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Editorial: School district cooperation evident in creation of Treasure Coast virtual school

January 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Since the 2009-2010 school year, all Florida school districts have been required to offer online courses for students. A new state law also requires that students, beginning with this year’s high school freshman class, take at least one online course as part of graduation requirements.

Those online courses generally are provided by the Florida Virtual School and Florida Connections Academy, both approved by the state. Students take the courses at no cost and their respective school districts pay the tuition fees.

Treasure Coast educators want to develop a locally produced virtual school program that would use and pay local teachers, not online teachers from out of the area.

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Virtual schools showing real growth

June 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

PALM COAST — Kim Medley said she was “fed up” with public schools. Her son, Ean, was receiving poor instruction and other children were “out of control.”

So about three years ago, Medley pulled Ean, then 12, out of the traditional school he had been attending and enrolled him in online courses through Florida Virtual School, the largest such school system in the United States according to a report sponsored by several online school systems, including FLVS. Close to 100,000 students were enrolled statewide during the 2009-2010 school year, the most recent data available. That reflects a 38 percent increase over the previous year. About 3,500 students in Volusia and Flagler counties were enrolled in courses through FLVS during the 2009-2010 school year.

The state’s virtual courses serve K-12 students with a variety of needs, including home-schooled students, those with chronic or long-term illnesses, high-level athletes and students who failed a course in the traditional setting and want to try again. The program also allows students to take courses that are not being offered at their neighborhood schools.

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Florida Has Classes Without Teachers

January 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The online courses are provided by Florida Virtual School, which has been an option in the state’s public schools. The virtual school has provided online classes for home-schooled and traditional students who want to take extra courses. Students log on to a Web site to gain access to lessons, which consist mostly of text with some graphics, and they can call, e-mail or text online instructors for help.

The 54 participating schools in the Miami-Dade County system’s e-learning lab program integrate the online classes differently. A representative from the district said in an e-mail that the system “provided lab facilitators, training for those facilitators and coordination” between the district schools and the virtual school.

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Virtual school to open soon

August 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Beginning Monday, Aug. 2, roughly 25 teachers will begin training to learn how to educate students sitting in front of a computer rather than in front of them in a classroom.

Funding for the teachers in part will depend on how many students succeed in completing and passing the online courses.

Debbie Harris, eSchool and STAR Education Center principal, said it’s a big change for teachers to learn the ins and outs of reaching students in addition to knowing how to navigate online through Florida Virtual School.

She said area educators have expressed interest in expanding their instructional skills to the Internet. Those who teach full-time can also teach online and receive additional pay. Harris said the amount of extra income is still being negotiated.

“The program still gives leeway for teachers to add their personal touch to the curriculum,” Harris said. “What’s great about this is these are local teachers working with local students, so along with communicating through the Internet and telephone, if needed students could meet with teachers face to face for tutoring.”

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Online testing of students: Will Florida be ready?

July 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Many local high schools do not have enough computers, sufficient network access or even the right rooms to securely test hundreds of students online, educators say. In another tight budget year, finding money for needed upgrades — they could cost $750,000 in Seminole County alone — isn’t easy.

Florida’s track record with computer-based testing is short and problem-plagued, adding to administrators’ apprehension about the test change. The debut of the state’s online reading test last fall and its trial run of computerized FCAT and algebra exams this spring both were marred by mishaps.

And there is the potential for even more trouble in coming years, administrators fear, as the number of computer-based standardized tests increases.

Next spring, some 370,000 ninth- and 10th-graders statewide are to take online the math section of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and a new algebra end-of-course exam. A smaller number of older students is scheduled to take FCAT math online in the fall.

A survey by the Florida Department of Education this spring showed that only two districts — and only Brevard County in Central Florida — deemed themselves fully ready for computer-based testing.

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UF’s debuts new e-Learning platform

July 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment

There’s a new course-management system in town.

Most Summer B online courses and all fall online courses will be hosted on Sakai, UF’s new course-management system.

Blackboard, the company that owns the software, will stop supporting WebCT Vista 8, the e-Learning system UF has used, in December 2011.

Fedro Zazueta headed up a UF committee that searched for a replacement.

The committee narrowed it down to three platforms: ANGEL, Moodle and Sakai. Sakai was chosen unanimously.

Sakai is an open-source platform, which means UF can customize it to better suit its students’ needs. It also means that although UF doesn’t need to pay for licenses, like it did with WebCT, it has to spend more money on a programming team, Zazueta said.

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