FAITH ALPHER (2); GETTY IMAGES
online schooling meshes well with their busy schedules. They live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and their mother, Faith Alpher, frequently drives them to and from Los Angeles to audition for acting and modeling gigs. On weekdays, Whitley and Josiah wake up around 7:30 a.m. They open their laptops, and their lessons are waiting for them. Live lessons are available, but if they are busy with auditions, they can tune in and complete them later. This flexibility opens up a world of possibilities. Over the holidays, for example, Josiah and Whitley had the opportunity to spend an entire month with their grandparents in New Jersey while doing their schoolwork online. “Students can opt to start school at noon, complete a week’s worth of math on Monday or English on Tuesday,” says Mickey Revenaugh, co-founder of Connections Academy. “Lessons are both synchronous with peers (real-time online lessons) and asynchronous (online lessons, video tutorials, projects) on their own.” Whitley finished her third web design project this semester, learning to create an interactive button with JavaScript. And Josiah completed an assignment for his public-speaking class where he researched a famous
speech and examined how the speaker was able to capture the crowd’s attention. Much of that schoolwork was done on the road, in coffee shops or on set.
Sylvan Learning Center, which has been providing supplemental education for 40 years, also offers remote, online-learning opportunities where students and teachers work together through video conferencing calls. These programs are geared toward kids attending traditional schools who would like additional tutoring outside of school. “One of the most important aspects of education is the connection between the teacher and the student,” says Emily Levitt, vice president of education at Sylvan Learning. “Online learning can keep that connection going even when they are far apart.” Levitt says her sons recently grumbled about taking math lessons online, but their faces lit up when their favorite tutor appeared on screen. For Gabriela Molina, 17, online learning has been particularly lifechanging. She endured intensive bullying for years, and after trying several schools across Brazil and the U.K., it became clear that traditional
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school was just not the right fit. When her parents came across Fusion Academy, a tuition-based private school offering a one-to-one student-teacher ratio — both online and in the classroom — things started to go more smoothly for Gabriela. The school customized a program for her based on her learning style, passions and hobbies. Not only was bullying out of the picture, this new approach also meant that the family had the chance to travel to Mumbai, India, São Paulo and Cairo without interrupting Gabriela’s studies. Gabriela and her dad, Rafael, and mom, Lydia, are U.S. citizens but are based in London where Rafael works as an economist and often travels for work. He says it’s been a joy to see Gabriela combine her schoolwork with the real world. On their trip to Cairo, for example, the family had the opportunity to see the pyramids of Giza, tour the Nile River and visit the Egyptian museum. During this trip, Gabriela’s ancient civilizations teacher helped her integrate what she was learning in the classroom with her experiences. “All virtual classes are taught live and one-to-one by the teacher,” says Peter Ruppert, CEO and founder of iEducation Group, which runs Fusion >
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