Why should you even think of joining a Computer Mediated Classroom?

There is a serious issue with violence in a typical school of students

  • In a 2007 nationwide survey, 36% of high school students reported being in a physical fight during the past 12 months
  • Nearly 6% of high school students in 2007 reported taking a gun, knife, or club to school in the 30 days before the survey
  • 27.1% of students reported having property stolen or deliberately damaged on school property.
  • 5.5% did not go to school on one or more days in the 30 days preceding the survey because they felt unsafe at school or on their way to or from school.
  • 7.8% reported being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property one or more times in the 12 months preceding the survey
  • During the past seven years, 116 students were killed in 109 separate incidents—an average of 16.5 student homicides each year
  • From 1999 to 2006, most school-associated homicides included gunshot wounds (65%), stabbing or cutting (27%), and beating (12%)

http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/youthviolence/
index.html

Why spend so much money in today’s economy?

  • Florida has long been racking up savings through its year-round Florida Virtual School (FLVS), often cited as a model of efficiency.
  • Based in Orlando, it serves everyone from home-schoolers to traditional school students who need an extra course for catch-up or enrichment.
  • The state treats it as a school district of sorts, but funds it at a significant savings over its bricks-and-mortar counterparts.
  • The state doesn’t have to pay for busing, food, or building maintenance for this “district.”
  • Its per-pupil costs are lower as well. About 54,000 Florida students completed a total of 116,000 semester-long courses through FLVS in 2007-08. That translates into just over 9,600 “full-time equivalent” students – and for each of those the state saves about $1,000, according to a study by the nonprofit group Florida TaxWatch.
  • Schools save indirectly, too, because of this option. A small group of students might be able to take Latin or an advanced biology course through FLVS, for instance, rather than their school having to hire teachers with those specialties.
  • And every time a student is promoted to the next grade because they pass a class through FLVS that they failed in the regular classroom, a year’s worth of costs are saved on that student.
  • The school gets state dollars not for every student who enrolls, but only for those who complete their course with at least a D.
  • “When it works at its best, [online learning] is outcome-based rather than based on seat time…. That’s a huge change from the factory-model system” of most schools, says Michael Horn, coauthor of “Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns.” While many schools add computers into standard classroom practice and only marginally improve the status quo, the “anytime, anywhere” approach of online learning better taps into the technology’s potential, he adds

Want your children to achieve your goal of higher test scores?

Students enrolled in FLVS courses achieve higher test scores than those in the state’s traditional public school courses.

  • In 2006, 70 percent of FLVS sixth-graders earned a passing score in math on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, compared with 53 percent of all public school students
  • In reading, the figures were 80 percent versus 64 percent
  • On college-level Advanced Placement exams, FLVS students scored an average of 3.05 on a five-point scale, compared with 2.49 for all public school students.
  • The teachers – who communicate with students via e-mail, instant messaging, and phone (especially when it’s time to conduct oral tests) – earn high marks in surveys of students and parents.

Online school is a cheaper way to educate by Stacy Teicher Khadaroo.  http://weblogs.csmonitor.com/2009/0825/p25s03-ussc.html

Subtitle:  Want your children to achieve your goal of higher test scores?

  • An experimental design was carried out in which 33 students in a Social Statistics course at California State University, Northridge were randomly divided into two groups, one taught in a traditional classroom and the other taught virtually on the World Wide Web.
  • Text, lectures and exams were standardized between the conditions. Contrary to the proposed hypotheses, quantitative results demonstrated the virtual class scored an average of 20% higher than the traditional class on both examinations.
  • Further, post-test results indicate the virtual class had significantly higher perceived peer contact, and time spent on class work, but a perception of more flexibility, understanding of the material and greater affect toward math, at semester end, than did the traditional class

http://people.cs.vt.edu/~bowman/papers/gorilla_education.pdf The Educational Value of an Information-Rich Virtual Environment