All Online: Lessons From Virtual Schooling

Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Aaron Saiger

The bricks-and-mortar schools contemplated by American education law and regulation are discrete, bureaucratic institutions, where children interact in person with one another, and with adults who supervise them, inside fixed physical borders at fixed times. Their governance is likewise defined geographically. Virtual schooling, by contrast, is untethered from geography, is ubiquitously asynchronous, and involves the interaction of machine representations of people rather than of people themselves. Virtuality privileges the consumer over the bureaucrat, encourages the disaggregation and recombination of educational components on a bespoke basis, and brings different economies of scale and competitive features to the educational marketplace. The education law we have—the law of the traditional, embodied school—fits virtual technology poorly in critical respects. Virtuality demands fundamentally new legal approaches to areas as diverse as curriculum, attendance, student health and safety, privacy, parental responsibility, disability, student rights, discipline, governance, and equity. Responding to these demands provides occasion to see the law afresh, to reassess and redirect, to align principle and practice more closely, and ultimately to transform educational regulation in the service of equity and learning. This is an opportunity of a kind that has not presented itself since the beginning of the Progressive Era.


2021 ◽  
pp. 204275302110229
Author(s):  
Kurt D Squire

During COVID-19, schools around the world rapidly went online. Examining youth technology use reveals sharp inequities within the United States’ education system and incongruencies between the technologies used in virtual schooling and those in the lives of students outside of school. In affluent communities, virtual schooling is supported by a distributed schooling infrastructure that coordinates students’ knowledge work. This home and school technology infrastructure features material, human, and structural capital that facilitates youth development as nascent knowledge workers. Technology use during virtual schooling keeps youth activity grounded within the “walls” of school; during virtual schooling, students have little voice in setting learning goals or contributing “content.” Technology use at home for learning or entertainment stems from their own goals and features them as active inquisitors seeking out information and extending their social networks, and crucially, using participatory learning technologies such as Discord for communications. An extended period of virtual schooling could enable a rethinking of the role of technology in schools, including an embrace of play, emotional design, participatory communications, place-based learning, embodied understandings, and creative construction.


Author(s):  
Donna Pendergast ◽  
Cushla Kapitzke

In 2002 a review of the educational and technical performance of the Virtual Schooling Service being tested in Queensland, Australia, was conducted. The service utilised synchronous and asynchronous online delivery strategies and a range of learning technologies to support students at a distance, who may otherwise have restricted choices in their selection of subjects to study in Years 11 and 12—the final and non-compulsory years of schooling where students are typically aged 16 to 17. An account of how Activity Theory was used to conceptualise the evaluation is provided. A focus on one element of the evaluation—pedagogical effectiveness—with case studies of actual delivery and receiving classes is incorporated to highlight the pedagogical limitations and potentials of the service. The “productive pedagogies” schema is introduced as a framework for the evaluation of pedagogical effectiveness of the virtual classes. Critical success factors for pedagogical effectiveness are documented, along with a reflection on these elements using Activity Theory. The chapter concludes with an update of the current initiatives being undertaken to enhance the pedagogical effectiveness of the Virtual Schooling Service.


Author(s):  
Erik Black ◽  
Richard Ferdig ◽  
Lindsay A. Thompson

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 416-433
Author(s):  
Norma Ghamrawi ◽  
Tarek Shal ◽  
Ikram Machmouchi ◽  
Najah Ghamrawi

The purpose of this study was to investigate the lived experiences of parents who providing support for their children during virtual learning to better understand whether virtual learning was potentially exacerbating or soothing access of children of various socio-economic statuses to education.  For this purpose, an online survey was passed into all e-channels of parents of children enrolled in primary schools accessible by the researchers. A total of 87 respondents constituted the research sample. Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS 21.0 for windows, while qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Post to this, 3 e-focus group interviews were held with a total of 18 parents who volunteered to participate to better understand their view points. Findings show that parents are highly frustrated in relation to virtual schooling offered to their children. The underlying reasons for such exasperation have been attributed to the time that it requires them to put into their children learning; the money they needed to spend on technology; the lack of proficiency they suffered from using digital technologies; the preparedness of their children’s teachers in terms of using technologies; the competency of their children using digital technologies; and the internet connectivity in the country.  It can be therefore concluded that student access to education in light of Covid-19 is getting more linked to higher levels of socio-economic statuses thus advancing education inequality even more.


Author(s):  
Glenn Russell

This chapter investigates some of the critical issues associated with virtual schools. It reviews historical forms of school education and the different types of virtual schools that are currently emerging. The educational value of virtual schooling is considered in terms of cognitive and affective outcomes, and some of the factors that promote the rise of virtual schools are outlined. The implications of related philosophical viewpoints and communication theory are explored, together with the benefits and disadvantages of virtual schools for society. A number of problems associated with virtual schools are identified and some possible solutions are outlined. Future trends in the growth of virtual schooling and the characteristics of the next generation of virtual schools are discussed in terms of their implications for school education.


SecEd ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Thornton
Keyword(s):  

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