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

If you (or anyone else out there) would share how it went with your school and the online learning subject I would really appreciate it. I see this in our future and have alot of learing to do about online learning.

To my understanding, CTY at John Hopkins uses the same EPGY program that Stanford developed for the early grades. It may change around algebra. I'm not sure. I know nothing about gifted learning links. We chose Stanford EPGY initially because, based in CA, they are aligned to the CA math curriculum and, thus, we were hoping it would be easier to argue for the substitution/inclusion of EPGY.

If you pay the full amount, EPGY comes with an instructor and a call center to answer your math or technical questions. I do the math with my DS5 and we don't call unless we can't technically figure it out. The instructor sends weekly e-mail monitoring his progress. She hasn't done that much for us although I have heard that she does if you need it.

I personally think that online instruction will be the dominant mode of instruction in the future. With all the incompetent teachers, I can't imagine that online instruction will not prevail. Then all the competent teachers can work along side the children providing supplemental instructional, and we would no longer be having a discussion about differentiation in the classroom. But this will take at least a generation to happen because those unions are really strong. Online instruction will also save big bucks. I think our son's school is interested because of the cheaper cost factor.

I was wondering if you had talked to your school about on line learning? I wish I could have a copy of that recorded. I wonder how this is working in schools with gifted kids? Anybody?

I've thought that since my school is wireless in all the classrooms maybe somehow in the future I could provide a laptop and let him accelorate in Math. I feel like my ds9 needs a bit more maturity to do this or he will be too high maintance for the teachers. Ex. I tried to get him to correspond with the teacher with mail and he was not so interested as he used up his brain power/attention for that time on the writing course. (He also does not like to talk on the phone.) I thought he did well in the course and learned alot about online learning, time management and writing.

The same age restrictions don't apply with the EPGY open enrollment program for LAW. It does still start with second grade as opposed to K in math.

I have a question about those with experience in this. Were your kids allowed to do online learning while the other kids in class had the regular classroom worksheets to do? Did they do that in the same classroom? DH is worried that if this is the case with DS, then the other kids may react badly that DS is privileged with extra computer time.

I'm wondering how this works in the class room too. Maybe there are not many people here taking online classes at school here. It might be good to talk to different online learning places and see how their students make it work. Let me know if you needs a list of places to check out. I bet the DYS people would have experience with this.

Having a student do something different must take into account the other children's reaction and how the teacher handles the situation.

My son has been allowed to go ahead in his Math book for past 2 yrs and then he gets out his extra fun Math. He loves this privilege and doesn't make it a problem by bragging.

I did have to put a stop to him bringing extra pages for the other boys to do at playground time because that the teacher's job. I think they all wanted to be apart of something together but were not mature enough to understand it was not the right thing to do. Some of the work he brought was to hard for the boys.

DS9 was taught that doing work that is just right for you is what really matters. Everyone can feel good at learning no matter what their level or method is. If a teacher can employ this attitude than that will go along way.

Have other students done online learning at your school? How did that work? If we get to do online learning, we will be breaking new ground.

Please let me now if you talk to your school about this and if you get to do this. Best of luck

Ds9 did online CTY math for 3 months in his previous school. I was lucky to get the Principal's support for 3 months. When we left, I heard that the school has to do away with their special support group because of lack of support and funds.

He did it (AL1) during Math class on a laptop in the classroom. I would say it is a good experience for him but unfortunately, it wasn't very well structured in the sense that, he would have friend hovering over him, trying to find out what he was doing sometimes. He told me he couldn't concentrate. He was not spending enough time on it too. Just maybe 15mins daily or none at all when the teacher has some "specials". Part of him wanted to join the class sometimes, esp. when they were having math games- (although easy but still fun for him). I think unless they do it in a separate room, there will be distractions. The teacher's support is also crucial in ensuring it's success.

The downside of doing an online course is obviously the lack of interactions with like-minded peers. I find discussions and brain storming lacking, which should benefit any child greatly.

Now that the new school doesn't support this program, I have continued to let him do it at home after school. I make sure he spends time doing one chapter daily. (I told him we need to get the money's worth!!!) I don;t think we have explored all avenues of CTY's online learning. There is supposed to be online discussions and white board but we have yet to use them due to timing differences (we are in Asia). So far, we just communicate with the instructor via email.

I brought up online learning at school regarding Math just to introduce the topic and see if in the future it would be possible. They seemed possibly open to it in the future but I'm really not sure. We ran out of time for our meeting and I really didn't get a read on how they really felt.

I don't think DS9 would be ready to do it next year. If he does it this summer and became very independent then maybe I could say it would be easy for him to do the following year. Maturity and needing to communicate to the teacher which was hard last summer with his 1st online class. I'm thinking he may try again this summer but I'm conflicted about what to do. I want to get him to the point where I could say, no problem he can do it and very independently.

Should I try for an online Math enrichment. Math is where he is most talented and that is what I would like for him to do online the most at school. I'm a little afraid it will be so awesome he will hate Math at school more.

OR should I try a writing class that he is interested in because if he writes better in school that would help him be challenged in areas that require writing. Writing might be his weakest area. Maybe this will be close in communication and requirements to prove he could handle an online Math at school.

I know there are less complex programs like Alex. They might be a great alternate if an online course like thru John Hopkins Talent search is not reasonable. I'm not sure I could afford this type of class for his schooling. He did it last summer because I received a scholarship. I do feel like a online class with a teacher to communicate with and class of student would be better. In an online class because he could share his passion for math with the other students. If he did Alex he would be doing it alone. That's a little sad. But it could work for a year or two. Alex is more obtainable finacially. So I could try that for him but I don't want to push him ahead in Math than he already is right now. I really need to figure out what to do because I need to apply soon.

Maybe there is something else he could do that would not push him ahead but give him the experience needed to give the school confidence for a Math online class. I feel like I can't talk to any one at school about this right now. I maxed out on their allotted time per student.

Any suggestions?