The Foreign Service Journal, December 2010

courses are now more collaborative and varied due to better technology and savvy curricula. Some courses are purely asynchronous — students work according to their own sched- ule and interact with their teacher and classmates via e-mail and mes- sage boards. Others require students to log in at a particular time for live presentation of a lesson, which may be followed by an online discussion. Amy Valentine, global develop- ment manager for K 12 , says that most classes feature both an online compo- nent and an offline component. Online, students frequently view video clips, listen to audio recordings, use multimedia tools and engage in video gaming with an avatar. Some of the text may be dictated to them, and they take engaging quizzes to check for mastery, she explains. Offline, they will have to write essays to demonstrate the ability to develop ideas, and prepare charts and written assessments. Other features may include lab activities, collaboration with other students on a group project and live sessions, with the teacher using screen-sharing technology to facili- tate interaction among students. “The courses are designed to pro- mote rich student-teacher and stu- dent-student interaction,” says Julie Linn. Caseloads are similar to brick- and-mortar schools — class sizes average 200 students. But because the content is already established and electronically delivered, teachers can focus much of their time on com- municating with students, assessing student work, providing individual feedback and offering live office hours, Linn explains. Getting Started Once a family and student decide that online classes are a good idea, they need to choose a provider. “Choose your online provider with care,” Dr. Jeff Keller, superintendent Perhaps the most exciting new development in education for FS teens is the direct partnership between international schools and online education providers. 80 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 0 S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT Continued on page 86