Pre‐service teachers’ preconceptions, misconceptions, and concerns about virtual schooling

Editorial: Reimagining schools: The potential of virtual education

“…Allowing policies to develop in this way will thwart the development of sound virtual education practices. Therefore, it is essential that policies developed for virtual schools consider the affordances and constraints of the virtual environments in which they exist (Cavanaugh & Clark, 2007; Compton, Davis & Correia, 2010; Rice, 2009).…”

“…Other researchers stress that virtual education policymakers and practitioners move away from the assumptions on which current K–12 policies are built (Compton et al , 2010; Halverson & Smith, 2009), and instead consider the affordances and limitations that characterise virtual learning environments. One such affordance of virtual education is the freedom from spatial and temporal factors that currently constrain schooling (Bonk, 2009), allowing us to develop true anytime, anywhere modes of instruction (DiPietro, 2010).…”

“…The reputation of commercial and not‐for‐profit virtual education providers is optimised when policies are developed that can guide quality assurance assessments and sound practice. Presently, 80% of schools engaged in virtual education create their own programmes; yet, the use of commercial products continues to grow because schools are not provided clear guidelines or models articulating quality virtual education programmes (Compton et al , 2010; Oliver, Kellogg, Townsend & Brady, 2010). Continued lack of policy‐driven virtual education development could bring into question the quality and credibility of K–12 curricula, hindering future growth (Smith, 2007).…”

“…Another key component to support quality virtual education is teacher training both at the preservice and inservice levels (Compton et al , 2010). Currently, there is an enormous inconsistency in this area (Rice, 2009; Smith, 2007), which could thwart future quality and sustainability of virtual education endeavours.…”

Barcelona, Chicago, Toronto: Pre-Service Students Collaborate Using ICT to Learn about Teaching, Culture, and Themselves as Risk Takers

“…Pre-service teachers are commonly involved in mini-projects that ask them to imagine what it will be like when they have their own classroom. Useful as these experiences can be, many suffer from -un-realness‖ and perfunctory exercises (Lai, 2008;Compton et al, 2010;Cochran-Smith, 2011;Russell, 2012). The Barchito Project (Bar-Chi-To was the name given to the project because of the cities involved: Barcelona, Chicago, and Toronto) has been an effort to address the problem in a unique way by creating a collaborative learning experience with students from two different cultures and languages.…”