It was easy this week to find reasons to support facilitators for online learning. I most certainly think they are beneficial for middle and high school students who are taking online classes. As I defended my reasons for facilitators in my earlier blog posting however, I had to fight a small voice in my head that kept asking where this might lead.
A few years ago many schools, such as my own, had to make personnel changes because of changes in regulations requiring teachers to be "highly qualified" in the subject are in which they taught. For my school, this meant losing our computer (activity) teacher as she only held an associate's degree. In the years since, other schools have tried to find ways around this such as having a less qualified paraprofessional teach this type of class and have the teacher of record be a certified teacher who is giving lessons and overseeing the para, (not sure this is exactly legal, but it isn't my school), thus the school can get by with paying less for a non-certified teacher.
Although I am a big advocate of online learning, I do have those moments when I feel like a conspiracy nutjob. I fear things like (big business) Pearson delivering online content and hiring their own teachers to peddle their curriculum while schools hire facilitator (babysitters) in lieu of certified teachers in order to save money. I will admit I have no basis for this other than the things I have seen some schools do in order to meet the needs of the "rules" and the budget.
So are facilitators needed? Yes, but yes because they help the students. If the goal is the budget is balanced at this expense of on site certified teachers then I may have to rethink.
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