TDSB’s Online School Experiment
Lately, educators and school districts throughout North America have been looking for innovative ways to keep students not only interested in what’s going on in their schools but also in education altogether. The Toronto District School Board (TDSB)’s fascinating online school experiment is just one way they’re doing so by combining an actual in-school education experience along with a way to receive instruction while at home,.
For many students, this can make for an ideal situation. They can go to school for part of the day or even stay completely at home — during the summer months — and access quality educational instruction. It can also be a way for parents to help their children atttend a real summer school but without actually having to go to a traditional brick-and-mortar building. Here are a few characteristics that demonstrate how TDSB’s online school works:
TDSB and Online School
The proper name for what TBSD is trying to accomplish is “virtual school,” of course, but it’s easier to remember that it’s an online school because the main educational thrust is aimed at producing a quality educational experience that’s delivered almost exclusively online.
Online schools show great promise. For summer school students and their parents, this can be a very good way to learn a great many more things than is possible in a more traditional summer school setting, where classes are limited or are aimed more at remedial “catch up” classes than at true learning in a “classroom without walls.” A real online school experience is only limited by the desire of the school and the parents to come together to agree on curricula, it would seem.
The TBSD offers other mixes of traditional classroom and computer-based learning (one of which is known as e-Learning), but these aren’t a full online school experience. Most are aimed at learning in centers established within a school, though most classes are given mainly through computer, with in-person teacher monitoring. In an online school learning environment, education is delivered almost exclusively at home or elsewhere and through a student’s computer.
It’s heartening to learn that educational institutes are beginning to look at the online education as a way to more fully involve parents — who can be at home to monitor their child’s learning — with the students and teachers. As an alternative to traditional summer school, this can be the perfect trial mechanism to see just how far the concept can be taken.
If you’re enrolled in TDSB’s virtual courses, let us know how it’s going! We’d love to get feedback from real students.
