Online Education for Gifted Children
Pros & Cons of Challenging the Gifted Child through Online Courses
Mar 21, 2009
Online education, and specific online courses in particular, may become an effective tool for challenging and encouraging gifted children to learn and develop their potentials.
However, though online education offers a wide range of subjects for a child to study, it has certain drawbacks as well. That is why parents should carefully examine both positive and negative sides of studying online before offering the child an online course.
The Advantages of Online Education for Gifted Children
In order for gifted children not to get bored and disinterested in studying, they have to be constantly challenged and encouraged. For this particular purpose, online courses can be of a great assistance to parents. These educational programs keep children busy, add to their academic and personal growth, and develop independent learning skills.
- Online education doesn’t require gifted children to wait for the weaker classmates to catch up with the material, as may often happen in a regular class.
- Children lean at their own pace.
- Online courses make gifted children learn to manage their time, so, they develop time management and organizational skills.
- Online education can offer courses that are not available at school or in the area where the child lives.
- Online discussion groups and forums make the child use and improve written communication skills.
- Children develop reading and reading comprehension skills, since most online courses present the material in a written form.
The Disadvantages of Online Education
- Taking an online course, the child may suffer from the lack of communication.
- Online education usually does not provide the child with encouragement and support from educators.
- The chosen online course is standard and can not be adjusted to the child’s individual learning needs. As a result, the child may get discouraged.
- An online course may not correspond to the child’s learning style.
- Children may study unsystematically. Online classes do not require studying at a particular time on specific days. While effective learning should be systematic, parents have to make sure the child studies regularly.
Online education can provide gifted children with a wide range of opportunities to enrich their knowledge and develop skills. Studying online develops the time management, organizational, reading and writing skills of the gifted children. However, lack of communication and support that are usually available in a regular class, may discourage and frustrate the child. Therefore, before offering a gifted child an online course, parents should make sure the course corresponds to the child’s learning style, interests, and abilities.
Those, who found this article useful, may also be interested in learning about Developing a Full Potential of Gifted Children. See Organizational Skills of Gifted Children to read about helping the child to get organized. To learn more about online education, see How to Get a Bachelor's Degree Online.
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