About WISE Online High School

The WISE Classroom

Although Richard Milburn High School is rooted in traditional brick and mortar classrooms, its WISE online high school is not a physical entity. Students do not attend traditional lectures or confine themselves to traditional classrooms. All interaction takes place in cyberspace, via the student's computer. A WISE summer course taught over the web doesn't require students to possess special technical skills. They need little more than a basic understanding of how to click on links in a web browser, a skill many already know or can readily learn in a single sitting.

WISE offers a viable alternative to the classroom, and one that combines the benefits of on-site courses with the flexibility and privacy of self-study. The result is a multimedia classroom which students can attend when they want, where they want, going online from home or practically anywhere in the world—simply by connecting to the internet. WISE courses make effective use of asynchronous communication where the sender and receiver of messages do not have to be present at the same time. Asynchronous communication is more convenient and adaptable to a student's schedule, has no geographic boundaries and allows for interactions that are more thoughtful. WISE courses allow the teacher to identify a topic, determine tasks, and define the kind of interaction that will take place.