The Sunday Star Times today featured an article (which, ironically, I can't find on the online version) about small New Zealand schools taking advantage of online learning opportunities. The gist of the story is that small rural schools that aren't able to physically provide the teachers for a broad range of subjects, are able to provide online courses in these subject areas.
The upside, according to parents and students, is that it is more motivating to learn through an online environment. This coincides with a feature article from the other New Zealand Sunday paper, The New Zealand Herald. Deborah Coddington highlights the underachievement of many New Zealand students. She suggests that underachievers should be provided with a broader range of strategies to motivate them, one of which being online learning.
At my own school we support class programmes with online strategies, two of which being for Te Reo Maori and French. The sites are an excellent way to reinforce class content and to prepare for upcoming units of work.
I was browsing the internet for blogs related to certificate iv in training and assessment and I came across your blog. Anyway, one of the best part of online learning is that, aside from saving these students from dropping out, is that many of them go on to higher education, and they have credited their experience with online learning in helping them to succeed. They have built up their self esteem, they learn that they can succeed at something if they really try, and they develop the self-discipline necessary to succeed beyond high school.
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