Online Courses and Other things

The most recent phaedrus post mirrors, in my own experience, what happens with a lot of people who are new to technology and have to take an online course. The article also mentions the obvious point that those most in need of an education, do not have access to the newest way that most of our educational resources are being devoted toward. We need to meet those students where they are, not force them to come to us. Free GED courses, taught in person, during odd hours because most of the people who need them don't have the education to land a traditional 9-5 job, are a god-send and one of the main reasons that in-person classes will never die. What we need to do as teachers is, just like the instructor who taught the dyslexic man to read by thinking visually, is to ASK THE STUDENT the 5 W's and the H, about their own education. If they only want to get enough education to fix cars, then point them in the direction of the nearest GED Center and a training/tech school such as Universal Technical Institute, or their own nearest community college. If they want to do more, we address those needs as they come up. Not everyone wants or needs a full college degree to get what they want out of life. While there are a lot of media and creative positions being developed in the new economy, somebody's still gotta be around when those people who are being creative have their car's transmission go out, their A/C freeze over, their toilet backs up, etc. I worked at a school a few years back where every kid hated traditional reading and writing but could diagnose problems with vehicles just by the sound it was making. I began to feel like the traditional model was doing them all a disservice. Maybe we can modify some of the voucher programs people talk about to, lets say, at 16, the student can opt out of the last two years of school, get a certificate, and then go on to a tech school. It is much better than forcing them through the high school meat grinder and then having them so turned off they either drop out when they hit the legal age and get on the government dole, or worse. Let them do what they want, and be productive, break the generational cycle of ignorance rampant in many of our rural areas.