July 2006 — Features
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Using Technology to Expand Opportunity: Going Virtual
Online courses can get to people and places beyond the reach of the traditional school setting, serving the needs of students and teachers nationwide.
IN THE SPRING OF 2003, I needed to renew my Florida teaching certificate while traveling 120 days a year as an educational consultant. Maintaining my certification was vital to my position, and making use of the classic brick-and-mortar setting for certification renewal courses was physically impossible. My certification endangered, I began to search for alternatives. Fortunately, a colleague introduced me to the option of virtual courses, and shortly afterward I entered the world of eLearning.
My first eLearning course was an online reading endorsement class offered
free to Florida teachers through Just Read, Florida!,
whose goal is to help teachers improve reading instruction for students in
grades PK-12. The class proved to be invaluable. Called the Florida Online
Reading Professional Development (FOR-PD) course,
it’s a statewide reading initiative that provides reading endorsement certification
for Florida teachers and includes reading selections, online discussions,
and an in-person meeting. It offered limitless ideas and resources all available
via my laptop. Since 2003, more than 13,000 teachers have completed the class.
FOR-PD is just one small example of the thousands of eLearning opportunities
available to teachers and students nationwide.
A myriad of delivery methods comes within the sphere of eLearning, including telephone and web discussions, hands-on activities, web conferencing, videoconferencing, e-mails, and face-to-face meetings. Online courses offer students and teachers opportunities beyond the scope of their local districts, universities, and even states.
“Online learning provides students access to the best education available, regardless of their neighborhood, geography, family income levels, or size of their school,” says Susan Patrick, president and CEO of the North American Council for Online Learning. “Online learning is expanding access and opportunities for all students to college preparatory curricula and courses, credit recovery, and supplemental and engaging course work.”
Online learning offers many more perks than mere flexibility, which explains why, according to NACOL, it’s growing at a rate of 30 percent annually to help meet the needs of students and teachers. Virtual courses accommodate teachers, low-performing students, above-level students, and even the victims of natural disasters by offering alternative methods of delivery and personalized instruction. In addition, eLearning is a component of the
