Julie Bollich

Virtual Schools, Equity for All 

          In Thomas More’s Utopia the issue of how people earn an education was addressed by the people of the community.  People learned about agriculture by joining other morning laborers in their daily work, or they were encouraged to pursue their other interests by naturally gravitating towards those pursuits by attending public lectures or by reading particular literature.  This idea of giving the individual a choice in their educational goals and the ability to set the pace in their individual learning, while still looking to an educational model and to other members of the community, has been adopted as a practical educational framework in today’s technological society. Many high schools now offer online classes or virtual schools in an effort to provide more options for busy, struggling or unmotivated students. In 2005, “throughout the nation there [were] at least 30 cyber charter schools in twelve different states” (Fisher 1).

            Do virtual schools, however, provide a type of utopia for students and teachers?  This question first piqued my interest when studying the variety of utopias found in literature. I began to apply the characteristics of utopias to the relevant world.  Technology, in a sense, has leveled the playing field when it comes to learning because everyone has access to the same amount of information.  In the less digital past, students and teachers had to spend hours upon hours in the library researching topics of interest.  Now, the Internet, educational databases, and online forums allow easy access for solid research and provide information in much less time. 

            As a teacher of high school English, I have a personal interest in the value of online classes and the idea that these virtual classes could be viewed as a type of utopia.  Are tools such as Blackboard, E-Chalk, and other course building sites a positive alternative for the future of classrooms? Or is there a danger of creating more of a dystopia in trying to create the perfect learning environment?  I believe that virtual schools do not promote a “we” over “I” attitude like the workers found in Ayn Rand’s dystopic Anthem do, but instead allow the student the opportunity to be an individual, a group learner and an active participant in the learning experience. 

Benefits of the Blog

    Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy is another utopian novel that exemplifies the advantage of knowing history in order to improve the future.  A blog is a way of looking backward because once you post something it is always available to reread and improve upon. The blogs, discussion boards, or listservs are ways that students communicate with each other and their teachers about a variety of class topics in the virtual classroom setting. Teachers create a forum with a topic for discussion, and students are graded on their participation and thoughtfulness of responses.  This type of communication allows all students to participate and their voices to be heard.  Very often in the traditional “brick and mortar” classroom, only a small percentage of students actually participate in class discussions for a variety of reasons, such as personality types, teachers’ lecture styles, limited English language proficiencies or differences in students’ cultures. The utopian classroom, on the other hand, allows all voices the equal opportunity to participate and to be heard. 

    Students can also upload documents for their classmates to critique before submitting the final product to their teacher.  This type of criticism provides an important kind of anonymity and seems to lead to more honest and useful feedback.

    The following website is an essay that highlights some interesting statistics concerning the usefulness of employing listservs in a virtual classroom, as well as, aptly defines the perimeters for creating an online community within a web based classroom. The author also briefly compares the virtual classroom to a utopia. http://www.curtisrogers.info/wbi.html

Real Time Chat

    A little off topic, but I have to mention this recent observation - a cliché only becomes such whenever a phrase has been overused by the general public.  I think, then, that clichés must have been invented by a utopian society because the general public conceded that a particular phrase must be kept in the vernacular due to its poignancy and relevance to occasion. With that being said, imagine that you are sitting in the comfort of your home and simultaneously debating a topic of interest with someone in your literature class, while your teacher (who is also relaxing at home) is moderating the discussion.  This technological miracle is known as a chat room.  Just as in the use of the blog, the chat room allows students to participate in discussions but functions more as a live conversation.  The quality of the discussion is livelier than in a basic forum setting, but the pace is more in accordance with the speed of each student’s individual typing skills.  I have personally used the real time chat as an extra feature in my English classes for students who need extra help or tutorials.  Other teachers are giving this as an alternative option from actually having to physically attend the “brick and mortar” classroom.  Disabled students now have access to quality instructors and can feel more confident in their discussions when participating in an equalizing community of online learners. 

Games and Group Searches Are The Way To Go

     In the utopian novel Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, children are passionate about their learning. They do not realize that they are learning because the teachers have turned the educational objectives into games.

     Several new applications are being used in fun and innovative ways to initiate group research and participation, such as the program Second Life, an online virtual world with the use of avatars and 3-dimensional environments.  The University of Houston Clear Lake is currently implementing Second Life into their writing center as a new form of tutorials and online help. The following links give a little more information on other educational uses for Second Life in the classroom.  http://www.gamertell.com/gaming/tag/utopia/

http://www.vlearn3d.org/conference/abstracts.html

     Blackboard, a web-enhanced classroom building program, has an extremely helpful feature that allows students to be assigned to an e-group (electronic group) in which they can search the same websites at the same time with the use of tools such as real time chat and other features as well.  This has been an effective tool for the busy student who finds it difficult to meet at neutral locations with their group members in order to complete group research and projects. Group work in a utopian classroom looks much different from the traditional form because all students have to participate and not slack off because their contributions to the group can easily be monitored and digitally tracked by the teacher and other group members.

Utopian Teachers

     The perfect teacher would be able to dedicate her time to each and every student and be available at all hours of the day to answer questions and provide specific tutelage to individual student needs.  The advent of e-mail has allowed this to be possible.  An open communication with the teacher has been established with the use of e-mail, which is beneficial for both the teacher and the student. Of course, the other technological advances that have been previously discussed in relation to online learning also contribute to the idea of a utopian teacher, but the powerful simplicity of e-mail cannot be ignored. 

    Contrary to popular belief among people not in the educational field, being a teacher of a virtual classroom, or even a teacher who only uses some of the web-enhanced tools available to them, “will add a significant amount of work to the instructor's daily routine” (Hsu).  The utopian teacher will be constantly editing, revising, and updating their class webpage, as well as, responding on a more individual basis to their students, either through e-mail or by facilitating online discussion forums and chat rooms.  I found an interesting podcast discussing the idea of a utopian teacher and the effects of virtual classrooms at the following web address.

http://www.xplanazine.com/2005/09/utopian-teachers-in-online-learning-environments

          Certainly, there are problems encountered whenever discussing the establishment of a utopia, but the greatest underlying reason that people are so drawn to them and why they are still being studied today is because they offer hope for a better future.  Opposing arguments in the establishment of virtual classrooms are as follows:  not all students may have access to a computer, there are differences in individual computer skills and abilities, and there are some funding issues and competition paranoia’s among the traditional “brick and mortar” schools (Fisher 6).  

            Despite these negatives, however, I feel that there will be a rise in student/teacher participation in online classes and that the virtual classroom is a positive model of a utopian ideal.  Further research does need to be done in order to provide more than anecdotal and basic data analysis, but my personal experience in using online classroom features has been positive, and I will continue to perfect teaching, learning and the use of technology to challenge my students in equitable and interesting ways. 

Bibliography

Fisher, Koryn. "Virtual Schools". Associated Content. June 20, 2009             <http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/451/virtual_schools.html?cat=4>.

Hsu, Sam. "How to Design a Virtual Classroom". The Journal Sep. 99, Vol. 27, Issue 2:             96-97.