In numerous experiments,
students using self-paced, multi-sensory computerized education, in conjunction
with 
live
instruction, have progressed 200%, 400%, even 600% faster than students without
the computerized curriculum. Yet, public educators are only very slowing
beginning to implement the power of the computer. Students are the ones who are
short-changed.
One notable study at Ferris High School in Spokane, WA, for example, showed students using the system in one calendar year were advancing over five academic years in Vocabulary, Math and Language; about three academic years in Reading; and two academic years in Problem Solving.
In New Zealand, nine grade-schoolers were struggling below the 10th percentile in reading, which jeopardized all aspects of their education. The school provided every available intervention to no avail. Even one-on-one tutoring could not raise these boys above the 10th percentile. Then they were all given access 1/2 hour a day to the computerized, self-paced, self-directed multi-sensory Reading Master curriculum with NO TEACHER OVERSIGHT. Within five months, all nine boys were scoring above the 80th percentile.
Multimedia, interactive computer-based curricula appeal to most students with visual, auditory or tactile learning preferences, because a good multimedia curriculum includes all these senses simultaneously. Not only do students learn better, based on their learning preference, but their retention is multiplied because they are receiving the correlated input simultaneously through multiple senses.
After the Sumter, South Carolina (U.S.), public schools began using NovaNet with their at-risk students – the students many teachers had given up on – the expulsion rate dropped to 0 while the average grade-level skills in Math and English improved an AVERAGE OF 4.5 GRADE LEVELS IN ONE YEAR! In other words, the students had gone from being the very "stupidest" and most hopeless kids in class to become among the very brightest!
Imagine how their self-image has
changed! Imagine how their personal destinies have been dramatically altered for
the better.
Virtual-School.us, created by the International Education Institute, implements the full power of the computer, as well as human instructors.
Many students have failed when they have fully exchanged live instruction and classroom interaction for computerized instruction. Students need an instructor to provide clarification, individualized feedback, relevance, motivation, humanization, and application.
Virtual School will provide live instructors, tutoring and virtual classroom interaction in an online setting where students can see and hear their instructor; can see slides, a white board, and other visual aids; and can talk to their fellow students formally in class or casually in discussion groups as easily as if they were all in the same room geographically.
IEI's Virtual School will also
use other proven classroom strategies. Greater retention, comprehension and
application are achieved when students are required to internalized information,
mentally manipulate it, and re-express it as a tutor, a teacher or a writer.
Experts say students retain:
In two separate studies, for example, fifth-graders who were poor readers became reading tutors to second-graders who were also poor readers. The program worked great for the failing second-graders. In 12 weeks they progressed a whole year in their reading age. But the program worked even better for the fifth-grade tutors. They jumped ahead 3.5 years in their reading age in just 12 weeks. So, the cliché is true – the teacher does learn more than his students.
Students in IEI's Virtual School will be involved in much more than rote memorization. They will develop projects of personal interest, they will write research and journalistic reports, and they will lead discussion groups and tutor other students.