As part of an education initiative of the Georgia Department of Education, four local students are now enrolled in Virtual High School.
Virtual High School allows students to earn credits by taking classes on-line.
There are no classes for students to attend; no textbooks and no ‘teachers’ so to speak, though students are in contact with a certified instructor via e-mail and phone.
Students enrolled in public school, in addition to Virtual High School, also have a facilitator they must report to. The facilitator is a faculty member that teaches at the students’ respective school.
At Cedartown High, the facilitator is art teacher Vivian Stitt.
She said she feels the program benefits students who might not have had the chance to take a class they needed.
“The program is good for rural counties like ours.
Sometimes there are not enough students enrolled in a class for us to offer it. This way, they can take it on-line,” Stitt said.
There are two students at Cedartown High School taking the virtual classes. One of those students is senior Keyonna Hood.
Hood is enrolled in the virtual web design class. She explained that everything you would normally expect in a real classroom is“I take quizzes on there and read information about web design, all on the computer,” Hood said.
Hood describes her class topics as “fun,” but she’s quick to point out that the virtual class brings a lot of responsibility.
“You can’t be late with your assignments and it’s easy to get behind. You can’t play around with this because you’re in charge.”
Another Cedartown High senior, Derrick Mitchell, agrees. “You have to really make sure you keep up and do all of your work.”
Mitchell is taking a virtual physics class and says that it’s pretty challenging. “It’s a little harder to teach myself instead of listening to a teacher.”
He explains that his tests are all on-line and he watches videos that explain physics laboratory experiments.
Virtual High School is not limited to just physics and web design. Classes range from P.E. and Health to
English/composition and college level calculus.
Stitt explains that students are in contact with their virtual school instructor. “They can page teachers and e-mail them if they have questions.” She also explained that there are also discussion boards on-line where students can log on and talk to other students from Georgia about their classes.
“I think its great for them to meet students from all over the state on the discussion boards,” Stitt commented.
Right now, Stitt said her two students complete their coursework on a computer in her classroom. But she said they do have the option to work from home.
Some local school board members are a little concerned about allowing high school students to use Virtual High School from home.
Board members were worried that students working from home would not be monitored, and there would be no way to ensure that the work submitted on-line was the students’ own.
The board will continue to discuss their concerns about the web-based program in coming weeks.
But as for Stitt, she believes the program is beneficial to students. “It’s a good, solid classroom experience,” she said.
Virtual High School is available to homeschool and private school students as well. If a public, private, or home school student enrolls in an online Georgia Virtual School course as a part of a regular daily class schedule, there is no cost to the student.
Summer and supplemental courses taken in addition to the regular school day are $300 per half unit course or $600 per one unit course.
More information about Virtual High School can be found at www.gavirtualschool.org provided to her on-line.
Post a Comment