Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School
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 |
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (September 2007) |
| The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School | |
| Location | |
|---|---|
| One Lincoln Park Midland, Pennsylvania, United States |
|
| Information | |
| Head teacher | Dr. Nick Trombetta |
| Type | Online |
| Grades | K - 12 |
| Motto | Build your own school... Out of choices, not bricks. |
| Publication | The Link |
| Established | 2000 |
| Homepage | http://www.pacyber.org |
The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School (also known as PA Cyber) is a digital school, designed as an alternative to traditional public and private schools. It recently changed its name from Western Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School.
The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School (PA Cyber) makes accredited curricula available to its students any time, any place, at any pace. PA Cyber offers students in grades K – 12 a variety of curricula options and a choice between synchronous and asynchronous modes of delivery. Every PA Cyber student receives a custom designed course of study to meet his or her individual needs and abilities. Parents, along with their child’s instructional supervisor, play a vital role in the school by keeping the student on task, motivated, and challenged. As a public school, PA Cyber provides services at no cost to students and families.
Contents |
[edit] Classes
Students can take either online classes or self-paced classes.
[edit] Online classes
Online classes are carried out through Interwise, a web conference software mainly used by companies to conduct meetings online. Similar to "brick-and-mortar" schools, students meet at specified times and are taught by a teacher using the Lincoln curriculum. Students can interact with their fellow peers and the teacher. You can't see the teacher or the other students, however the teacher may use a webcam in class to demonstrate a science experiment or anything best taught with the teacher physically demonstrating the topic at hand. This type of education is geared toward those who are best learning in a classroom environment without actually going to a brick-and-mortar school.
[edit] Self-paced classes
Self paced classes are geared toward those who prefer to work at their own pace. Curriculums available include Calvert, University of Missouri (Center of Distant and Independent Studies), and Lincoln Interactive, the in-house curriculum.
[edit] Blackboard
Blackboard is the primary way for a student to access his or her classes. The student would type in their pre-assigned user name and password, which is based on the student's name. For instance, the name John Doe might yield a user name of jd000000. Blackboard is used to access classes, submit work, check grades, or check announcements.
As of the 2007-2008 school year, there are three separate blackboard pages for virtual classes and Lincoln Interactive to alleviate server traffic and overload on the original, which is now used for Lincoln (2006-07 courses) exclusively. Virtual classes, and all Lincoln class from 2007-08 access new pages, however the design of the three are the same with the exception of the classes.
[edit] Criticisms
[edit] Technological Problems
Servers for both Blackboard and Interwise can occasionally go down, inhibiting the ability to access classes. This can also happen during assignments which can cause a student to lose the work, or be graded zero. When this occurs, the standard procedure is to call technical support and inform the teacher. Also, microphones used to communicate can wear out, rendering the user unable to speak in class (sometimes losing participation credit if not fixed within a few days or so).
[edit] Communication
There can often be a lack of communication between both the teacher and student and the instructors themselves. For this reason students are continually encouraged to participate in classes and to inform the teacher of any problems.
