ED TechTalk: The Online School for Girls

In an interview with Brad Rathgeber, the president and founder of the Online school for girls, via ED TechTalk, I learned how an online school functions as well as why a good number of people prefer online schools. Rathgeber explained that there online school for girls is based off the book “Disrupting Class” by Klayton Christenson. This book touches on the innovation of technology in learning and the advantages it brings to learning. Builiding on this, Rathgeber also explained that there have been extensive studies on the ways in which female students learn and succeed in education, which this school aims at adhering to; This was their purpose in making the online school single gendered to that of females. Some example of some ways in which females learn are the following: making connections, collaboration, social interaction, and many more. The online courses require participation in voice threads, discussion boards, chat sessions, and similar technological ways of communicating with the other students in the class. In the interview, Rathgeber touched on the fact that, in light of the fact that it is an online school, it's interesting to realize how much the interaction between the girls means to them, as well as the relationships they form during their classwork. The feedback given by parents whose children are enrolled in this school say they love the flixibility as well as opportunity to take courses that would not have otherwise been offered to their children.
In reflecting on this online school for girls, I am encouraged by the type of learning it enploys as well as the way in which the school approaches education. They have analyzed the ways in which girls learn the best, and structured their school around that. I think this is really cool! What I liked most about the idea of attending an onling school, is the flexibility. I remember hating to have to sit in school from 8 to 3 monday through Friday. The timeline was inconvenient as well as annoying to me. But, with this onilne school, the students can do their education whenever it is convenient for them.