Monday, April 09, 2007

Research Supporting Dropouts...its about time

Okay, so this study isn't scientific, and dang it, I've got no time to write more on this, but I had to post the link Study Says Drop out of school (via digg). The link goes to this blog.
As a father of 3 kids, all in school, this does not surprise me. They have my kids for six hours a day and can't seem to teach them anything...whats up with that?
Anyone interested in starting a virtual school? I figure between ELGG, mediawiki, MOODLE, Secondlife, and now Elluminate, we can get some serious educating done on the cheap. Teachers could make a heck of a lot more money...and all would be right with the world.
Teachers could compete on the open market for students. If I want Miss Jones in Australia to teach 2nd grade math to my second grader then I pay her and we use the technology to connect and make that happen. Miss Jones manages her own schedule and as many students as she can handle for let's say $100/month per kid, and she's tech savvy enought to support 50 kids from around world effectively...I believe that would be a significant pay increase. Can anyone verify? ;-)

2 comments:

Garrick Ducat said...

Brent,

Add a blogging interface that works better than the interface in Moodle and count me in. Might as well throw in Google Apps so that the email communication would be reliable as well.

Imagine an immense web resource like rateaprof.com that would allow prospective students an opportunity to review and critique an educator. When I was in elementary and high school I always got stuck with the most dreaded instructors (at the time this was my belief). Then when I got to college and was told I could pick not only the class time but also the professor that I wanted, I almost dropped to my knees.

If that same system could be implemented within a virtual school where students would simply have to look for the courses they wanted and register if seats were available. If not they could either select another class or perhaps be placed on a wait list.

I could see state governments endorsing such an initiative considering how easily course objectives and outcomes could be reviewed, documented and analyzed.

Sign me up:)
Garrick

Jane Banks said...

Brent,

You are tack-on with this solution! When you are ready for a "Lead Learner" and implementation please let me know.
Jane


Also, I left you a message last week-ish via Squidoo previously...not sure if you've received it.