Distance Education for Talented Youth

A key attribute of online learning is its ability to meet the different academic needs of students. I found several interesting articles that describe the characteristics of vibrant ongoing distance education programs for gifted students. In an article that appeared in High Ability Studies titled "Distance education for gifted students: leveraging technology to expand academic options," author Patricia Wallace said "Distance education has emerged as a valuable option for a number of special populations of learners whose needs are more difficult to meet in the classroom, of which gifted students are one." Wallace is the director of the Information Technology and Distance Programs at the Center for Talented Youth (CTY) at Johns Hopkins University. CTY was one of the first distance education programs for gifted youth and is certainly one of the most popular gifted online programs in my community. CTY made its debut in 1984 with a single online writing course. Now the program features more than 45 online courses for gifted children from age 5 and up in a wide range of subjects. (Wallace, 2005).

What I found most interesting about the CTY program is that it isn't intended to replace the face-to-face classroom experience for gifted students, nor does it try to recreate a classroom environment. Instead, Wallace says CTY "provides gifted students who are attending school with year round options for advancement, acceleration and enrichment in the students' strongest subjects." Sometimes CTY online courses replace a single class at school (a gifted writer could take the CTY writing course in the computer lab at school instead of in her language arts course in school), or it supplements a classroom teacher's curriculum. Many gifted students take CTY courses during summer vacations (Wallace, 2005). This makes sense to me, especially for young adolescents, based on my observations of my very social students; they love spending time with their friends at school. A combination of face-to-face learning and specialized online learning seems ideal for young learners.

My last post addressed the pacing flexibility in the online course I'm observing. Advanced students may opt to take the Language Arts course at a pace that is twice as fast as traditional students. Wallace also feels that pacing in online courses must be flexible for gifted students. She says, "Typical gifted education courses in which material is presented at a predetermined pace and students proceed in lockstep regardless of ability are not ideal for gifted students, who vary considerably in their ability and interest levels and also their time commitments." She said CTY varies the formats of courses depending on the subject area. Students and teachers together decide on an appropriate pace. Drill and repetition, often unnecessary for gifted children, is usually omitted in CTY courses (Wallace, 2005). It sounds like the distance education program I'm observing attempts to modify the online curriculum as CTY does.

In her conclusion, Wallace makes an important point about distance education and gifted kids; it allows them to live at home, with their family and community, yet communicate and learn with other gifted kids from all over the globe. She says, "By leveraging information and communications technologies now widely available, distance education can reach gifted students throughout the year and engage them in learning activities appropriate to their ability levels, without taking them away from their local school environment. It can create a community of learners who are intellectual peers, capable of advanced academic challenges in particular areas, without regard to the geographic location of the students" (Wallace, 2005).


Wallace, P. (2005). Distance education for gifted students: leveraging technology to expand academic options. High Ability Studies, 16(1). Retrieved March 22, 2008 from ERIC database.