The environment in which students are learning has changed dramatically over
the last decade. Students, of all ages, are provided with a variety of
locations to demonstrate their learning and achieve some educational success.
E-Learning, or
distance learning, is becoming more prevalent in today’s realm of education.
E-Learning is a concept that addressed two key factors, according to Maeroff,
in many people’s lives – time and location
(Chronicle of Higher Education, B20-B23). This method of learning allows the
student to manage the complicated pathways of life – where one is constantly
multitasking – while they are involved in learning at various levels (Coufal,
2015). There are many educational operations where success has been
achieved through lots of reflection and tweaking to make sure the distance
learning model is successful. "Even though my students might not be on
grade level, the growth they're making is enormous,” said Lindsey L. Taylor, a
teacher at Ashbrook High School in Gastonia, North Carolina (Davis, 2015, p2).
She has witnessed the huge impact distance learning has provided her students
(Davis, 2015, p.2).
Look at this past winter where the northeastern United
States had record snowfall which then created a large gap in student’s learning
from the bad-weather days. Having a distance
learning option linked in with the traditional education model, would allow
these weather stricken areas to continue their learning without having to push
back their school calendar. "It's much better to have a day of
e-learning instruction right now than if we held a makeup day when the
weather's nice," said Shelly Vaughn, the superintendent of the 939-student
Fort Recovery district in western Ohio, which had already missed eight regular
school days as of late January. "It's hard to keep kids focused at that
time of year” (Morones, 2014, p.2). Dikkers, Lewis, and Kraft (2015)
reported that New Hanover County School in Wilmington, N.C. was able to
increase the number of students served and expand the variety of courses
offered during the summer in their distance learning program. They served
regular education students as well as credit-recovery students. Today's educational leaders need to embrace the changes
in the method of lesson delivery and begin to offer options for students. Coufal suggests (2015) that the greatest
obstacle is for the educator to give up some of their control that a
traditional classroom offers and allow the learner the freedom to determine
when, where, and how they learn. Another negative aspect of distance
learning is the trust a student can put into their educational provider.
"I don't know how many for-profit companies would be willing to put in the
money and effort needed." said Michelle H. Lourcey, the chief academic
officer for the N.C. Virtual Public School (Davis, 2015, p.2).
While distancelearning can have some
drawbacks, there are many positive aspects that overshadow the negative ones.
Students are able to learn in various atmospheres that suit them, rather than a
one-size-fits-all environment. In a world where educators are always
emphasizing the idea that every student counts, distance learning is an
alternative avenue of education.
References
Coufal, K. (2015). Our fear of losing control of distance
learning. School Administrator, 72(1),
10.
Davis, M. R. (2015). Virtual spec. ed. is evolving
option. Education Week, 34(26), 1-11.
Dikkers, A. G., Lewis, S., & Kraft, W. (2015). A
district's move to virtual summer
coursework. School Administrator, 72(4),
13-15.
E-Learning: Successes and Failures. (2007). Chronicle
of Higher Education, B20-B23.
Morones, A.
(2014). Snow days turn into e-learning days for some schools. Education
Week, 33(20),
6-7.
