Online learning offers flexibility

Online learning used to mean sitting in front of a computer and click, click, clicking, page after mindnumbing page.

But over the past few years, online classes for high school students have evolved into a highly interactive, flexible way to learn. There are also opportunities to engage in social activities, internships, clubs and community service.

Students in grades 6 to 12 can attend school online full time or part time. All their courses and electives, even physical education, are available.

“At first, online classes were seen as different and in conflict with the traditional classroom,” said Daryl Diamond, director of innovative learning for Broward schools. “Now they are seen as a solution.”

Students log in to their custom-made accounts each day and view a series of lessons. They can learn as much or as little as they choose, although a teacher stays in communication with regular phone conversations and monitors their work to make sure they remain on a schedule. The students can finish a course quicker than expected or

take longer than scheduled; most of the courses have extra time built in for finishing, Diamond said.

The content is constantly evolving with more interactivity, with recent additions such as live virtual classrooms that show an instructor in front of a web cam, teaching and taking live questions from students.

The virtual schools offer frequent social activities, online and in-person, such as National Honor Society, Future Educators of America and Creative Photography Club. In Palm Beach County, parents socialize at in-person networking events, students go on field trips and middleand high-school students meet a few times a month for in-person sessions with their teachers.

Florida Virtual School opened in 1996; Broward Virtual School opened in 2001. Broward has 80 instructors who teach in the virtual system, which educated 15,000 students last year. Only about 400 were full time, Diamond said.

Palm Beach Virtual School has grown from four full-time teachers nine years ago to 14 who teach more than 16,000 students today, Principal Debra Johnson said. The sector taking classes from home, charter and private schools has also grown tremendously, from about 1,600 three years ago to more than 4,000 today, she said.

Reasons for choosing an online education run the gamut: Perhaps a student plays tennis competitively and needs to take classes at night or on weekends. Or a student who has been suspended needs to keep up with the class material. Other possibilities: A class is not available at a particular school or a chronic illness prevents a student from attending traditional classes.

Penina Bredoff, of Boca Raton, moved her son, Nate, into Palm Beach Virtual School two years ago when he was being bullied in middle school. He began taking his four core classes online, logging in each morning from February through May.

“He would figure out each day what he needed to accomplish, stop for lunch, finish each section and get on the phone with the teacher after each section,” Bredoff said. “He was grateful to be taken out of a bad situation and given some control over his life.”

Still, the family wanted him back in a traditional school, and he was reassigned to a different middle school when school started the next year.

Florida requires that students take at least one class online before graduation. Some classes offer a combination of online and in-person, such as auto repair, which requires attendance three days a week, and cosmetology, which requires two days a week.

For more information about Palm Beach Virtual School, go to k12.com /palmbeach. For Broward, go to broward.k12.fl .us/bved/.

“At first, online classes were seen as different and in conflict with the traditional classroom. Now they are seen as a solution.” Daryl Diamond, director of innovative learning for Broward schools