Online Education

Canada needs to start a push for more online education. All levels of education from kindergarten to post secondary should be able to be completed online. Opening up more online education will allow for anyone in Canada to have access to high quality education, as well as allowing Canada to become more competitive as a knowledge economy. I imagine Canada as a leader in providing online learning, allowing less privilege countries to have access to our education system and unique culture.

Comments

dsanden — 2010–05–13 09:23:47 EDT wrote

Agreed: online ed options are helpful: mobile workforces, parenting conflicts, affordability through simaltaneous work/school, decreased lifecycle of knowledge and careers, demographic shifts/aging population mitigation through accelerated career advancement.

patrickgwelch — 2010–05–16 14:53:54 EDT wrote

Open coursework / textbooks / educational materials

Jaheckelsafar — 2010–05–17 15:04:23 EDT wrote

In conjunction with this there should be a step away from standardized testing in the public school system, and less focusing on the lowest common denominator in the classroom. There is a reason for remedial education and advanced classes. Let children learn at a rate they are comfortable with. Don't force the slow learners to speed up and not learn effectively. Don't force the quick learners to slow down and loose interest.

Maybe even take this to extremes and don't have a standardized school year. Run schools all year round, don't set holidays, and let families decide when to take time off. Break each semesters worth of material into smaller cells and students can stay in each cell for as long or as short as is required so they can spend more time on areas they are having difficulty with. The teacher should not have to teach the cell for the whole class but allow the students from the next cell to teach the students in the previous cell. The best way to make sure you know a subject is to teach it to someone.

Allow families to tailor the speed at which their children progress from cell to cell so they can focus on problem areas should they want to, yet provided a default speed for those parents that are willing to leave their childrens education speed to the state. Make the parents sign off each time a child has completed a cell, of if their child is taking an excessively long time per cell.

dsampson — 2010–06–21 08:57:44 EDT wrote

Agreed.

Challenge: In Ottawa alone there is 54,000 households without access to a personal computer and 128,000 households without access to the Internet (Computers for Communities).

Groups like computers for communities are trying to help with the former. The latter may require a de–comodification of internet access to get last–mile access. perhaps if broadband fibre was provided free as part of a utility package. "Buy our ____ (fill in a utility)" and you get internet for free.

Joanne — 2010–06–22 12:07:23 EDT wrote

There are amazing possibilities for online learning — especially when Web 2.0 technologies are incorporated. Web 2.0 has an wonderful ability to engage reluctant learners. In adult literacy in Ontario we use online learning with great success.

I feel Web 2.0 technologies are terribly under–utlilized in the K to 12 system — there is so much that could be done to engage students (and is being done in other countries).

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

Russ Wilde — 2010–07–05 17:43:35 EDT wrote

Increased online education options are very important and I support them completely. However, I think we need to carefully consider and research how these options are implemented. What we want is a system that works as well as possible for as many people as possible. That will certainly continue to include face–to–face instruction and activity as part of a balanced approach to education and skills development.