Ch. 5 Reflection

The chapter begins by stating that while "locked in place" (or traditional) schools will be in existence for many years to come, additional avenues of education have begun to emerge. One of these is home schooling. It has been popular for about 25 years and has increased 29% in the last four years and is continuing to gain popularity. There are two home school associations, one liberal and one conservative. Both believe that the family should hold the responsibility for educating the children, worry about peer pressure and violence in schools, and feel children will learn better at home. Parents work with their children 3-4 hours a day at the most. They may also send their children to schools or colleges to receive instruction on specific topics by a service provider, hire tutors, join a home school group, or take online courses. Joining a home school group allows parents to be able to work part time if desired. When parents teach, they do not think of themselves as experts (like teachers) but as coaches, placing more of the responsibility to learn on the child. Will most families be able to take advantage of home schooling? Not unless this system changes because it requires one parent to stay at home (or work only part time) and support the child in his/her learning, which many families cannot afford to do. This interests me because I have considered home schooling if I have children.

Another avenue to experience learning occurs in the workplace. This allows all people to learn and continue their education. Workplace learning entails businesses paying for their employees to learn needed training (put on a CD for easy use on a computer—a computer simulation) in order to “keep up” and be more efficient workers.

An additional avenue of learning is distance learning. This occurs when people can take classes online. An example is the University o Phoenix, an online college. Some high schools and colleges provide online courses for their students. There is now a push for this in even younger grades. Some school districts are even pushing for virtual high schools. Distance learning has been gaining popularity in recent years.

Still another form of learning can be found in adult education. This gives older people an opportunity to take courses. It has been gaining popularity as people have been living longer, healthier lives and provides people with an opportunity to continue learning throughout their lives.

Visiting a privately owned learning center is another option. Currently, these centers provide test prep courses (for the SAT, ACT, GRE, etc.), tutoring, and access to technology for those with very limited access. Examples include Sylvan, Princeton Review and Kaplan. These could be an alternative to attending a traditional high school.

There are also educational television shows and video games. I am weary about using these in my classroom excessively. Although these can be beneficial, I think students sit in front of the TV and at the computer for too long and should spend more time outdoors as well. Computer-based software (CD-ROM) is another way people can learn.

Yet another way to learn outside of traditional school is to earn a GED. In competition with this and traditional schools are technical certifications, exams that certify people in technical skills for computer-based careers.

Internet cafes (or coffee shops) provide people with yet another avenue for learning. The book refers to them as the “libraries of the future” in that they provide access to many resources through use of the Internet.

All of these options help people to become lifelong learners.

Technology is changing the way people, not just children, are learning. Technology will play a part in my classroom, but I am not sure to what degree at this point. I need to see what all is out there and I also need instruction on how to use it.