Internet opens options for students
Cyberschool, an internet-based program in Oregon, is connecting students all around the world and creating a global classroom.
By Kristina Rudinskas
"To give our children the best education, we must help them to harness the powerful forces of technology. That's why we've challenged America to connect every classroom and library to the Internet by the year 2000. For the first time in history, children in the most isolated rural towns, the most comfortable suburbs, and the poorest inner-city schools will have the same access to the same universe of knowledge."President Clinton's radio address Feb. 8, 1997
President Clinton's promise sounds good to educators across the nation. The promise of new technology in the classroom allows some educators to expand their lesson plans, strengthen their curricula and entice their students with more information. But the Internet's revolution in the connected classroom is still in its infancy.
Experimental programs such as the Cyberschool in Eugene, Ore., offer students around the globe an opportunity to earn high school credits by taking classes on the web.
"It won't take over in a big way. Students won't be sitting in front of the computer screen all day instead of going to school," said Tom Layton, technology teacher for the Eugene School District and developer of the Cyberschool. "We would like a kid to take one or two classes a year." Supplementing students' school schedules can give students the freedom and flexibility to finish their assignments when they want at their own pace.
Cyberschool started in 1995 with nine online courses and totally flopped, according to Layton. It was the first time a public school district had put high school courses on the Internet. The college level had been wired through the Internet for information and classes for a long time, Layton said.
The Cyberschool took the pieces of the program that did work well, such as the listservs and email from the first version and put it together again.
"You just have to jump in the pond and start swimming," Layton said.
The Cyberschool still has a relatively small number of students, 60 to 70 this term, he said. Half the students are from the Eugene School District; the other half come from around the world. The program isn't limited by class size or geography -- a single student can enroll in a course and engage in dialogue with the teacher.
Cyberschool has to stand out to concerned parents and schools that worry about the legitimacy of the program. Cyberschool doesn't pay teachers to develop courses, but it gives them copyright privileges, Layton explained. Teachers sell themselves and their courses, and they are compensated by number of students enrolled, he said.
This leads to competition between teachers to constantly improve their courses, Layton said. "The more teachers the better," he said.
Cyberschool does have a variety of veteran teachers willing to put effort and extra time into developing web courses. Training those teachers to adapt to new technology is a challenge for Layton. He has an online course for teacher training to create web pages. Not all of them go on to teach in the Cyberschool.
"I've trained over 200 teachers; 30 actually made classes. It is difficult and time-consuming, but I don't feel bad," Layton said. "The other teachers use the skills they learned in their face-to-face classes. They're using listservs and web pages in their classes right now."
Chris Belonger, a cyberschool science teacher, emphasized the need for effective and efficient communication with students.
"That is also true in the classroom, but in Cyberschool it is critical," he said, because the class is primarily taught through the written word. Belonger started teaching short, one-credit cyberschool courses two and a half years ago with little computer skills.
He's comfortable now writing five-credit courses. He plans to add lectures, semi-discussions and other forms of media such as video to the courses.
"So the next step will be to go back and do some "value-adding" to the courses that are up and running along with three currently under construction," he said. Students and teachers need to learn new research strategies to effectively use the web in the classroom.
Cyberschool students can receive a diversity of views from around the globe. Geography no longer holds students in their schools.
"Our bigger customers are small schools. Sometimes these schools can't offer classes like calculus," Layton said.
The Internet based courses offer students interactive textbooks to learn from. A course can have written text, audio recordings and even video clips. Interactivity on the Web is an important component. Students interact with their teachers through email and on-line discussions.
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