I spent a couple days this week at the IAGC Conference in Illinois. There is a big push toward offering online courses for gifted learners. These tend to be kids who want to take more classes than they have time for in school, so online and hybrid classes are one solution to that problem. It is also a way to offer them courses on topics that don't fit into the traditional school curriculum. I listened to one presenter talking about a middle school student who wanted to study food allergies, so she and an instructor designed an online independent study course, bringing in a doctor who would meet online with the student and the instructor throughout the course to help advise, and allowing the student to pursue her area of curiosity without having to seek out an opportunity in a different school or district.
This is where I see myself using an online certification.We are talking in my district about the lack of STEM courses available for students in the elementary and intermediate schools. There is some conversation about building some of those courses out for students who would take them either during the summer or outside of the school day. We've talked in the past about online remediation classes for students during the summer - kids who could benefit from extra practice during the summer but can't do summer school for any number of reasons.
Our district currently has over a dozen online and hybrid classes in place, but they are mostly for high school students. At this point I don't think any are even offered at the intermediate level. I'd love to see this expand, so I am hoping to be a part of bringing that opportunity into the intermediate and upper elementary grades as well.
On another note, our district is currently using Google Apps and Google Drive for all students from 7th grade through high school. As we were looking back at the features in Drive and Google Docs I was thinking of how many times this year my work with my 3rd and 4th graders would have been made so much easier if they had access to Google Docs. I know the goal is to make that happen in the next couple years in our district, but it is not possible right now. Keeping my fingers crossed!!
