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After schools reopened, some students chose to continue with virtual learning. How’s it going for them?
Good morning.
Celia Jiménez here, thinking about the future of education and wondering if it will go fully virtual. After all, screens have become an important tool in our daily lives. We use them for all kinds of purposes, from entertainment and communication to attending doctor appointments.
I’m thinking about this because of the cover story that I wrote for this week’s print edition of the Weekly, which is all about remote learning, and the students and families who have chosen to continue learning from home even as schools have reopened after the pandemic shutdown.
I’ll admit that I was skeptical about virtual learning at first, but also curious. That curiosity motivated me to learn more about it and share my findings in this week’s cover story. The parents and kids I spoke with praised virtual learning and said the outcomes and school experience were the opposite of what they experienced during remote learning when the Covid-19 restrictions started, when schools were forced to go virtual without much preparation. Now, kids are learning and they don’t need constant parental supervision or aid. Kids can spend time with classmates or other kids outside of school. Kids also liked the focus on hands-on experience, field trips and the flexibility to move around or eat their favorite foods.
During the pandemic and even today, many questioned if virtual learning is good for kids' socioemotional skills, but parents whose kids are in Salinas City and Alisal virtual academies say they haven’t seen a negative impact. Their kids have multiple opportunities—church, parks, playdates—to play and socialize with their classmates and other kids outside of school.
Educators say virtual learning expands students’ alternatives in ways that may work better with how they learn and interact with others. Doroty Gonzalez told me she enrolled her son Adrian, 7, in in-person learning but he was falling behind. He switched to online learning during the first months of the school year, and now he’s thriving.
Virtual learning can be a better option for students facing challenges at school such as bullying, a need for additional accommodations, or those who are not learning at the pace they should be for an in-person setting.
Parents can enroll their kids in virtual learning and test it out, to see if it would be a good fit for their children. William Franzell, the principal at Alisal Virtual Academy, recommends doing this for a few weeks toward the end of the school year. (AVA is open for all first- through sixth-grade students in Monterey County).
At the end of the day, the best mode of education will depend on the needs of the individual student. But I was impressed with the in-person and hands-on activities that students at virtual academies take part in, and it’s nice that many families now have different options. I even suggested my sister consider a virtual academy for her daughter Vivian, who will soon start attending school. She’s four and will start transitional kindergarten this fall—who knows how education will evolve over her years in the (virtual?) classroom.
-Celia Jiménez, staff writer, celia@mcweekly.com
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