Pro vs. Con
Yes, students should take online classes
Kayla Summerville
Staff Writer
“I may be in my pajamas right now but I’m not going to bed, I’m going to college online to get a degree,” said Kelly Huddleston in an Education Connection commercial.
Kelly, along with many others these days, enjoys the luxury of going to college from the comfort of her own home. Also according to Illinois Virtual Campus, 72 different colleges in Illinois use the campus for online classes.
I do not know about you, but personally I would much rather be in my pajamas at home than sitting in school taking a required class. With the addition of online classes at Huntley next year, they will no longer be something we will have to wait until college to take.
According to Principal Dave Johnson there will be five classes at Huntley that will be available in a “blended” classroom. This means, for those classes, you will have the option to take them online instead of sitting in a classroom knowing that you could easily take that same class on your own time. One of the few downfalls, though, is that the online classes are limited to Biology (honors and regular), US History, Pre-calculus, Recent Fiction, and American Diversity.
The classes for the most part are simple classes that people can easily look up the information from home, even pre-calc, which sometimes is better to be explained. For someone like me, who has the tendency to tune out a teacher quickly and easily, looking things up on my own would benefit me far more than hearing an hour-long lecture over the same information.
“I think that history should be online because there’s lots of research online anyway, so it would be easier to have it all in one place,” said freshman Deni Alvarez.
Some people however, do not think that math classes should be online because if they do need someone to explain it to you then you would not be able to get much help. But with these blended classes, you could go into the teacher in charge of the online class and ask for more help if you need it.
The online classes would be beneficial to a majority of kids because they will allow your school schedule to be freer. So instead of taking that boring class that you have to take in school, you could take a more exciting class during the day.
“With online classes it easier to find time to focus on studies,” said Alvarez, “it would also be less stressful trying to cram everything into one day.”
These online classes would also serve as an easy way to get your mandatory credits out of the way. They may not be the most structured class but that could also be a good thing for those who can not sit still for long. Junior Nichole Best is one who has taken an online Pre-Calculus class and found it an easy way to get the needed credit.
“Because the online classes aren’t that structured of a class you have to discipline yourself,” said Best, “but there would be more people graduating faster and would eliminate schedule conflicts.”
It is not just students who are in favor of these online classes either. US History and American Diversity teacher, Shandon Nixon is being considered to be in charge of an online American Diversity next year.
“The online classes would create opportunities for students to get the level of learning they will see in the future,” said Nixon, “also depending on the class, the online classes could improve the content of the discussions.”
A better discussion environment is one of the big reasons I would prefer online classes to regular classes. There are so many times that a class discussion is limited to those five people in the class who always raise their hands and never those who do not because the fear of talking in front of the class. With the online classes though more people would be involved which means a much better discussion.
“There’s a lot of education at our fingertips that we can access at any degree that we want,” said Nixon, “we don’t have to depend on someone for it.”
As a human race, we have come up with so many new things, from the first printing press to the first computer, online classes in high school is just bound to be the next in line.
No, students should not take online classes
Mitch Urban
Staff Writer
It is a Thursday afternoon when you are on your way to your next hour class. You walk into the room and share a few words with a few classmates about last night’s assignment. You then say hello to your teacher before going to sit over by your friends to talk about what everyone’s plans are this weekend.
I could not imagine taking a class without any of these elements that have been part of school in everyone’s lives since elementary school. Taking an online class would eliminate all theses aspects of that school day that seem so normal.
Many high schools are taking advantage of online courses, including Huntley High School starting next year.
“The goal is to be teaching and learning in the students’ world,” said Principal Dave Johnson.
Huntley will start using these online classes next year, but is it a good idea to take learning outside of the classroom environment?
One big disadvantage of taking an online class would be losing the discussion time that would normally be spent in class. Students would not be able to talk with their peers about the work at hand unless they had the phone number of someone else who is also taking the class.
“If I took online classes I wouldn’t be as social as I am now and wouldn’t have made as many friends as I have,” said senior Brian Bocian.
Another problem that might come along with online classes would be students becoming lazy and falling behind in that class. Since the material can be accessed any time online students may become irresponsible and forget to do their assignments. The priority of students’ regular classes may overshadow the work that is assigned online.
Students could also become overwhelmed with the work of their online classes on top of the regular classes they are taking at school. For example, a student that has a schedule that is loaded with Honors and AP classes may put that work ahead of the work they have in a regular level online course. This could lead to more students failing the class than would have if they had taken it at school.
Another problem that may occur is how can a math class be taken online? Pre-Calculus is one of the six online class options for next year. It might be a challenge to learn math from reading an online textbook.
“No one would be able help you understand it from home,” said sophomore Spencer Trippi.
According to Johnson, the teachers that are in charge of the courses, including Pre-Calc, will monitor the courses and are going to make sure that the students are doing their work. Teachers that are advising the courses will be available for help during first or eighth hour classes. There could also be small group discussions between classmates during those time periods.
“Much of the learning and teaching will be involved in class,” said Johnson.
That may not be able to help many students though as they might not have any time to meet with the teachers.
There also is a chance of the technology malfunctioning and affecting the progress of the class. There would be problems if students could not contact their teacher or vise-versa. This could lead to the student not understanding a concept or an assignment.
According to Johnson they will make sure that the technology works properly. Although it might be a hassle to make sure all of it works daily throughout the year for every course that is offered.
Students also would have an easier time cheating on assignments because of not having any way to prove that the student in the class was the one that actually did the work. This could eliminate the purpose of having online courses in the first place, as some of the students may end up doing the work for everyone in the class.
The district has good intentions about doing online classes, but for at least the first couple of years there will probably be a lot of bugs and problems with the system to work out. For now I would rather be in a classroom learning straight from the teacher and being able to talk with friends rather than sitting at home staring at a screen and run a risk of not learning the material I am supposed to be.
What do you think? Voice your opinion in the comments below!