Technology Matters

Distance-Learning Opportunities on the Internet

Volume 2 / Issue 3 / Spring 2002

Whether you are homeschooling or seeking enrichment for your child, these activities focus on the individual child’s educational needs, and gifted children clearly have individual educational needs. Parents may find themselves stretched to meet the challenges posed by their children’s aptitudes and interests. High-quality distance learning may provide viable solutions.

Distance learning simply means that teacher and student occupy different settings. A variety of interactive, innovative learning activities geared to gifted children are readily accessible via the Internet. Look for the following features:

• Opportunities to develop and use high levels of critical thinking. Avoid rote, lockstep correspondence courses that only call for amassing factual data.
• Affiliation with a credible educational institution, business, or other organization. Find assessments by independent experts.
• Ample opportunities for the student to communicate with the instructor via e-mail, telephone, and “real-time” discussion (such as instant messaging).
• Ample opportunities for the student to communicate with other students. Make sure that discussion boards and virtual classroom sessions are carefully monitored by the instructor.
• Multimedia formats.
• Flexibility on the part of the instructor. Students should be allowed to explore related topics and pursue independent study with clear guidance and feedback from the instructor.
• Links to credible Web sites.

An excellent site for parents to begin with is A to Z Home’s Cool Homeschooling, created and maintained by Ann Zeise, a homeschooling mom herself. Zeise has collected reams of well-documented information on every facet of homeschooling, including homeschooling for gifted children. She provides links for several excellent distance-learning sites and institutions that cater to gifted children, including the three that follow.

One is the Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY) at Stanford University. The EPGY offers computer-based courses for all gifted students, kindergarten through graduate school. Elementary students may take mathematics and composition courses, and high school students are offered mathematics, composition and grammar, computer programming, physics, and Advanced Placement (AP) courses. Most courses allow the participants to progress at their own pace and provide opportunities for virtual classroom activities, frequent communication with instructors and other participants, and traditional off-line practices. Two drawbacks are the limited subject matter available and the cost of the program, particularly if the child does not complete the course within the prescribed college quarter and needs to register for a second quarter.

Johns Hopkins University offers similar programs through its Center for Talented Youth (CTY) . The CTY provides advanced tutor-based curricula in mathematics and language for students who meet their talent search criteria. The advanced mathematics, honors, and AP course offerings are almost identical to the EPGY’s, but the 6–12-grade writing tutorial is more comprehensive. The course format allows for critiques and feedback from the tutors.

Australia’s Virtual School for the Gifted offers gifted elementary and middle school students enrichment in a variety of subject areas. The courses are all nine weeks long, and students may work through them all or use any one lesson as a springboard into studies as in-depth as they like. The instructors help the students tailor courses to their own interests and encourage creative and divergent thinking. The courses include creative writing, mathematical theories, computer programming, time and space travel, dinosaurs and astronomy, archaeology and paleoanthropology, ancient Egypt, cryonics, painters of Renaissance Italy, and existentialism.

Before enrolling a child in any program, parents need to do their homework. Examine the program carefully and find out if certificates or credit are given for completion; ask about enrollment statistics and customer satisfaction; and obtain and check references. Given the relatively high expense of many Internet distance-learning opportunities, you’ll want to be sure you’re getting your money’s worth.
—Sarah Boone

Sarah Boone has an M.A. in teaching and certification in gifted education. She teaches at Meredith College.