"What happens when a school allows students to do some work at home?" (Kist 99)
In all actuality schools already do allow students to do work at home. Practically every night students have homework that they are to complete at home and bring back the night day. Not many people see a problem with that, yet they complain about students having to do work on Nings, Blogs, and Facebook. I personally see and understand both sides. First off, I'm not a huge fan of homework. Yes, I believe you need it, but some teachers think that they are just to teach the students how to do something and then everything else is to be done outside of the classroom. More times than not, I don't think teachers realize how much homework they assign. Students just have to try and complete all that they can. I'm not so sure what's the huge difference between allowing them to do homework, but not allowing them to work on their blogs. Blogs do require internet access and a lot of homes still do not have that access. This is something that more people need to be aware of. Just because you have something doesn't mean everyone else does. For this reason, I don't think blogs should be required for only outside of class work.
I'm not so much a fan of hybrid classes. I have had a few online classes in college, and that has helped me tremendously because I took them in the summer, so I wouldn't have to drive over two hours a day to take them on campus. I don't think that high school students are mature enough to learn on their own. Some may take it seriously, but a lot of students, I think, would spend the day goofing off and not really working on their assignment. In my hometown they have a program called Quaker Digital Academy. This program allows students that don't want to go to school to do their work at home. The academy gives them a laptop and pays for internet access for them. It sounds like a great idea, but who really wants to stay home all day and just do schoolwork? That's definitely not for me, but it works great for some students; although, some end up failing out because they aren't held accountable. Going back to the text, I was stunned when Liz said, "I don't ever talk in class. I don't lecture ever. I just sit next to kids. The class turns into a workshop" (Kist 101). Really? She doesn't ever talk in the classroom and just sits beside the students? You can have students leading the class and letting them learn on their own, but you need to speak. Where is personal face-to-face communication going to go if a teacher does not even speak in her own room? That comment outraged me, and makes me like hybrid classes even less.
I agree to some extent about the problem of students not having the internet being a problem. I do feel, however, that blogs and nings and such can be assigned as outside work. There are plenty of places where students can get internet. They can go to the school library during a study hall or a public library after school. I think the key if you want to assign it as outside work is to give them plenty of time to finish it. Don't expect them to be able to blog in a night. Give them a week so they have a chance to go somewhere if needed.
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