Benefits of Online Learning

Through the twitterverse came the question of how the list of ten benefits of online learning as presented by students at the Open High School of Utah is different.

Their list:

1. I can work ahead if I'm able to
2. I get nearly instant responses from my teachers
3. I get personalized support when I need it
4. My teachers are just as excited about online learning as I am
5. I can do all my math for the week on one day if I want to
6. I know how I'm doing, my grades are right on the screen
7. My parents can see my work and grades
8. My courses are more challenging
9. I can keep up with my work when my family travels
10. I can work around a busy schedule

Of course, being Twitter, there wasn't much more to the question, specifically how is this different from what? I have to assume it's asking how online schools are different from traditional schools, since good teachers would be doing the stuff in the list anyway. The difference comes in where at a student-centered school, the culture of the entire organization is focused on helping the individual students, where traditional schools are centered on the faculty member so whoever is teaching a class decides whether or not students can work ahead and how challenging the homework is.

There's a big difference between a single teacher running a student-centered classroom and having an entire school be student-centered.