Blog Post #13

My Teacher is An App
Wall Street Journal

In this article By Stephanie Banchero and Stephanie Simon- My Teacher is An App. they discuss online schools for grades K-12. Each year the amount of students who attend these virtual schools seem to increase. They state the many opinions of the idea of online schooling. Some have positives opinions while others are on the fence. They also raise up the suggestion that online schooling will save the schools a lot of money. This statement comes straight from the article. "In Georgia, state and local taxpayers spend $7,650 a year to educate the average student in a traditional public school. They spend nearly 60% less—$3,200 a year—to educate a student in the statewide online Georgia Cyber Academy, saving state and local tax dollars." They also talk about that teachers can handle more students when all students are all online. This would save more money for the states. Although virtual schools may save money, the disadvantages arise because of the test scores being lower. Some experts on this say that hybrid schooling would be the answer to increasing test scores, for the teacher and students can have actual interaction.

This article also talks about how this way of online schooling would be better for time management wise. The students can do their work all on their own time. They are not stuck in one room while others are standing over them telling them to do their work. This way students can balance the many different tasks they must fulfill in a timely manner based on their own schedule.


I think that the idea of virtual schooling is neat to a certain extent. I love the idea that all work can be done according to ones personal schedule. However, it just seem crazy to me to go completely to virtual schooling. Students learn form interacting with others, and listening to others opinions. The idea of students staying home and teaching themselves everything is odd to me. What will that mean for teachers? Are we really going to replace real teachers with the internet? Nonetheless, I am all for technology in the classroom, I think that it is an awesome idea. Technology is apart of all of us, so it would only make sense to incorporate it into learning. Virtual schools may seem the way to go but, it is not perfect. I really think what Rosie Lowndes says really sums up my opinion the most. "But basically letting a child educate himself, that's not going to be a good educational experience." The computer, she says, can't do it alone.