Distance Education

A pro of using distance education would be that it allows students the flexibility or structure that they need in order to be successful. In a distance education program where the student is not required to be online at a certain time, it would allow the student to work during "normal" school hours. This is a benefit to using a distance education program because it allows students to obtain their education during non-traditional times. Another benefit to using distance education would be a program that requires students to sign on during certain hours and complete assignments by certain dates. This is a benefit of distance education because it allows students flexibility as well as structure for students who would otherwise procrastinate.

A con to using distance education would be that is doesn't allow for student interaction. This is a very important life skill that children learn throughout their school careers. They learn how to work in group settings and they also learn how to listen to authority figures other than their parents. I think that distance education would hinder a students' ability to interact later in life especially if the parents were just relying on the program. There are some situations where students who are involved in distance education get together to interact with each other, however it takes parent involvement and dedication in order to make these situations happen.

In order to determine if a student was ready for distance education I would need to be sure that they were very self-motivated students. This would be essential for students to succeed in distance education programs because they would need to have the skills to self-manage their time as well as motivate themselves to complete tasks on time and do their work. I would also need to make sure that, if the student was young, their parents were devoted to the work they would have to put in outside of the program requirements. Parent involvement would be something that I would to make sure was essential in the eyes of the parent before I let a student participate in distance learning.

In order to teach in a virtual school, I would need to be extremely creative and time efficient. I would need to be creative because I would have to make the material we cover that much more exciting because the students are not in an interactive classroom with visual stimulation and other student's excitement. I would also have to increase my time efficiency because I would have to plan out lessons and then be able to transfer them onto the computer. This is something that I think I would find especially difficult because I think a lot of teaching comes from spontaneous teachable moments inside the classroom.