KFVS12 News & Weather Cape Girardeau, Carbondale, Poplar BluffCould computers replace snow days?

SIKESTON, MO (KFVS) - There may be a new way for kids to learn school lessons outside of the classroom on days that school is canceled.

One school in Parkville, MO used this new system, called virtual snow days, this winter when schools were closed due to ice and snow.

The idea is that students can access lessons and homework over the Internet by using a computer at home or even a cell phone.

Virtual snow days could one day eliminate the problem of schools having to tack on extra days to the end of the school year to make up for missed days.

"Whenever the pencil was invented, it changed everything," said Sikeston Schools Superintendent Steve Borgsmiller. "The new idea of virtual school could be the same stroke of brilliance."

Borgsmiller said that the Sikeston school district already does something similar. Students can go online and look at their assignments, whether they missed school or just missed an assignment.

While the idea may solve the problem of missed school days, critics wonder how effective it will be. If the lesson is a video students are required to click on and watch, they might not pay attention.

But if the lesson is more interactive like a live chat, or live lecture, school leaders say it might be more effective.

Borgsmiller said one of his biggest worries is how many students have access to the Internet. "Even though a large percentage of our children have access to the Internet in their home, we still have a certain percentage that do not."

He said a few years ago the district did a survey that showed just over fifty percent of students had access.

A few other school superintendents said they are worried how state regulations of school attendance will fit into this new virtual world.

"I'm not sure how they're going to do it because the way a lot of schools are funded in a lot of states, it has to do with that child on site, at that school, Borgsmiller said."

Borgsmiller still thinks all schools might head this way in the future.

"The traditional way of education and that we have known for a long time, and the industrial model of having the children housed in a little square in a little room, in different places in the community, I think that's going to change, he said."

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