Online Schooling
We have new neighbours who recently moved in - I’ll call them Sash and Malik. My wife and I bumped into them outside their house and we got chatting. Before they found out that we are both working in education, and without knowing that we have founded an online school, they launched into a conversation about online schooling. Sash and Malik have two kids who are both in high school. Rather than putting them into a traditional school in an area they aren’t familiar with (especially in the middle of the COVID pandemic) they decided to sign them up for online schooling.
Tell me if their experience resonates with you…
Malik says he likes the flexibility of online school, and they really enjoy getting some more family time together. But there are also some major frustrations. The kids miss their friends and feel disconnected from their teachers during class. They find it hard to ask questions. Sash never knows what work the kids should be doing, or when it is due. They’re also pretty sure that their son just spends most of the day playing Fortnite!
Sash and Malik’s story is not uncommon. We have had a LOT of conversations like this with parents and kids lately. If we were to summarise all of the frustrations of online schooling experiences it would be this: a lack of engagement. Schools need a real sense of community. Kids need to be connected to each other and their teachers. And the parents need to be connected too.
My wife, Lauren and I have been interested in online schooling for a long time now. We have always sensed that there is great opportunity when it comes to learning online. Can I mention just a couple of scenarios? There are the obvious ones - like for the family that travels a lot, or lives far from any good schools. But also think about the 10 year old who goes crazy sitting behind a desk for 7 hours a day, or the one who really should be doing Math with kids who are two years older. What about creating a space for kids with ‘weird’ passions that don’t quite fit into a traditional subject box? And as a teacher, I’ll let you in on a little secret: a lot of the day at school is taken up just doing things like class admin.
That’s why Lauren and I decided to start Koa Academy. We want to lean into the benefits of online learning, being careful not to just take traditional school models and present them on a screen. We are reshaping online learning from the ground up - starting with the needs of the kids. No more ‘one size fits all’ approach to educating! Here are some of the pillars of Koa Academy’s approach, and the reasons why we are so excited about online schooling:
Through the Internet, we have access to a whole world of resources. Literally. And many of those resources are becoming very cheap or even free. We all know that this is true. The other day, I needed to learn how to drill a hole through glass (let me be clear - I am not super ‘handy’ around the house). I did a quick search on my smartphone, read a helpful article and watched a YouTube tutorial. 10 minutes later the job was done. Easy. So here’s a question: If learning is so accessible, why do most schools not tap into it? Unfortunately, many schools still limit access in their classrooms to one ‘content expert’ in the form of the teacher. Why should your child not be taught by one of the best Maths teachers in the world? We think they should be.
We also love the idea of flexibility in how we do school. Think about your time - like when you take holidays. Think about extra murals - like which sports your kids show interest in. Think about finances - like which level of academic support you want to spend your money on. Online schooling should give parents options to make decisions which suit their family’s needs.
Learning should also be individualised. Do you remember when we had to buy music in the form of a physical compact disk? When I wanted to listen to the song ‘Long December’ I had to go and buy the whole Counting Crows album. Now we have streaming services like Spotify which let us pay a monthly subscription and access the music that we want - right down to the individual song. And then we get suggestions for what we might enjoy next. Online schooling allows us to break the mould that many traditional schools follow by necessity. Two kids sitting next to each other can be on a learning path that suits each of their individual needs.
Underpinning all of this, we believe that online schooling should provide a strong sense of community. There is a lot of conversation lately about online social engagement. And we are all too aware of the challenges involved in building meaningful relationships online. That is why we have been so intentional about keeping a sense of community as the driving factor behind our decisions. The simplest but most powerful example of this is that we have called our online school product ‘KoPods’, which is taken from the idea of meeting in small Pods of no more than 8 kids, where everyone has the opportunity to hear and be heard.
One thing is for sure: education is changing. And it’s about time! While the ‘online’ nature of our school is just one element of who we are as Koa Academy, we certainly are excited about the opportunities that it presents to us as a school.
Do you have any thoughts about online schooling? We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us through our website or on Facebook and let us know what you’re thinking.
