Make Online Course Alternatives Mandatory

Today, there’s a lot of pressure placed on schools to teach more math sooner. The first Algebra course that most of us took was likely during freshman or sophomore year. Today, there is preparation for those courses from the earliest grades, with an Algebra I course at the 7th or 8th. Let’s face it, math isn’t easy for most kids, and beyond that, it really depends on how it’s taught in order for students to succeed. The same can be said for all courses, but math in particular, is a challenge. That said, a student turned off to any subject needs alternatives, and can get them today.

I remember that math was always a struggle for me, and it seemed that I always did better with who and how the lessons were presented. I did really well in Algebra for that reason, and extremely poorly in geometry for the same reason. My Algebra teachers were young, amazing, and engaging when the only interactive device was the chalkboard. On the other hand, my geometry lecturer never sold me on solving the puzzles. I started out lost, never caught up, and was unfortunate enough to have the same person teaching my make-up summer course. Therefore, the gift of what I learned in Algebra was never unwrapped in geometry—until much later—and because of my own interests. Thank goodness online learning makes us all capable of lifelong quests for knowledge—even making up for what we’ve missed. I sort of get the geometry puzzles now.

How are students in schools, today, getting their math skills. I was thinking that because online classes are so accessible, students who didn’t quite mesh with traditional classroom instructors would have more opportunity to get motivated. I would have given anything if an alternative had been offered to me. Online makes sense for that alternative today.

I’m also concerned for smaller districts with smaller schools and therefore smaller school populations. We need to keep pushing for Internet connections and bandwidth for them. I hate the excuse that rural districts are too far out, in the middle of nowhere, to get access to the fastest and best bandwidth today. Just think of the online possibilities for offering specifically designed and challenging online courses beyond those given by someone who is teaching math, science, and all the arts, because the one-room schoolhouse approach is still the most affordable—or the only learning possibility. Imagine what could happen with online courses. I’ll bet there are quite a few students thinking like I did—wondering why they aren’t smart enough to get what the teacher is saying—if only there was another way—to understand it. I really think online needs to be more than a consideration—it needs to be mandatory.

I asked Bryan Rogers, a Modesto High School online instructor, who has taken online courses from summer school interventions to a district-wide program, what he thought:

“We’re using Class.com for our Algebra course. I discovered that there was a major change in my role as teacher. I can, now, better focus on the needs of individual students, rather than on the particular parts of curriculum to be covered, in an arbitrary schedule of tasks to accomplish, and within a specified amount of time. That’s the most powerful piece of it—we can go fast or slow depending on the needs of the students.”