Topic 2

According to some, distance education did not start with virtual schools as someone might think. Instead it started with sending student materials through the mail beginning in 1840. People have different definitions for distance education. The definition given by Verduin and Clark (1991) states that distance education (DE) occurs while students and teachers are separated, which supports the idea that DE has been around since 1840. Others include the internet as part of the definition for (DE) and, obviously, this would not fit into the timeline that dates back to 1840.

I support the idea that students must achieve equivalent outcomes to justify providing educational choices. Before reading the information on this topic, I was under the impression that online schools have a low student performance. I did not have this belief myself, but rather this was my thought when I read the activity I had to do for topic 2. Then, as I was reading the information for this topic, I found out that studies show no significant difference between the performance and outcome of students in brick and mortar schools and online schools. I was appalled at this finding.

Another concern of online learning is whether distance education can provide differentiated instruction to include advanced placement and opportunities for students with special needs. From what I have seen, most schools offer these types of programs for student success. I think that is the beauty of online learning because they can focus more on individualized instruction with the help of curriculum providers, like K12 Inc.

The previous issues mentioned have apparently been concerns for a while and studies have shown that student performance is virtually the same for distance education and brick and mortar schools. I think the underlying issue is people are afraid of change and technology is ever-changing. These issues probably will not go away because some people will always fear the unknown.