If you happen to be the state of Minnesota, and if you happen to close down one of these diploma mills, you will be accused of failing to understand the beautiful educational synergy of online technology and fifteen year olds.
The Minnesota Department of Education has taken an unprecedented move to close an online charter school accused of graduating students improperly.
The department notified the West St. Paul-based BlueSky Online School on Thursday that it would sever the school’s contract with its overseer, a recourse the state has under recent charter legislation.
Don’t you love the idea of giving an online school the name BlueSky? It’s the one thing you’ll never see – you don’t even get to take short walks from one classroom to the next. Prison would be more like it.
Actually, prison’s an improvement. At least you get a cellmate.
Oh – and in its defense BlueSky says the following:
BlueSky has said the charges reflect a lack of understanding of online instruction.
Yes, let’s all get on board for the proper understanding of online high school instruction.
You take a teenager, see, isolate her in a room with full access to games, Facebook, YouTube, music, and the rest of the internet, and watch her learn algebra.
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UD thanks Michael for the link.
April 23rd, 2011 at 12:08PM
It sounds like you think that games, Facebook, YouTube, music, and the rest of the internet somehow prevent people from learning algebra. I think that online schools are completely ridiculous but not because technology makes people stupid. Actually, it does just the opposite. The problem with online high schools is that the socialization aspect, which is the most important aspect of any secondary education, is gone.
April 23rd, 2011 at 1:03PM
Clarissa: I agree with you that being with other people – this was my point about prison being better than an online school – is really important. Being with students as well as teachers.
But my point about the technology is not that it makes people stupid. It simply distracts people. Few teenagers have the self-discipline to follow an online course under these circumstances.
April 23rd, 2011 at 10:40PM
i am going to say i agree with both sides. i am 17 years old and graduating a year early because i paid to take extra classes that the state wouldnt cover. ( i did this so i could enlist in the army the day i turned 17). I am now however an enrolled student at bluesky. Yes you do not socialize and i find it hard to stay on task at times with the wide variety of things to do on the internet, but bluesky is a great school. The give a decent amount of homework and have teachers to call if you need help. As for graduating students that do not meet requirments i do not know, i only enrolled because i was 3 credits shy and i can work full time this way. But before you make judgements on something maybe you should get the truth by looking into it a little deeper. The news we see from media/television is great but what the army has tought me in the last year, is that television does not always have their facts right either. And for that matter sometimes they flat out lie, we are humans and it’s in our nature. But that is my say on the matter anyways.
April 23rd, 2011 at 11:58PM
david: Many thanks for your comment. I agree with you that one should look as deeply as possible at things in order to get at the truth. I am relying here on the state of Minnesota having done a good job of reviewing your school before taking the remarkable decision to shut it down.
Your situation at the school is of course atypical. You are picking up a few credits there; if I understand what you’re saying, you got the bulk of your high school education elsewhere (at a non-online school, I’m assuming). So we cannot learn much from your experience of the school.