Virtual Classroom Reality

Does anyone else find it strange that there is a chat room within Ryan's virtual classrooms?

Does this mean it's okay to talk to each other about Mine Craft and gaming instead of listening to the teacher?

It IS a supervised chat room and you CAN use it to communicate with the teacher.  For kids like Ryan who hesitate to speak.  Or kids (like Robert!) who like to draw attention to themselves.  Um.  Are all the kids on long distance education also on the autistic spectrum?!  There's an awful lot of boys with an awful lot of computer skills on there.  And atrocious spelling.

Oh dear.  Eye gess sp wont mater in the future.  Smily fase.  Punktiatin mark!

There are also smiley faces, checks and crosses and raised hands as a way to answer questions.  As well as sad faces and confused looking faces.

You can also text or type onto the white board.  Or scribble in various colours.

Which leaves you plenty of time to chat with your friend while the teacher reads the white board, answers questions asked verbally through the speakers, and counts the number of raised hands and smiley faces. 

I don't know if they have a sleeping face but they do have a bar that tells the teacher you have left the conversation.

This is allowed now?

Funny enough, all of these distractions are less disturbing to Ryan than the spit balls and teacher baiting and stupidity that went on in a real classroom.

But yes, I do worry that she is missing out on the vital skill of taping a hand written note to the bottom of the desk for her friend to find next period.

Not to mention handwriting itself.