Think Academy International Virtual School

(The material below is summarised from http://www.thisischile.cl/Articles.aspx?ID=3034&SEC=207&eje=Estudiar&t=chilean-students-benefit-from-virtual-education&idioma=2)

The Think Academy International Virtual School (Spanish: Colegio Virtual Think Academy) is based in Santiago, the capital of Chile. It was founded in 2008. According to experts, the method allows young people to learn more and to socialize better, in addition to bringing the cost of education down.

Now it will open the first fully virtual school in Chile. It will educate close to 60 students enrolled for this year

Students will use all of the tools that the Internet offers to be able to study and do their assignments from the comfort of their own homes.

To access the innovative system, the school's students log onto the website www.ta.cl, where they will study the different subjects that their teachers will teach them, using the advantages of video conferencing.

The Think Academy aims to establish a platform for virtual education in Chile. Enrollment has grown from 10 students in 2007 to almost 60 this year. Even the Principal's own children are enrolled in the virtual school.

The model is based on the education system in Finland, often, considered the best in the world. According to the University of Memphis, USA, the system allows students to socialize up to 9% more while learning 6% more compared to traditional parameters.

Likewise, the students aged 13-18 share their education and experiences with peers from Australia, New Zealand, the United States, England and Portugal, using a method that combines adventure and entertainment and provides a large amount of information using current technology to its maximum potential.

In the case of disabled people, classes are subtitled for the deaf and spoken for the blind.

For logistical reasons, the only class that is not taught is physical education. To overcome this limitation, students are authorized to go out and play with their friends or do sports after 1:30 PM. At the end of the year the youths must take open exams and they can even obtain a certificate from a school in the United States.

Next December the school will have the chance to engage in a more concrete analysis of the results, as that is the month that the first generation of graduates from the school will take the University Selection Exam (PDU).

The area of virtual education in Chile has experienced a significant boom over the last few years. Initiatives like the implementation of a virtual catalogue with the best technological tools for education, the development of educational video games and the creation of virtual platforms to improve reading comprehension are examples that demonstrate this positive situation.

Their web site is http://www.thinkacademy.cl/

References

• "Chilean students benefit from virtual education", This is Chile, June 2011, http://www.thisischile.cl/Articles.aspx?ID=3034&SEC=207&eje=Estudiar&t=chilean-students-benefit-from-virtual-education&idioma=2

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