With everything advancing on the web, how is education moving on to the web? It’s about time that things get better for education.

Everything else is on the web

After seeing Barack Obama make his move onto the Internet, both before he was in office and after Inauguration, it has truely been proven that the web is a huge part of everyday life. What isn’t on the web? Government clearly is on the we. Most communities are on the web (spread out on different social networks). Many businesses have created websites to expand their market. What about education? Colleges are huge on the web. Offering online courses and degrees, colleges have definitely made the transition to the technology age. What about lower education? High schools? Are they on the web? Well some are and some aren’t.

High schools on the web

A few high schools are on the web, but not all are. And the ones that are – are they really doing things

right? Let’s take my high school for an example. They pay Edline for a little spot on the web. I’m not sure how much they pay the coporation, but I believe that it is somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000 a year. They could hire another teacher for that price.

Is it really worth it? I think not. We pay extra for ‘bonus features’ that should be included in the full package. It’s a hassle for teachers to do things like update grades or post assignments – some teachers don’t do either at all (even they the school requires them to). Students can’t interact. Isn’t user interaction a huge part of the web?

Student interaction (or lack thereof)

This is probably my biggest problem with Edline. They have absolutely no form of student interaction. Isn’t collaborative learning a great way to learn? And you can’t say that user interaction is a failure, look at all of the huge websites now. If students will use Facebook, why wouldn’t they use their school’s website?

The core problem is that people in front of these education on the web campaigns don’t want to open their eyes. They are stuck on paying lots of money for a website (they believe the more you pay, the better the website is). They end up with a lack-luster website and a huge bill. Is this the way that things should be? Shouldn’t schools get free access to things like this to improve education? That’s what I think. I am in the process of preparing an open source alternative to Edline and then showing it to my school. Hopefully, they will open their eyes and notice that not all great things cost $50,000/year.

Tags: Edline, Education on the Web, Social Networks