Keep teachers in classrooms

Recently in a council of school councils or a meeting of parents, teachers, board members and central office staff, parents were asked to identify their priorities for the school division. One suggestion stays with me still. The parents comment was to keep teachers in the classroom and not switch to distance learning modules.

I understand his concern completely. He stated simply, "I want someone to teach my child the lessons."

Personally, I am a fan of the use of technology and of distance education, however I do understand what this man was saying. Distance education and online learning are only one style of learning and do not replace teacher taught lessons. The best lessons are those designed by teachers who work in a classroom everyday. The interaction between learner and teacher is very important and makes the difference between success and failure for most kids.

In developing programs for online education with Alberta Learning, one important lesson I learned is that you simply can not take a set of questions or instructions from a classroom setting and put them on the computer and have an effective online lesson. The two methods of instruction are completely different. Similarly a lesson designed for online instruction can not be simply be distributed to children in the classroom.

I understand that rural school systems are faced with challenges of offering a full complement of courses in small schools. For example if a school has only have 5 Physics 30 students in a year, how can the school afford to hire a qualified teacher to teach the course? They can't so they offer the course by distance education or online education. It's not the best way but it is a way.

It is a dilemma and I am not sure that I know the answer. Any suggestions?