By Isabelle Foley

Sentry Staff Reporter

In today’s technological age, computers have found their way into everyday classroom environments. Distance Learning (DL) classes provide a unique opportunity for students to learn languages otherwise unavailable to the school. Online classes and webcams are an integral aspect of this system. The different courses, however, provide very different experiences.

Arabic, Chinese and Japanese are taught as online courses. Arabic courses levels I-IV and VI are provided by the Arab Academy in Cairo, Egypt and supplemented by an APS teacher. Chinese I and II are taught by APS teachers, as well as Japanese I-IV. However, Chinese III and IV do not have an APS teacher, and courses are provided by the Virtual Virginia group.

“Chinese is entirely online, our grades are posted online, our quizzes are online and we complete them online…some of the course work is posted and you can do it whenever you want, even outside of class,” said senior Emily Boda, a Chinese IV student, who has been taking DL classes for three years. “…you have to read stuff online and turn in your assignments by a due date…but some drawbacks are that you never get face-to-face time with your teacher, and the grades are really hard to work out.”

While an online course can be a suitable solution for certain languages, it may not always be satisfactory for a language as difficult to learn as Chinese.

“[Chinese] is such a verbal language, and we’re not allowed to talk during our DL class,” said Boda.

Students do, however, have the option of contacting an actual teacher when necessary.

“In Chinese, we are required to have a once monthly session with our teacher, kind of like on Skype…our teacher is available to ask questions on email and on IM,” said Boda.

There are other benefits to taking online Chinese classes as well. Freshman Colson Thompson, who has been taking a DL class for two years, found that he enjoys the independence of an online class.

“You can work at your own pace…there can be a large number of assignments, but they are fairly easy to keep up with and don’t take more than a few minutes,” said Thompson.

As a freshman, the transition to high school can be difficult enough, but luckily the switch to a DL class wasn’t difficult for Thompson.

“…Chinese is a difficult language at first, but once you make it through the first week it is not as difficult,” said Thompson.

Alaric Radosh, an APS Chinese Language-Distance Learning Teacher, gives his perspective on the DL environment.

“What I most enjoy is seeing my students at Yorktown succeeding in learning Chinese, and almost every one of them in my Chinese 1 class is indeed succeeding…In our distance learning classes, every student works on his or her own computer completing assignments, creating blogs, videos, audio recordings, etc. Students can move at their own pace and replay videos and audio recordings as many times as they need. The student is almost always involved in “hands on” work,” explained Radosh.

Radosh teaches Chinese I at six different schools, and visits each of his classes once or twice a week. This gives his students a chance to try new activities apart from their computer.

“During my visits, I often have student turn off the computers and we do more traditional face-to-face learning activities, play games, sing songs, have group conversations in Chinese, etc,” said Radosh.

With a variety of different activities not available to average classrooms, the Chinese DL experience offers advantages to students and teachers alike. There is a mixture of technological instruction and face-to-face time with a teacher.

German DL classes offer a different course structure. Unlike the other three classes, German II-V students are provided with a two-way audio and video system, allowing them to interact with a rotating APS teacher. This also means that there is a teacher intermittently present in the classroom, while the other classes only have proctors.

“There is a two-way webcam, and microphones along with multiple TV screens. Communication is easy,” said sophomore Jessie Kinney, a German II student. “This is my first year in a DL class…the transition was definitely a new experience. It took a week or so to get in a good routine with everything…because of DL, I can continue taking the language I want, regardless of the number of students. A drawback is that there’s not always a teacher present.”

Despite the seemingly unconventional structure, the experience is not very different from that of other classes

“We follow a normal day to day lesson plan. Tests and Quizzes are graded as normal. I notice no difference from the regular [German] class last year,” remarked Kinney. “I do plan on continuing DL. I really enjoy German and would like to follow through with it all four years.”

As technology continues to advance, a wider variety of classes are being made available to APS students. Although it is sometimes difficult without a teacher around, DL classes provide a favorable substitute for classes that would otherwise not exist. As these classes increase in popularity, more interactive systems can be developed. Who knows what the future of education holds in store.