K-12 Virtual Education

The focus of this blog will be on primary school virtual education. 

In recent years, virtual schools have popped up in just about every state. This has become a viable option for parents that are discouraged and disenchanted with traditional school systems, have religious beliefs that preclude their children from attending a school that is not based upon the teachings of their faith or fitting with moral beliefs, travel excessively or are ill, and for those children that simply do not function well in the social settings of a traditional system. 

Some school systems, such as Florida, require high school students to take at least one virtual class as a part of the curriculum over the course of their enrollment. Others offer the virtual school as a supplement to the classes offered in the bricks and mortar schools, and for summer school offerings.  

While there are many virtual school options for K-12 studies, Florida Virtual School is the public school alternative and supplement for Florida. it is free of charge for Florida residents, just as any other public school. Live, certified instructors are utilized by the school and are available by e-mail, telephone, and instant messaging. There is a minimum of monthly contact between teachers and their students and parents.

Florida Virtual School is an accredited school where full time students can obtain a full diploma upon graduation. 

While Florida Virtual School, along with many others are computer based virtual environments, there are many homeschooling options that utilize correspondence materials that are paper and multimedia based rather than by use of computer technology from teacher to student. These other method, while older, are still in the virtual school environment, in the since that they are not a face to face teacher to student. 

Courses are set up much like the college level blackboard course, multimedia, readings, discussion boards all are a part of the virtual classroom. Assignments are posted, reviewed, completed and submitted electronically. 

Virtual classrooms meet the needs of many students and take some of the burden off of the classrooms that would otherwise be overpopulated. This said, the virtual school system is not ideal for every student. This can be especially true at the lower grade levels, where motivation and tenacity may not yet be fully developed and social acceptability skills are in the infancy of being built and honed. I will take a deeper look at some of the pros and cons of virtual schooling in my next blog post.