One of the best things about online learning for students is
the increased accessibility for their parents.
How often have you had parents send in notes asking how to do a certain
type of math problem? Some of the
curriculum today is quite different than what we learned in school. For example, in Virginia Beach, we teach
lattice multiplication. I often have to
send home extra worksheets explaining to parents how to draw a lattice and
where to place the numbers, just so they can assist with homework. Even doing that, I still have parents that
don’t understand because it’s such a different way of multiplying than they are
used to. Fast-forward a couple of days
and I have half the class not using lattice multiplication because their
parents taught them a different way.
Enter online learning.
Perhaps parents, like their children, are visual learners and need to
see a solution worked out for them. If I
taped a microlecture on lattice multiplication or created a screencast, then
made it available on a classroom website, the parents can then go on and view
the videos as many times as they would like until they were comfortable helping
their student. It’s not just math that
online learning works for increasing parent involvement either. Parents can benefit from viewing online class
work in any subject to stay informed of what is going on in the classroom. Studies have shown that parent involvement
has a major affect on student success both in the traditional and the online
classroom (iseek.org). If parents can
have such an impact on our students’ success, wouldn’t it be best to give them
as many tools as possible to do so? And
to make those tools easily accessible from home in the online format?
Up Next: Oh, the Possibilities…
Resources:
Supporting Online Learners' Success. (n.d.). ISEEK.
Retrieved September 26, 2014, from http://www.iseek.org/education/supportstudents.html
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