Throughout my
school career, including college, high school, and even middle and elementary
school, I have personally been exposed to the virtual classroom in some form
throughout my developmental years.
In elementary and
middle school this came in the form of the Advanced Reading (AR) tests that
comprised an entire curriculum for me for four years. The AR program was a
simpler version of what I have now in that it did not offer any interaction
with teachers and other students or get feedback on my work from professors.
Instead the AR program was a simple test that I was periodically required to
take on a computer in my school’s computer lab. The test questions would be
about a book that I had recently read and the grade I would get would be based
on how many points I would get on all of the tests (which was based on the
difficulty of the book and how many questions I got right) out of the preset
goal that the teacher’s decided I had to reach for a school quarter.
After I graduated
middle school I wasn’t exposed to virtual school again until my junior year of
high school in which I took a Florida Virtual School (FLVS) class that is more
typical of a current virtual classroom. I had an instructor who consistently
gave me feedback on my course work and would even schedule a few phone calls
with me and the rest of her students to discuss the course, how we where doing,
and what was expected of us for the rest of the course. In high school this was
a great way to get the extra credit I needed to graduate without any scheduling
conflicts with my other face to face classes.
After high school
in my sophomore year of college I started taking online classes again,
primarily in communications courses. I have taken three online classes and one
of them I am currently taking. In college these are especially convenient because
they don’t clutter up my already hectic school schedule and job. The
flexibility of the virtual classroom gives me plenty of opportunities to work
on my own and build time management skills as well as the skills I was learning
from the class.
Overall, my
personal experience with the virtual classroom has been an overall positive one
and I am more of a proponent of it because it has worked well for me an my
inflexibility when it comes to schedules.
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