More students forgo classrooms for laptops
MILWAUKEE — Michael Dieffenbach returned to school recently to listen to teachers explain what would be expected during the term.
It was his last first day of high school. Senior year. Top of the heap.
But it didn’t feel like that when Dieffenbach opened his laptop, stretched out on his twin bed, and logged into his AP government class. Lucky, the family dog, sprawled on the floor beneath his feet.
Since eighth grade, Dieffenbach has attended Wisconsin Virtual Learning, a public charter school of the Northern Ozaukee School District and one of the dozens of virtual schools in the state that educate students each year without desks, lunch periods, yellow buses or extracurricular sports.
His small bedroom has been his classroom for years. His laptop the portal to some students he’s never seen, some teachers he’s never met.
“I suppose you could use it as an excuse to become a hermit,” says Dieffenbach, 17, who is wearing a black T-shirt and jeans as he waits for the other classmates to arrive to the AP government webinar. “But if you make just a little effort, it’s pretty easy to get involved in your community and stuff outside of school.”
People often question how students could go to school in an entirely online environment, devoid of regular face-to-face contact with teachers. What about social interaction with friends? Is it rigorous? What about prom and senior skip day? How do kids do once they graduate and go to college?
That shouldn’t be a concern for Dieffenbach. The College Board recently informed him that he scored a perfect 36 on his ACT last year, something accomplished by less than one-tenth of 1% of all test takers. Dieffenbach got a 34 the first time. He thought he could do better.
This year he’s taking a host of advanced placement classes: AP calculus, AP macro and micro economics, AP physics, AP Spanish and AP government. Wisconsin Virtual Learning contracted with a national provider of online courses for some of those because there’s not enough demand in the high school.
Instead of physical education class, Dieffenbach goes for a jog, lifts weights, does chores or walks Lucky. He’s also training for a marathon, but the cost to do one is pretty expensive, so he thinks he might just run it on his own, around the neighborhood.
“I looked up a training schedule online,” he said.
School lunch is whenever he wants it, which is sometimes not at all.
After-school activities are replaced with a full itinerary of church and youth group meetings: National Honor Society, juggling, rock climbing, geocaching and Boy Scouts. Dieffenbach became an Eagle Scout at age 14 and has so many merit badges that they completely fill more than one sash. His dad says they total 85.
Proud parents
Dieffenbach’s parents do a lot of the talking. They had their only son later in life, and they’re pretty proud of him.
Sylvia Dieffenbach decided to home-school Michael after he came back from the neighborhood elementary school near where they live on Milwaukee’s northwest side and said he wasn’t learning anything.
Warren Dieffenbach works second shift, and home schooling at that time allowed them to have breakfast and prayer as a family in the morning.
Then the Dieffenbachs learned about Wisconsin’s virtual school programs. Wisconsin Virtual Learning started in 2003 and now has about 700 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, with about 180 at the high school level.
Back in Dieffenbach’s bedroom, the voice of AP government teacher Eric Conn came through the laptop. Conn teaches from a home office in his house in Oshkosh. He talked to the students about class expectations and ran through a PowerPoint-like slide show that appeared on all six of the students’ screens across the state.
Later in an interview, Conn said it’s a challenge to keep kids engaged without in-person visual cues.
“You have to convey material without it being boring,” Conn said. “I don’t use a webcam, so I treat it like I’m on the radio. I use a lot of inflection.”
Conn says most of the students prefer to correspond by typing live in response to his verbal questions. Sometimes he tells them to use their microphones instead. It’s faster for discussion, he said.
Because of the high school’s size, Dieffenbach and his classmates have had Conn and some of their other teachers every year for the same subjects.
Conn called Dieffenbach extremely independent, the sort of student teachers love because he asks challenging questions that you have to think about, and that makes you a better teacher.
Dieffenbach is considering a career in bioengineering or molecular research. He hopes to go to Brigham Young University or MIT.
His parents hope for that, too. And for scholarships.
“(Virtual school) isn’t for everyone,” said Silvia Dieffenbach. “But he wanted it, so that was part of it. You do have to be a self-starter.”
Ÿ Information from: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, http://www.jsonline.com