled?

2. Interpersonal Relationships: Critics have often charged that technology is a depersonalizing experience. Yet some students and teachers on the Internet course report that they get to “know” each other better on the Internet than in a class. What are the interpersonal advantages of this technology?

3. Unique Assignments: What unique assignments can you plan for the Virtual High School? How can you use this new educational platform, the Internet, to implement an exciting and involving educational activity in your subject area? Describe one such unique learning activity.

4. Problems: OK, let’s face it, even fun technology like the Virtual High School has its problems. Briefly identify some of the salient problems that you find with this instructional approach.

5. Hits and Misses: If you were a student in the Virtual High School, what would you really like about the experience? What would you not like? As a teacher, construct the same list of positive and negative reactions. How are the lists related?

6. Schedule: Check out the schedule of the course. Do the topics sound interesting to you? Do you think they would attract high school students? For your own subject area, outline some of the major topics you would explore if you were teaching your course in the Virtual High School.

7. Use of Time: The Virtual High School is using a text-based asynchronous approach (the students do not ever meet online live). Other online courses use synchronous approaches. Those may include video, audio, or text-based chat. Do you see any significant differences in the instructional approaches for online synchronous and asynchronous learning experiences? Which do you prefer?

8. Team Projects: A common face-to-face instructional strategy uses group or team projects, but students in VHS courses are scattered across the country. While the use of group/team projects can be a strong learning activity, the online medium adds a significant level of difficulty. Can you construct and describe a team-based online learning activity?

9. Electronic Diversity: The VHS program includes students and teachers from schools across the county. How can educational equity issues be enhanced by this medium?

10. Profits on the Web: The Virtual High School is not the only online high school-level project. There are at least fifty other efforts delivering virtual and online educational learning experiences. Explore two others and compare and contrast their approaches. There are also profit-making businesses beginning to enter the field. How do you feel about for-profit corporations offering individual courses (e.g. Advanced Placement Algebra) as compared to a full set of courses leading to a diploma?

11. Teacher Training: The Virtual High School faculty create and teach their own courses. What types of experiences do you think would be needed to prepare a teacher to develop and instruct a course in the Virtual High School? Do you see any ways for you to get those experiences?

12. Future Technology: The Virtual High School is not using the latest technology to deliver courses. The technical capability of the participating schools limits the speed with which the VHS can advance technically. What technology changes would you expect to see within the VHS in 5 years?

13. Brick-and-Mortar Epitaph? There are many fads that pass for educational change. Do you believe that online courses/programs are a passing fad or destined to become a lasting feature of education? Will programs like the Virtual High School change, eliminate, or leave intact today’s brick-and-mortar schools?