Things to Love About Online Learning

Lesson Plan - Get It!

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When it comes to technology in the homeschool, many parents voice valid concerns about increased screen time and self-paced courses, where students are not challenged appropriately.

However, online homeschool options are expanding, and online learning is no longer limited to textbooks reformatted to fit your screen, and basic questions to answer using online forms. Self-paced online courses can be wonderful, but the instruction and feedback of a live teacher can help make the lessons dynamic and more engaging.

Live, online learning allows real-time interaction with teachers and peers, as well as expanded opportunities to engage in course content in meaningful ways.

Digital learning is no longer a presentation of isolated skills minus meaningful content, nor a vehicle for prepping students for high-stakes testing as it was just a short while ago when this author worked in public education. Parents and students now drive curriculum options by demanding web-based learning that is student-centered, adaptive, and creative, both in its content and its presentation.

The enormous growth in homeschooling and online charter schooling has forced course developers to consider carefully what a student should be able to learn and do in the online classroom environment. Live online courses are a terrific homeschool option, because they present students with a purpose for integrating technology into content-area studies while fostering real development of the very same tools and skills commonly used by adults in the 21st-century world.