Best Practice

The problems with virtual schooling

Classroom ICT
Virtual schools are common in America and their role is being increasingly debated in the UK. Psychologist Dr Stephanie Thornton considers the implications of this model of learning and issues a warning.

What will the schools of the future look like? How will they operate? Modern technology is offering radical new possibilities for education which are only just beginning to be realised. 

Why invest in thousands of teachers of variable effectiveness, when online resources can offer the very best of the best to all? 

Why leave responsibility for children’s progress to teachers in under-resourced classrooms, trying to offer something that will meet the needs of 30 different individuals, when computerised teaching systems can be exquisitely tailored to meet each individual’s needs? 

Why congregate children in brick-and-mortar schools at all, when the traffic congestion (and green-house gasses) associated with the school run, and the problems of bullying and other anti-social alignments can all be avoided by delivering that education to the child’s home – or to some smaller, localised facility?

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