Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments on line learners at school?

Has anyone been doing an online learning class at school?
What has your experience been? Did the child feel isolated?
Was there a teacher to oversee your child's work and communication?

My ds9 took a northwestern online writers workshop this summer.
I did a lot of supervising. It feels like he could bring this into school if he did it at home with me a few more times.One of our goals in taking the course was just to experience a online course. Our school has not let me know yet if they would be open to this. I think my chances are better if he is very self sufficent.

Please share any thoughts & ideas.

My DS5 did an online class this summer, too. I wanted to continue this during the school year and the school agreed to work with us. We haven't made specific arrangements yet as the school tries to figure out the computer situation. The principal was very open to it.

wow! a 5yr old doing this! would you like to share the subject and some details about the experience. What organization provided the course.

He does Stanford EPGY math. A group within this forum has formed around EPGY math. He likes it better than school math because he can do it all on the computer and, at age 5 and mostly 4 during the last school year, he had a hard time writing down answers. The online math is much better for that. It is also engaging and has lots of "math" without numbers like logic, geometry, and reasoning which he also really likes. We like it because he likes it and also because EPGY math is significantly much more in depth than school math. I rather have him learn basic algebra and geometry concepts than continue with fancier multiplication and division.

I think the school likes it for him because last Sept when they assessed, he could only add very small numbers but by Dec. he learned all his addition and subtraction and was complaining about math being too easy. The online program keeps up with his abilities. The school is a small private school that individualizes instruction and truly believes in differentiation. I am impressed that they were so open to it. He needs supervision, but not a lot. Without as much supervision, he would just move more slowly through the program.

We'll see how it goes in Sept. We also want to try EPGY's online English which he can't take until he is 6. English starts at Grade 2. My son reads at the 2nd/3rd grade level, is great with reading comprehension with multiple choice, but is just ok with language arts. We are hoping that his language arts issues are just a manifestation of his average motor skills and that an online course could fix this problem, too.

A big study recently came out that shows that online education beat out traditional education. See http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/...p=1&sq=online%20education&st=cse
Check it out. My DS5 truly finds the online material much more engaging.

wow again! that sounds wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing. I heard from a local gifted teacher they felt the EPGY program was good. Thank so much for the link. I'm excited to check that out.

I also interested in John Hopkins because I'm thinking they did a big math 20 yrs study and it makes me feel like thay have a certain amount of expertise in this area. I also like North Western because they seem to have some out of the box enrichment Math that might be very interesting for him.

I wonder how one would figure out if a particular math is better than another.

My DS9 is going into 3rd grade. I like the saxon math they teach in his school except they teach it too slow. I'm not much of a math person to be able know if something is better. At some point I would like to let my son go at his own speed in math and do an online course - so I'm exploring this.

Next year, he will do 5th grade Math in his 3rd grade class. I'm very grateful for this. I think his school Math may be too slow but he can get out his extra work book if he gets done early. If he is content that's ok at this point. I think this situation will keep him feeling apart of the class.

Wei-I
I have one more question - Does the class have a teacher in contact with the students?

I am confused about something. My DD has taken the Gifted Learning Links classes at CTY, is this what you are referring to, or something different? I am nearly ready to discuss online time during the school day with our school, too.

The comments were as interesting as the article. One comment in particular is from a student that gave pluses & minuses from a student's perspective.

I just downloaded the report and will use it as today's ADD-inspired diversion from long-avoided yardwork.

A few days back, I expressed dissatisfaction with using ALEKS as a learning tool (we only used to for review) because the student would have no opportunity for a teacher to explain concepts live and in person. I still have this reservation in situations where the kid is expected to handle the material on his own, outside of school.

Where I think such an approach could be beneficial, though, is for the student who needs to work well ahead of his peers, but whose parents are hesitant (afraid?) to pursue another grade skip. If our son could work on EPGY or ALEKS during normal class time, and the human teacher were able to support & answer questions, that might work.

Hmmmm. More stuff to add to the quandary.

Well... so much for avoiding yardwork today.

Of the 93 pages (20 of which were devoted to references), I only read the Executive Summary (5pgs), Introduction (7pgs) and Discussion and Implications (3+ pgs), the rest (to me) was a bunch of statistical blather, with lots of Z-Values, Q-stats & p-Values. (In other words, I wish I hadn't dropped out of statistics!)

One of the stated goals of the report was to identify Best Practices for the use of online learning in K-12. I share the authors' disappointment in not finding any studies within their original time frame of 1996-2006. When they expanded to include 2008, however, they did find some, but not enough to be meaningful to this meta-analysis.

Still, though, despite the lack of a direct correlation to K-12 learners, it will be nice to keep "on the shelf" for future discussions with our school(s). Like our doctors, the school admin hates to hear, "Yeah, as I saw on the internet last week..." Bringing genuine research into the conversation usually helps.

Thanks again, Wei-I, for sharing this find.

elizabethmom - My ds9 took the Online writer workshop this summer. An accelerated course. Noncredit. This was thru Northwestern university which has gifted learning links.

CTY is thru John hopkins. I'm very interested in them but have not taken any course with them