 
Internet Tutorials
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Week 1
Tutorial 1
Tutorial 2
Tutorial 3
Tutorial 4
Tutorial 5
Week 2
Tutorial 6
Week 3
Week 4
Tutorial 8
Tutorial 8
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Tour of Cyber School
LAST WEEK we conducted a virtual tour of 'real' schools, through their web sites. These schools were all traditional schools, with real buildings, in fixed geographic locations. The teachers actually arrive at these 'real' schools each day, and the students predominantly learn in classrooms. The reason why the word 'real' is used so deliberately is to distinguish these schools from the cyber (or virtual) schools we are visiting this week.
Wider Range of Possibilities
The advent of the Internet has opened the door to a much wider range of possibilities for education provision. While the traditional fixed-location local, city or regional school will probably endure for some time, its supremacy as the only 'place' for formal education is now being challenged. Internet schools are on the rise, following on from the proven success of online provision in the tertiary sector, and the establishment of international cyber universities.
Hybrid Real/Cyber Schools
At this stage, the challenge to traditional 'real' schooling at the primary and high school level is still small. Most cyber schools are, in fact, hybrids between old and new, and are attempts to take advantage of the Internet to 'supplement' the offerings of existing schools, or clusters of schools. Often they are run by 'real' schools as 'add ons'. Alternatively, some cyber schools don't offer a comprehensive school curriculum but offer extra 'after real school' supplementary tuition.
True Cyber Schools
However, another group of cyber schools have moved beyond this hybrid model and have abandoned the 'real' aspect of traditional schooling altogether. These schools have no buildings or classrooms (though, as you will see, they may have a 'view'). Physical attendance is not required and there is often no fixed time line for completion of coursework. The 'age parity-crowd-space' equation is no longer relevant. It would be no problem for just one 45-year-old to enrol in a Year 2 literacy course or for 390 sixty-year-olds to enrol in a Year 7 Health and Human Relations course! In this way, cyber schools have great potential for lifelong learning in diverse locations.
These true cyber schools have no national boundaries, except to say that their server is located in a particular country. Even this could change overnight if there was an attempt to impose unwanted regulations and restrictions.
Cyber schools are not necessarily tied to the national curriculum of the country in which they are based, and may offer certificated international courses, such as the International Baccalaureate (IB) or preferred courses from a range of countries. In fact, they may not even seek to attract enrolment by local students or registration/approval by local authorities.
In this way, a student from Back of Beyond Primary School, in the Northern Territory, may well choose to complete a primary level IB offered by a cyber school based in Canada, rather than attend the local primary school. By negotiation, he or she might choose to attend the local school only on Friday afternoons, for team sport - or maybe not at all. Alternatively, he or she might attend two days a week, purely for socialisation reasons.
As a further twist, a student from Hong Kong, wishing to pursue an interest in environmental science, might enrol in some specialist and very lucrative cyber-units offered by Back of Beyond Primary School, via the Internet. How would this impact on the traditional twin concepts of full-time enrolments and funding formulas?
Indisputable Increase
At this stage, the number of primary and high school students enrolling in primary and secondary cyber schools, full-time and part-time, is unknown. However, what is indisputable is that the number of cyber schools is increasing, and that their quality is improving.
There are several possible reasons for this:
- the growing fear of violence on a 'real' campus, particularly in some countries;
- a need by some parents to provide their children with a particular religious-based education that may not be available locally;
- a preference for homeschooling, for a wide variety of reasons, including the 'fencing off' of children from a wider society perceived to be corrupt;
- an increased market demand by education consumers for flexibility (part-attendance at a cyber school may allow students to customise their own curriculum);
- the ability for gifted and talented children to pursue education at their own rate;
- the ability for people of all ages to continue their education;
- the globalisation of the education market, and increasingly sophisticated education consumers who perceive some national or international courses/qualifications to be more prestigious and/or portable than those offered locally;
- an opportunity to continue the education of students excluded from 'real' schools for a variety of reasons (physical illness, psychiatric disorder, physical disability or behaviour problems; and;
- the provision of more choice and stability for students living in remote or changing locations.
A Very Early Glimpse
The tour of cyber schools we provide this week is just a brief and very early glimpse into another option of schooling. Whether or not cyber schools are the way of the future, or just one of the ways of the future, remains to be seen. It would be wise, however, for those concerned with existing education systems and schools to keep an eye on the evolution of cyber schools, for opportunities, challenges and pitfalls.
One thing is certain: the traditional concept of education is under pressure. Schools and educators will need to be creative, strategic and flexible if they are going to flourish in, and take advantage of, the new environment.
Creating a Sense of Cyber Community
Cyber schools themselves, as new creations, are also under pressure to succeed as they seek to grow and capture an increased student population - which presumably would come from students currently in traditional schools.
What can be observed, even from the brief tour below, are the early attempts by some cyber schools to 'humanise' their schools, and to create a sense of belonging to a 'community'. For this reason, many of them deliberately include extra personal details about teachers, staff photos, appealing 'views', a traditional and solid professional 'look' to reassure tentative parents, school councils where parents 'participate', careers counselling, guidance rooms, and the like.
For further opinions on the strengths of cyberschooling, check out:
Unschooling: Delight-Driven Learning
www.home-educate.com/unschooling/index.shtml
Here you will find a large number of papers, all of which are on the benefits of 'unschooling' and cyber schools. According to the author of, 'School Free: Pursuing Real Life', students at a traditional high school are:
'Herded into buildings en masse like cattle, students are lectured at, condescended to, and then tested on what they've 'learned'. School becomes nothing more than a factory, spitting out clones who are adept at memorising facts and learning how to please their superiors by telling them what they want to hear'.
In another paper on this site, 'School is Dead - Learn in Freedom', there is a list of quotations from Nobel Prize winners who have said that school is a waste of time. (The last one quoted is described as having unfortunately come to a bad end, having been sentenced to prison for child molestation!)
Now, join with us on a visit to some of the most interesting cyber schools in the cyber world. A very wide range of schools has been included, from the appalling, to the dangerous, to the adequate, to the good, to the absolutely excellent. Make your own personal assessment of each cyber school's usefulness, its integrity, its quality, its likely target audience, its potential and its ethical and professional standards. Here, it is appropriate to reflect on the whole area of assessment, standards and regulation of these schools, and the unchartered territory in which they operate.
What is certain is that old formulas for regulation, and traditional assumptions about legality and control, will need to be reassessed, in the context of a changing education marketplace. The need for reassessment would also apply to the traditional industrial structures in which teachers and principals now operate, given that these schools might employ 'qualified' or 'unqualified' staff/teachers/mentors/directors from a wide range of diverse countries.
As with previous weeks, this tour will be conducted like an orienteering course. The first person to answer 50 questions correctly out of sixty will win a bottle of Brown Brothers port.
Answers should be number and emailed with your name and postal address to: ybertext@altavista.com.
Enjoy the tour - and be amazed!
St Gabriel Cyber School (Alberta, Canada)
www.stgabe.com
One of the best examples of a very professionally designed cyber school.
- Read the 'Message from the Principal'. What is his name?
- Which parents are encouraged to be active members of the School Council
?
- Go to the 'What is a Cyber School?' section. What are the missing three words at the end: 'St Gabriel is an online school. Students from all over the world travel to our school - - -.'
- At what grade level can students enter St Gabriel?
- Are course descriptions provided for elementary school levels?
Virtual High School (USA)
www.vhs.concord.org/
- Who is the Program Co-ordinator?
- Look up the 'Day in the Life' section. Where do you find teacher Ana at 8 a.m.?
- Teacher Ana has students from how many different (American) States?
e-cademy (NSW, Australia)
www.e-cademy.net/info/
Wow! This recently launched online tutoring school is positively breathtaking in its design. Check it out as example of what is possible with flair, creativity and plenty of money for 'top end' graphic designers. Make sure you look at the 'Flash' version - if you have the Flash plug in installed.
- What do you need to click on to access reception and classrooms?
- E-cademy offers coaching to HSC students in which four subjects?
- Enrolment at the e-cademy is free unit when?
- Go to the e-cademy 'education centre'. Click on the buttons titled 'search', 'schedule', 'preference' 'results' and 'exams'. What happens?
- What yellow object appears when you click on the 'search' wheel? (You won't be able to answer this question unless you have accessed the Flash version of this site).
Brainline Junior University (South Africa)
www.brainline.com/
Which two curriculums are offered by this school?
- Click on the section, 'I want to start a school'. What is a micro-school?
- How long have Brainline learning centres been in operation in South Africa?
- Brainline Junior University caters for children from Grade - to Grade - ?
- Look at the section, 'Are teachers only allowed to run a learning centre? and the case of Mrs Laas. What has she converted into a comfortable double story [sic] learning area and completed all the legal requirements? (Get a trail version of the courses offered).
- Go to the section: 'How are lessons presented to students?' and then: 'What does the product look like?'. Complete the following sentence: 'The product consists of tutorial lessons viewed on a screen which can be - - - - '.
Christa McAuliffe Academy (Washington, USA)
www.cmacademy.org/
This school has teaching (mentoring) vacancies!
- What cannot happen at this school if your marks fall below B- and you have not mastered 80% of the course material?
- Check out the staff at this school. From which US university did teacher Bill Q. get his Bachelor of Arts from
.
- Teacher Denise was born 'on a dark and stormy night' in which American state?
- Who has to 'sign off' after a student has completed 90 hours of physical activities, before the spreadsheet is sent to the student's mentor?
Eldorado Academy (Colorado, USA)
UPDATE 12/06/01 - THIS SITE IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE.
e-socrates.com (Pennsylvania, USA)
www.esocrates.com/
This is a cyberschool for overloaded teachers: 'With e-Socrates services you are not teaching alone, instead you have us as your electronic teaching assistant to do some of the grunt work for you'. This cyber school is currently advertising for more staff.
- More than ----- courses are offered on this site. What's the missing number? No need to do any lesson preparation, ever again!
Fairways and Greens: The D.L. Bennett Cyber-School of Golf Instruction (USA)
UPDATE 12/06/01 - THIS SITE IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE.
Cyberschool (The Netherlands)
www.cyberschool.nu/
Cyber schools are sprouting everywhere, and in many languages! Some are national (like this one), others are international.
Laurel Springs School (USA)
www.laurelsprings.co/
- Go to the section: 'Discover the advantages of web-based learning with Laurel Springs'. What is the fifth advantage listed?
- What are the 'typical annual costs' for enrolment in Grade 2 at this school?
Putaro Internet Cyber School (Japan)
www.big.or.jp/~putaro/indexE.html
- Go to the 'Room Test: Arithmetic' section. In a single word word, describe the usefulness of this section as a mathematics education resource
.
- Go the 'Quiz a la Carte' section. Again, describe, in a single word, your assessment of the usefulness of this list of context-free unrelated questions.
The Belnorth Cyber School (ACT, Australia)
www.belnorthms.act.edu.au/
A very attractive site. This virtual middle school caters for students from Years 5, 6 and 7, from several 'real' ACT schools.
- Look in the 'Kids' section. In what year was Wattle Day first celebrated?
Online Class (Minnesota, USA)
www.onlineclass.com/general/Schedule.html
- What is the cost of enrolling 'single classroom' of 11-35 students in one OC class? (This price includes delivery to two email addresses and one print teaching packet)
.
- Go to the 'Internet Education' section. Who are the two editors of, 'The Educators Guide to the Internet: A Handbook with Resources and Activities?'
.
- Go to the 'Dinosaurs Alive!' class. How many units are there in this online class for Grades K-6?
The Chrysalis Independent Study School (Washington, USA)
www.chrysalis-school.com/
What a cute name!
- How long has this school been operating Internet school programs?
- Look at the 'Online Course Descriptions'. Then read the preamble before the actual subjects are listed and fill in the missing words: 'We believe that students are -----------, not products on an assembly line. At Chrysalis we do not push students into ---------- ------------.
'
Prophetic Fellowship and Mentoring School (USA)
www.angelfire.com/sc/prophetdent/index.html
The traditional curriculum isn't for everyone. This 'prophetic web community school' is for those people (of all ages and professions) who believe they have the potential to become the future prophets of our time. Prophet mentoring is available, as is the opportunity to make 'love gifts' (via an electronic payment system) to the mentor prophet who runs the school.
- What is the name of the prophet organising this 'spiritual military college'?
Global English.com (USA)
www.globalenglish.com/
- Find E-Teacher, Caroline. The students in Caroline's classes are from 'all over the world'. Which four countries does she mention specifically?
- What would Japanese customers/students pay for Course 10 (Advanced) in Japanese yen?
- How many hours of free introductory instruction are available at this school before you have to pay?
The Village Learning Center (Falls River, USA)
www.snowcrest.net/villcen/
- How many units in three 'wheels' do you need to qualify for your high school diploma?
- What is 'Supplemental City'?
Comcast Online Schoolyard (USA)
www.onlineschoolyard.com/default.asp
- Cyber-Calc is: 'An interactive learning ----- ----- ----. What are the three last words in this sentence?
Delta Cyber School (Alaska, USA)
UPDATE 3/5/01 - This site has been removed.
NorthStar Academy (USA)
www.northstar-academy.org/
This attractive 'private' cyber school provides curriculum for three different countries. NorthStar UK is a 'community of learners in an online context. It is not a school, neither is it a conventional home education. We aspire to create a new institutional context within which learning can take place'.
- The curriculums of three countries are provided for at this school? Which three?
- What is the religious orientation of NorthStar Academy?
- What is the name of the Director of the UK branch?
cyber.school (USA)
www.cyberschool.4j.lane.edu/
UPDATED 24/4/01: The original web page was removed, and this new site is the nearest equivalent. Questions regarding the old site have therefore been removed.
Nae Sung Cyber School (Korea)
- UPDATED 1/5/01 - SITE HAS BEEN MOVED/REMOVED
.
Doon Cyber School (Ontario, Canada)
www.sentex.net/~monteim/doon/cybersch.htm
- What is happening to the classrooms at this school at the moment?
worldschool (Australia)
www.worldschool.com
- Go to the section 'for teachers'. There are staffing vacancies at this school: how many 'types' of work are listed? (Note the marked difference of these positions with those of a traditional school).
- Go to the section 'about worldschool'. This describes worldschool as 'your personal ----------- -------------'. What are the two missing words?
- Look at the section 'for investors'. How many people are featured in the graphic?
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