Никоненко Тамара Петрівна

Kelly Ryan lives in Kentucky in the USA and starts her new school year in August. She doesn’t go back to just one school, but two. As well as ordinary high school, she goes to virtual high school. Kelly wants to study history of art, but her local high school doesn’t teach it. So she’s taking it on the Internet.

Kentucky is one of the two states in America at the moment that of­fers virtual high school classes to all their school students — the oth­er is Florida. This is just the beginning. Virtual schools and universities are starting up all over the world. Some education experts think that in 20 years’ time, there’ll be no more real classrooms — only virtual ones.

So how does virtual school work? When Kelly gets home from regular school, she logs on to the Internet on the family computer. On the home page of her course web site she reads any messages from her teacher and other students. On the ‘What’s new’ page the teacher explains what the next piece of work is and where to find out about the subject on the Internet. Each student has a virtual course book. Kelly does her work here and only she and her teacher can look at it. She uses e-mail to talk to other students of the course (no more than 25) and her teacher. There is a text page where the teacher puts video clips, pieces of text to read and pictures to look at. Any extra materials, such as books, are sent through the post to Kelly’s home.

 Agree or disagree

1. Kelly Ryan lives in Florida in the USA and starts her new school year in August.
2. As well as ordinary high school, she goes to musical school.
3. Kelly wants to study history of art.
4. Kentucky is one of the three states in America at the moment that of­fers virtual high school classes to all their school students.
5. Some education experts think that in 40 years’ time, there’ll be no more real classrooms.
6. When Kelly gets home from regular school, she logs on to the Internet on the family computer.
7. On the home page of her course web site she reads any messages from her friends.
8. Each student has a virtual course book.
9. Kelly does her work here and only her parents can look at it.
10. She uses her telephone to talk to other students of the course (no more than 25) and her teacher.
11. There is a text page where the teacher puts video clips, pieces of text to read and pictures to look at.