Last thoughts

Reviewing your previous blog posts, what, if anything, has changed in your attitude toward online schools and online schooling over the past 15 weeks? 

I think that some of my views have changed while others - though I am more educated on the topics - have not.  To begin with, I still don't think that full time online schools are a good idea.  I am not convinced that it is good for a student to be at home all day working on the computer.  Obviously, if there are extenuating circumstances for that kid then it is a great option, but maybe not for "regular" kids.  Many of the classes offered are great, but I don't think that all of them are.  When I looked at the Colorado school's site, I was not impressed.  I don't think that it is offering any kind of superior education.  Parents who want their kids in full time online schools they need to do a lot of research to make sure the school is good.


I definitely in favor of online courses for students in f2f schools.  For courses the school may not offer, or credit recovery (though I'm not sure about all of them after reading Heather's report) or AP courses the online courses are great options.  Obviously once again, there is a wide range in quality of courses and the school needs to do its research.


I never thought I would say this, but I love the online science labs! I didn't think I would ever support an online lab science course but after my research my view is completely changed.


Overall, I think that my view of online courses are still mixed, but at least I know why!

After the project....

I had a hard time finding research I wanted to use.  To begin with, most of what I found on virtual labs was on college courses.  There was quite a lot of research on that - but that clearly wasn't useful to me.  Then once I found articles, I had a hard time founding ones focused on Biology and K-12 (I found some with examples of Biology).  All in all, I didn't find much with any kind of real analysis of what the virtual lab does.  Our interview was tons of help, giving us insight to how a virtual lab is designed and all the things you can do with it.  However, I couldn't find any literature on how exactly the virtual labs benefited the students besides being "engaging" or "inquiry based."  The detail is not out there yet.  I also wish I could have seen comparisons of different virtual labs.  I spent a lot of time with the labs designed by Brian Woodfield (who we interviewed) and looked around at some other labs.  I don't think without using them I could really compare them.  What makes one better than the other? I'm not as concerned about whether it is a good idea or not - for what it serves I think it is a good idea.  I want to know what makes one better than another.

On the whole, I found the topic interesting - I would consider using pieces of it in my own classroom! There are definitely more things that I wish were available in my research.