English in Mind Second edition

Level 5 Unit 3
Article

The school on a sofa

1 5
Picture a school with no walls. pupils are equipped with a headset Angela and Ian Price admit they
At this school there are no smelly so they can communicate with their hardly fit the stereotype of the
changing-rooms, no lumpy gravy, teachers and fellow classmates – typical home educators. Ian was
no bullies, or detentions and you can some of whom live as far away as adamantly opposed to the idea
turn up to lessons in your pyjamas Australia and Africa. There is also when Angela suggested it and
and Snoopy slippers if you feel like a whiteboard, Power-Point facility dismissed it as something for people
it. It’s called InterHigh – and it’s and ‘follow me’ browser, which who ‘lived in a tepee, off brown
the UK’s first ever internet school, every student can see from their bread and lentils and made their
founded four years ago by former screens. And, should they need to own clothes’ – but technology is
teachers Paul and Jacqui Daniell, in ask the teacher something, there is rapidly changing the face of home
response to a growing demand for no reluctant hand-raising: they can education, making it an increasingly
‘more choice’. simply fire off a question via the viable alternative for parents
2 private instant-messaging service. whose children don’t fit within the
Choice is a thorny issue this month,
structure of a mainstream school.
as the annual furore over secondary
‘the perfect
6
school places reaches fever pitch. The Prices decided to look into
Anxious parents wring their hands home schooling when Emily,
and wait to hear whether their
precious offspring have been accepted
solution to who has mild learning difficulties,
had problems adapting to the
into the institution of their choice. education in the demands of her 3,000-strong
Ofsted reports inform us that more local comprehensive. ‘It was like
than half of England’s secondary digital age?’ watching her walk into a lion’s den
schools are not good enough. Frankly, every day,’ Angela recalls. ‘Because
it’s hardly surprising that roughly 4 of the class sizes, the teachers
Sceptics might consider virtual
55,000 of British children are now didn’t have the time to commit to
schooling a techie buzz-phrase for
being home schooled. In the light her. After the first term she was
‘virtual skiving’– but according to
of this mood of disaffection with so distraught that she couldn’t face
Emily and Ben’s mother, Angela,
mainstream schooling, maybe virtual going in anymore. Things were
there is no question of slacking
schooling is the perfect solution to looking very, very bleak for her.’ But
off in the Price household. There
education in the digital age? working from home allows Emily
are no endless hours spent eating
3 to do things at her own pace. ‘She
Emily Price, 13, and her 15-year- biscuits and watching Neighbours:
can stop and start when she needs
old brother Ben are both pupils of the teenagers spend the afternoon
to, and as a result her learning has
InterHigh. They log on to school completing homework projects
improved dramatically,’ says Ian.
at 9.15 sharp every morning, each and research, while Angela runs
7
on their own laptops, and complete her business from another laptop There’s also the financial benefits.
around two-and-a-half hours of elsewhere in the house, ‘so it’s a very ‘With Ben, we were paying
lessons in virtual classrooms. Both busy wireless network’. thousands in school fees and all ➦

English In Mind Second edition © Cambridge University Press 2009 www.cambridge.org/elt/englishinmind PHOTOCOPIABLE
 English in Mind Second edition
Level 5 Unit 3
Article

➥ he was doing was messing island in the virtual world, Second GCSE results,’ she says, ‘but have
about. We decided he’d be better off Life, and allows them to build they got the social skills that are so
at InterHigh and he works much their own physical community, important in the workplace?’
harder now – his predicted grades system of government and social 13
Professor Peter Kutnick, chair
have gone up to mostly A’s. structure with the help of a team
of psychology and education at
of experts (or teachers). Instead of
8
According to a 2006 study by King’s College, agrees. ‘If a child
teaching and assessing students to
the Department for Education doesn’t see the person they are
pass exams in ‘hard’ subjects, such
and Skills, the growing popularity interacting with,’ he says, ‘it could
as maths and physics, Schome
of home schooling is due to foster insecurity, making them
teaches skills such as leadership,
factors including varying ability, less likely to ask questions and
collaboration and communication,
dissatisfaction with the quality of discuss new ideas. Going to school
by solving ‘real’ problems in their
education and bullying. As a result, gives children more experience
virtual world.
education supplements are awash of a larger range of people from
with cutting-edge home-schooling various social strata. They will learn
methods, from ‘flexi schooling’
to home- schooling ‘co-ops’ and
‘It’s better to try about the essence of friendship
and collaboration and therefore be
‘family schools’ – all endeavouring to something new provided with a better platform for
provide the perfect answer. working in the real world. Home
9
One of the more revolutionary
than be unhappy’ schooling is unlikely to do that.’
14
methods is being explored by It would be a mistake, suggest the
Dr Peter Twining, head of the 11
But however technologically experts, to assume the virtual world
Open University’s Department of advanced we become, will it ever can mimic the richness of personal
Education, who is examining the be possible to simulate the benefits contact and the daily knocks of
possibilities of virtual environments of genuine social interaction? playground politics – but the
as an alternative to the traditional While InterHigh provides its internet has certainly opened up the
constraints of ‘buildings, subjects, students with a ‘common room’ education system to much-needed
classrooms, 30 kids and a teacher’. and Facebook-style social network, scrutiny. ‘Technology has allowed us
According to Twining, a chasm has there is still a real fear that we to raise the bar in terms of what we
emerged between what is being could be raising a generation of expect for our children’s education
taught in schools (science, IT, screen-addicts, with none of the and the choices we can consider,’
geography, etc.), and what pupils social skills necessary for the world says Jacqui Daniell, co-director of
are experiencing in their daily lives beyond the virtual classroom. InterHigh.
(Facebook, music downloads, social 12 15
Emily Price presents a compelling
Sarah Tough, education
networking). He believes using argument for the benefits of
researcher at government think-
virtual environments could, ‘create virtual schooling. ‘It’s better to try
tank the Institute for Public Policy
a system that meets the changing something new, than be unhappy,’
Research, says that virtual learning
needs of 21st-century society’. she says. To paraphrase: perhaps
could mean that students miss
10
Twinings’ latest research project, out on the development of non- it’s better to open our minds to the
Schome, is an ‘education system cognitive skills, such as confidence, possibilities offered by technology,
for the digital age’. It brings 150 motivation and communication. than to stagnate within a system we
students of varying ages, to a closed ‘They might come out with better may have outgrown.

English In Mind Second edition © Cambridge University Press 2009 www.cambridge.org/elt/englishinmind PHOTOCOPIABLE