Necessity as the "mother of invention"

They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and an experience this past winter at Veritas was testimony to that saying's veracity.  I had come down with the same viral infection that plagued so many local residents.  It was a nasty little bug and a persistent one, with a hasty onslaught but a protracted departure.  I felt truly awful all week, but unlike teachers in a traditional program I could not simply call in sick and get a sub. 

The first two days of my illness I was able to make it through by shortening the school day, but by mid-week I had reached my limit.  What to do?  The "necessity" was giving me time to rest while separated from the others who might potentially be infected, but not lose any academic instruction time.  The "invention" was not anything new, rather a new application of an available technology -- Skype.  Skype, of course, is a means of communicating with others in live chat modes (audio and video capability) via the Internet rather than phone lines (landlines or wireless).  Conference calls are as easy as dragging multiple callers from the contact list to the call log.  And it's free!  That's my favorite kind of technology. 

The bottom line is that for the next two days the students and their sick teacher met each other online first thing in the morning and were able to stay in touch with each other throughout the school day.  The students conferred with each other, completed a biology test, did math together and were more motivated and interested in their school work than they would have been on campus.  One student began to wonder why "regular" school even exists.  That brings me to the subject for this blog entry.

There have been a lot of news spots during this economic downturn discussing how various businesses are responding to it.  One interesting result has been an increased number of businesses that allow their employees to work from home one or two days a week.  They have discovered -- as we did this past semester -- that staying at home does not mean remaining out of touch.  In today's technological climate it is not only easy to communicate with the office from home, but most of the tool's needed to do "office" work are also at home.  Why not save utilities, gas expense and other costs while at the same time improving the mental health of the workers by allowing them to complete tasks in the comfort of their own homes?  A true "win-win" scenario.  The application to the educational sector is probably evident, but I'll get back to that in a moment.

Here's another, equally important issue to consider related to "at home" work.  During this last decade a tremendous amount of attention was focused on security for the huge mega-campuses that have become so popular in recent years.  Hundreds of millions of dollars are being diverted from instructional uses to these security needs.  I wonder if we won't see a reversal of this trend as schools begin to look to the corporate world practice of stay-at-home employees and apply something similar to school instruction, particularly for older students for whom supervision and childcare is not an issue.

And here's the education-sector application of putting in one's "office" time while at home.  What if high school students could take their coursework online, from the privacy of their homes?  Virtual schools do exactly that, but although they have been around for a while they are not as prevalent as one might expect.  One significant reason for this may be that most virtual schools accommodate interaction between the stay-at-home student and online instructor, but provide no interaction between the students themselves.  But what if a school would provide that interaction, in a manner similar to what our students did during this past winter's flu season?

This next school year Veritas Varsity will be going virtual!  We are, once again, charting new waters in the educational arena by offering our program in a virtual format (online, in other words), but with unique programming to accommodate interaction between students and their instructors, but also among the students themselves.  In addition, our program will be extended to allow for on campus interaction one day/week for students living close enough to Waco to make that feasible.  And our exciting travel experiences that make Veritas a truly one-of-kind educational experience will be extended as an option to all our students, whether living in proximity to our campus or hundreds or even thousands of miles away, whether enrolled in our full-time program, or taking only one course online.

We've been on the cutting edge of educational ideas and reform since our inception in 2009 so this latest venture should not surprise our readers.  Once again Veritas has shown in action (rather than merely in words) that Veritas Varsity -- now virtual! -- is indeed, "an idea whose time has come."