World Wide Education
from pen and paper to keys and screens
"Mystery at the Dinosaur Museum Escape Room" "Essay Writing for High School" "The Magical World of Fungi Part 2" "What's in Your Brain?" Text by Nancy S. Moseley Above are a few of the classes found on Outschool. com, one of the leading online education platforms offering small, live, à la carte classes for children 3-18 years of age. Launched in 2015, Outschool is one of many online learning vessels that have experienced a swell of popularity since pandemic times settled in. When our wee ones' eyes went from 3D scenes to 2D screens, the Internet quickly became an invaluable, supplemental resource, if not, to the audible "sighs" of parents everywhere, a bit reluctantly. Some sites, like Scholastic's "Learn at Home", offer multi-day curriculums that more closely mirror comprehensive units typically found in a classroom. Other sites, like PBS Kids, ABC Mouse, Khan Academy and National Geographic Kids, have answered the cry for content simply by beefing up their long-standing, cherished offerings. And even good ol' YouTube is an easy, free, go-to for story times with celebrities like Kristen Bell or drawing 28
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lessons from Mo Willems himself, beloved author of "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus." But Outschool has outdone itself, hearing those reluctant "sighs" and solving for them by marketing diversity: Diversity of subjects, diversity of educators and diversity of students, all exemplified by the sheer number of class choices - 140,000 and counting. From Fortnite to fractions and cooking to coding, what better way to encourage independence and the joy of learning than by putting the reins in the hands of the end consumer: children.
Teachers and Classes But what about the educators? This new genre of online learning allows teachers to teach the subjects they love to students who love them. The schedule is flexible, and the boggy paperwork is nonexistent. But that's not to March/Apri l
2022
