The Web and Internet are here to stay in K-12 Education

I most definitely think that the internet and web will have a major impact on educational programs at grades K-12. In fact, I believe the impact has already started.
Here in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, our schools are not schools of choice. This simply means that a parent cannot take a child out of school A and enroll him/her into school B (in the same county) without the permission of the superintendent from school A or paying a very high tuition rate at school B. Despite this, several schools in our county are competing for those ever-important federal dollars that students bring to a school. It is about $7,000 per enrolled student. Here is the catch. If a parent can provide a “good” reason for wanting their child to be released from a school district, the district will have to release him/her. Why am I telling you this? This is why. There are several schools in our county that cannot possibly compete with the bigger, better funded schools. These schools offer more. They have more foreign languages, AP classes, and college prep elective classes. The smaller schools don’t have the funds (or room) to offer these classes. Here is where the Internet and the Web come in. Through Michigan Virtual, a Web based program that offers foreign languages, AP classes and college prep classes, schools can offer their students any class that is found on this program. Now parents don’t have a “good” argument to move their child to a new school. Another advantage to this program is that smaller schools can produce better prepared students. All it takes is a computer lab, a lab monitor, and a Web based program called Michigan Virtual. (This is also available for homebased learners.)
Another advance I see in Internet and Web based learning are programs like Nova net. This Web based program can help students who have failed classes with traditional teachers get another chance at credit. Nova Net is a Web based program where students cover all of the state mandated high school curriculum for a specific class on a computer. The student works at his/her own pace with short lessons. Students can then go to the Internet to learn more about what they are learning. Each module of a class is broken down into exercises, which a student must pass with a predetermined percent of accuracy before continuing on to the next section. The results of assessments are immediate so the students get results and go on if they have passed or retake the section if they failed.
A final example is Study Island and other test prep Internet based programs. These are programs for learners of all ages and grade levels. These programs are similar to Michigan Virtual and Nova Net in that they teach interactive lessons and give feedback. The difference is that they are geared to different goals. The two programs mentioned above are used to help students achieve credit in high school courses. This program helps students to get better test scores on standardized tests. Teachers can use them both for specific instruction and to keep records of each students progress. The programs let the students go on at their own pace.
All of the above programs fit the criteria set forth in Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology, chapter 3, page 23. Reiser and Dempsey state that “in recent years there has been a significant increase in the use of instructional media”. The reasons they give for this increase mirror the qualities of the programs above. Specifically, “learners receive instruction and/or support…low-cost method of providing instruction to students…increased interactive capabilities.” The authors also state “with increasing multimedia capabilities”, schools can proved “more complex interactions between learners and content”. Their examples describe the Web based programs above. “feedback and problems presented has expanded, computers can present information in a variety of forms, and learners can link to various content.”
I believe the success and popularity of these programs are a taste of what we will see in the future. I still believe that a teacher is key in facilitating these programs, however, more classes will be taught through computers. The Web and Internet are the future of education.