Community Chat

[game-on]

I see ads on TV for children to be educated via computer.  I wonder (I am a skeptic) how these children pass the grades.... how the children are tested.... how anyone knows if that child is really doing the studying or is someone else?  How does this really work?

I was an elementary school teacher for a few years and I loved going to school.  I guess I wonder how someone sitting on a computer is really learning?  As a teacher I knew from body language and interacting with the student whether my students were "getting it".

Could you help me understand? TIA

[proudlyfromNJ]

Some homeschooled children learn by computer. 

[jaxs mom]

Are you talking about independent study or homeschooling? State law varies on homeschooling. Some states have zero requirements regarding testing or registering and some states have a ton of requirements. 

As far as are people "really learning" you do realize that institutional schools are a modern invention and that for millenia people learned outside of a formal school system. 

I'm sure you'll get lots of hand wringing posts though, knowing this forum. As a homeschooler I'm not interested in defending my legal parental rights, on this forum,  when it comes to educating my kids. 

[missy1]

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@game-on wrote:

I see ads on TV for children to be educated via computer.  I wonder (I am a skeptic) how these children pass the grades.... how the children are tested.... how anyone knows if that child is really doing the studying or is someone else?  How does this really work?

I was an elementary school teacher for a few years and I loved going to school.  I guess I wonder how someone sitting on a computer is really learning?  As a teacher I knew from body language and interacting with the student whether my students were "getting it".

Could you help me understand? TIA

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I say this about college on-line colleges too. I sat in every class and lab. I learned things. You have class discussions, you can ask the teacher things, as opposed to just computer classes.

People are busy now. I was too, but I made time. I was an older student and worked. Some kids for whatever reasons (behavior etc) can't attend public school/private/charter so these classes are an alternative.. Home-school is a whole different other subject.

[Kachina624]

You are way behind the times in education.  Not only to children have the opportunity to learn via computer but business and industry widely use computer-based instruction to train employees. 

My son worked for Lowe's and he was constantly taking courses related to the area of the store in which he worked.  It included information not only how to sell but technical aspects of the equipment he was selling. 

In my own state agency, they completely changed the way employees performed one of their primary job functions.  The training consisted in part of 160 hours of computer-based training in addition to a couple days of classroom training. 

[Zhills]

When my daughter went back for her Doctorate, she found that most of her information was on like.  She went to class once a week and everything else, including tests, were sent in online, graded and returned online.  Even her thesis was presented online.

Children play on rugs that are KEYBOARDS now when they are in Kindergarten so they can start learning where the keys are.  Yes, I took computers in 1974 and you do learn!

[missy1]

I

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@Kachina624 wrote:

You are way behind the times in education.  Not only to children have the opportunity to learn via computer but business and industry widely use computer-based instruction to train employees. 

My son worked for Lowe's and he was constantly taking courses related to the area of the store in which he worked.  It included information not only how to sell but technical aspects of the equipment he was selling. 

In my own state agency, they completely changed the way employees performed one of their primary job functions.  The training consisted in part of 160 hours of computer-based training in addition to a couple days of classroom training. 

I don't have a problem with computer instruction, as long as it involves attending classroom instruction too.

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[VaBelle35]

In the 70s when I was in 3rd and 4th grade, I was in a special program for advanced learners and the well behaved to learn at their own speed, so in some areas I would work on the 4th grade stuff and some areas I would work on the 3rd grade stuff.  It was mainly self study with 2 teachers who came around and would give a quick explanation of something if a group was having trouble with a particular handout.

When I got to junior high, it was not pretty.  I missed a lot.  There were about 8 or 9 of us in this  one English class and none of us had learned sentence structure.

To say she was annoyed was an understatement.  We all had to stay after class and she explained it to us and gave us additional homework so that we could get caught up  on it.

I also ended up learning about tense in creative writing in college.

I believe now that this may have either been some teacher's masters or doctoral thesis or a funded grant.

My brother was in a more successful program for troubled kids who had attendance problems and other issues.  My brother is wicked smart but he most likely had ADD/ADHD which was not known at the time.

[LTT1]

@game-on

@VaBelle35@missy1@Zhills@Kachina624

I agree with you.

I guess there are some kids who could learn everything by computer? Depending upon their earliest education and making "connections." I would have been one of these (visual learner so what the teacher said I didn't process mostly)

The students I taught for high school math (Special) needed a teacher to actually stand at the desk and point to the problems one-by-one.  The connection from desk to board was not possible at all.

These students might have made math connections bu using manipulatives (blocks or items they can hold) but that is impossible to do in large groups.

I took these students to a computer lab for quite a few sessions and had some degree of success with 75% roughly.  I attribute this success to the fact that each student was able to work on their individual level without fear of shame.

[sunshine45]

my daughter is taking two college classes during the summer......both online. she loves it. she can be on vacation and get her work done at the same time, even at 2am if she wants. they even have group projects, but they dont have to meet as a group. everything is done online.