February 2007 — Features
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eLearning :: Going the Distance
Offering benefits of convenience, independence, and even improved academic performance, virtual schools promise to be here for the long haul.
MICAH WILLIAMS HAD A PROBLEM.
His attendance at Lutheran High School in Orange County, CA, was down, and, a young actor, he had missed his middle school graduation in order to fly to Vancouver, British Columbia, to appear in a movie. It seemed as if he had to make a choice: acting or getting an education. As it turned out, his mother made the choice for him: both. She enrolled him at Orange Lutheran High School Online.
Now Micah logs in to OLO and does pretty much what traditional "ground school" students do: He reads background material, engages in discussions with other students, takes tests, asks questions of his teachers, and hands in assignments. He logs in at least Monday through Friday, at any time of the day from anywhere he has computer access, so he has time to pursue his acting career and get an education, too.
Ironically, it's the virtual interaction with other students that he's most excited about. "You can basically talk to any student you want to," Micah says, acknowledging that "talk" means type. "We talk all the time about everything."
Online education has been a great solution, and it's one that is working for a number of students whose circumstances bear little resemblance to Micah's. Consider Dan Hathaway, a freshman from Tennessee. Dan's an only child; his dad is a lieutenant stationed in Iraq; and he and his mother run a farm, which makes attending a bricks-and-mortar school difficult. Instead, he takes courses through OLO. He's carrying straight A's. And last November, he sent fellow students photos of calves being born.
The OLO student body consists of a mix of kids who have turned to eLearning for a variety of reasons. Some—called "blended students"—go to Lutheran High School, or one of many schools across the country, and use OLO to supplement their regular coursework. Others take online classes exclusively, and so are actually enrolled in the online high school.OLO's curriculum comes from Lutheran High; the teachers come from the University of Phoenix and from a pool of Lutheran High educators; the funding comes from tuition.
Other OLO students include a nationally rated ice skater who lives on a ranch in Nebraska, a hockey player who travels all over the country, and a student who has had a kidney transplant and isn't sufficiently mobile to attend a regular high school. All benefit tremendously from taking classes online.
