Table of ContentsBenefitsConclusionMany of my peers are surprised that I have a legitimate degree after telling them I went to school online. I was asked if I actually graduated, if I was "mentally deficient" and that's why I made the change, and even if I meant I was homeschooled. The answers are invariably yes, I did, no, I didn't, and no, I didn't. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay I enrolled in an online school following a big move from Nebraska to Georgia. The school curriculum was so different that I had already learned most of my math and science classes at my old college, but my new college refused to let me take harder classes. In addition to my academic boredom, I was frustrated by trying to make friends as the “new kid” in a neighborhood where everyone already knew each other. After two months, my parents saw that things weren't getting better for me and started looking for alternatives. We chose a public school hosted entirely online, with students and staff from all parts of the state. I happily stayed at that school until I graduated in 2018. Making this change was the best choice I could have made for myself, but not enough students understand what it's like. online school – if they are even aware that it is an option. That said, it may not be for everyone, as it rarely is. Here, I briefly review my favorite pros of online school, then the most significant (in my opinion) cons, all from the perspective of a longtime former student. Pros I spent just under five years total enrolling in an online school. school, and after the first week I was already delighted with the obvious changes in the way I learned. Ask me why I stayed in an online school for so long, and these are the first reasons that come to mind. Taking a Road Less Traveled A National Internet School eliminates some of the traditional limitations of formal education. It doesn't matter how many buildings you have when your school is truly digital, and there are thousands of potential instructors that can be hired all over the state. Labor and effort cost the same and prices are attached even to digital infrastructure, but when your staff can work from home and you don't need to maintain a large building, everything becomes a little easier. These freed resources can be used to offer new and varied offers to students. The most obvious result of this is the wide variety of courses available. I took a human physiology course, which taught me before I even entered college that the biological sciences were not in my interest. (This realization saved me time and tuition.) And to this day, I don't know a single person in my state from another school who was able to take two years of Japanese . Another positive consequence has been the long list of clubs and extracurricular activities that my high school has been able to offer thanks to its large and diverse group of teachers. No monitoring of the clock… A monitored pot never boils and a monitored clock never ticks. Don't lie; we all passed the time in a lecture by looking at the clock every five minutes (has it really only been that long?). It's easy to get boredafter an hour of conversation, especially when the content starts to seem repetitive. How many students wish they could come in, learn the lesson, and leave when they're done? With online education, it's possible. The modules of each well-constructed online course put the student through a process that makes it easier to fully understand the lesson. The lessons are organized in a sequential order, where they can only be accessed when the prerequisites are completed. At the end of the module, which may include text reading, multimedia inserts, links to virtual textbooks and practice slides, there is usually a short quiz to confirm understanding of the content. The end of the quiz means the end of the lesson. Using this format means a math lesson can last 10 minutes instead of 50. Conversely, if math isn't your strong point, you can take as much time as you need. There were days when I did all my daily lessons in a quarter of the time my brother spent at his school! The flexibility of the online format gives students the opportunity to take the time they need to master the content and move on when they are finished. I took this on vacation to San Francisco. I had just finished a class while enjoying an ice cream on the pier! With online education, there is no need to scramble to do homework before or after a personal trip. Online courses can be taken from anywhere with Internet access (real example: see Figure 3!). I took a lot of trips and vacations during high school and rarely fell behind on my homework. When I did, I could catch up easily because most courses don't have daily cutoff times. Sure, it sounds great, but wouldn't it be horrible to go on a relaxing beach vacation just to wake up at 8:00 a.m. for classes? Yes, that would absolutely be the case. But it's not necessary. Because the lessons build on each other and do not rely on the physical presence of an instructor, a student can work through the lessons at a pace that suits them. If you can concentrate better in the morning, then you can knock out some of your homework before lunch. If your brain prefers to focus between midnight and three a.m., that's also an option. (But your professors probably won't respond to emails right away.) Disadvantages If online education had no advantages, it would not be used by a growing number of public and private primary and secondary education institutions. superior. Unfortunately, all good things come at a price, and here I reveal the two biggest flaws of online teaching. High school is punctuated by first times and traditional adolescent experiences. Unfortunately, while online education has many benefits that make it comparable to a brick-and-mortar school, it cannot completely recreate these experiences. (Not that they don't try.) My classmates generally weren't as enthusiastic about school dances as my brick-and-mortar school friends, but maybe that's because we accepted that When we chose a school where we had more options and more freedom, we lost some aspects of the more “normal” high school experience. Among these were prom (obviously), but also sports games, Senior Ditch Day, flirting and meeting with our peers, and socializing in the hallways between classes and in the parking lot after the last bell. Students looking forward to the high school's cultural brand should carefully evaluate their priorities before deciding whether to.