評論
打印
Is Network Virtual Schools Really Well?
網絡虛擬學校到底好不好？
Forty-two of the fifty American states offered some kind of public online learning this past school year. One state, Michigan, now requires all students to have an online learning experience before they finish high school.
過去的一個學年，美國50個州中有42個州提供了某種形式的公共網上學習。現在，密歇根州要求所有學生在高中畢業之前都有網絡學習經歷。
Even the idea of a school has changed since the rise of the Internet in the nineteen nineties.
自90年代互聯網興起以來，學校的理念甚至都已經發生了變化。
A new report from the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University says eighteen states have full-time virtual schools. There are no buildings. All classes are online.
印第安納大學評估和教育政策中心一份新的報告稱，18個州擁有全日制虛擬學校，沒有校舍，所有的課程都是在網絡上學習。
Online learners might work at different times. But there might be set times for class discussions — by text, voice or video — and virtual office hours for teachers.
網絡學院可以在不同的時間學習，但是課堂討論必須在既定的時間進行——通過短信、音頻或視頻——對于教師來說也有固定的虛擬工作時間。
Flofida started the first statewide public virtual school in the United States in nineteen ninety-seven.
1997年，佛羅里達開設了美國首個全州范圍的公里虛擬學校。
Today, the Florida Virtual School offers more than ninety courses. Fifty-six thousand students were enrolled as of December. Almost sixty percent were female. The school's Web site says each student was enrolled in an average of two classes.
今天，佛羅里達虛擬學校提供了90多門課程。截止到12月份，已有5.6萬名學生入學，其中接近60%的學生是女性。該學校網站稱，每個學生都參加平均兩個班級。
Two-thirds were also enrolled in public or charter schools. Charter schools are privately operated with public money. Other students are home-schooled or in private school.
三分之二的學生同時還在公立學校或政府特許學校就讀。政府特許學校由私人運營，但是由公眾提供資金。其他學生則在家接受教育或在私立學校就讀。
Florida Virtual School has now opened the Florida Virtual Global School. Students in other countries pay for classes. Janet Heiking teaches an English class. She lives in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her students live as far away as Africa and Japan.
佛羅里達虛擬學校現在開設了佛羅里達虛擬全球學校。其他國家的學生繳納費用來學習。珍妮特·海靖是一個英語班的教師。她住在印第安納州的印第安納波利斯。她的學生則遠在非洲甚至日本。
So how good are virtual schools? Students have shown mixed results, as that new report from Indiana University notes.
那么，虛擬學校到底怎么樣呢？印第安納大學這份報告指出，研究表明，表明學校水平參差不齊。
For example, students at Florida Virtual School earned higher grades than those taking the same courses the traditional way. And they scored higher on a statewide test.
例如，佛羅里達虛擬學校的學生比按照傳統方法學習同樣課程的學生取得的分數更高。在全州的考試中，他們的分數也更高。
But virtual school students in Kansas and Colorado had lower test scores or performed at a lower level than traditional learners.
但是，堪薩斯和科羅拉多虛擬學校的學生則比傳統的學生得分更低，表現更差。
Educaiton experts say the mixed results suggest the need for more research to find the best ways to teach in virtual schools. Also, they say schools of education need to train more teachers to work in both physical and virtual classrooms.
教育專家表示，這些表現不一的結果表明，需要進行更多的研究來發現最佳的虛擬學校教學方法。同時，他們說，教育類學校需要培養更多教師，能夠同時在實體和虛擬教室授課。
