Free Online University and K-12 Education

October 12, 2007 — TT

Free World U touts to be working towards a totally free online education for preschool through adulthood.

Is this the new model for education? Is this legit? Thoughts?

Posted in Education - General, Homeschooling. 8 Comments »

8 Responses to “Free Online University and K-12 Education”

Anna Says:
October 12, 2007 at 1:17 pm
I hope not, though there will be a subset of society that will embrace it. I HOPE most people realize that knowledge acquisition and education are not the same thing.

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Tammy Says:
October 12, 2007 at 2:54 pm
So, you see this model as flawed because it focuses on knowledge acquisition? Is there a way an online school could be more holistic?

What I’m thinking, is that this idea that knowledge can be had by anyone, anywhere, for free, without the “aid” of a 9-4 teacher, might be the first step from the top-down approach. Baby steps?

Maybe this kind of website is just another trap though? And won’t really lead us anywhere?

What do you think?

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Summer Says:
October 12, 2007 at 5:48 pm
I’m not sure. For one I agree with you that the idea that knowledge can be had by anyone without a teacher is great. nad it does seem like a first step in the right direction. However, looking at the site all I see is “flashcards” repeated over and over. Personally I’m not a fan of flashcard learning. So I’m on the fence.

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regine Says:
October 14, 2007 at 11:09 am
well i will show it to my kids and see if they think it is helpful for them. It is, however, not MY way of learning.
I looked in 3th grade math and they had nothing proposed for multiplication, i was wondering how they would explain things…
I did not go deep into the website but my first impression is:
It is a great idea, it can be very helpful for certain things, it is just one more tool for learning, i would not use it as a main classroom for sure! 🙂

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Tammy Says:
October 15, 2007 at 9:18 am
Hmmm… I’m not a big fan of flashcards. And I’m not a big fan of using one method or tool to teach/learn. So, ya, it seems like a little too simple.

It’ll be interesting to see where this goes.

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Christy Says:
October 16, 2007 at 10:05 pm
I just enrolled my oldest daughter in the states charter school that uses the K12 plan.
My oldest daughter has a different father then my other children and her dad would only allow me to homeschool her if I used such a program.
If nothing else, we get a chance to try it out and experience a new adventure. I am hoping that after a year, I will take her out of it and find a different and better method.
Our families are not embracing the homeschooling idea as well as we had hoped. We talked about it with them a few times over the past few years. They were okay with it until the day we actually took steps to do it.
Homeschooling seems to really provoke strong feelings that I hadn’t counted on. Yet, I trust my heart and my reasons for doing this. I have always stated to the kids that if they want to go to public school then they are welcome to try it out and see how they like it. My oldest was in public school for 5yrs. She prefers the homeschooling idea. We will se how it all works out.

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Debra Says:
August 19, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Try Connections Academy.

http://www.connectionsacademy.com

They provide an extensive curriculum and free computer, printer, internet access (or assistance, I think they pay part of your expense), and online teachers. It is all free and accredited, not available in every state though. They are not a flashcard academy, they have online classes and class interaction, tutoring and all kinds of help. We are very pleased with it.

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Aubrey Perrin Says:
January 8, 2009 at 3:27 pm
I never liked school and probably never will I don’t like teachers or homework either so I think this is one of the best ideas ever.

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