Topic One: Challenges
Indeed! Although I briefly touched on the notion of the stigma sometimes attached to virtual schooling in last week's blog, I believe the article from Convergencemag.com really has a bead on this emerging field of education. This weeks reading presented by author Susan Patrick, highlighted many of the challenges that are associated with this fast-growing segment in K-12 education. I will attempt to focus on just two:
Challenge One: One Student, One Computer, One highly qualified and highly motivated teacher?
As is the case for many types of instructional technology before virtual schooling came along, many educators have been too quick to judgement on the this latest trend in educating the nations' students. Fear and loathing on this front is hidden under the guise that online education is inferior to bricks and mortar public schooling. On this issue, Patrick really hones in on the source of this fear by stating, "Online learning is not a technology issue. It is a curriculum and instruction issue." (p. 38). So, overcoming this challenge for some is just part of the culture of the teaching professions general attitude towards change associated with new technology. I believe that from what we've previewed on virtual learning in this class so far, teachers are going to be needed more than ever. While technology is the tool, the instructor must provide the mentorship, knowledge imparting skills, leadership, and guidance in the virtual school environment.
Challenge Two: Cash is King--follow the "Green" brick road.
The article cites some level of complaining from those in the virtual schooling business, that they are held to a higher standard than most traditional schools. I believe this is a good thing. It will allow districts to align their curriculum, bring in highly qualified and technologically savvy instructors, to form a more solid standards-based curriculum that in the end will help students succeed. The article suggests that funding for virtual schooling is one of the major obstacles to its growth and is a primary source of conflict among it's detractors. For me, I believe that it is the obstacle. The tax-based funding pie is only so big, and can barely fund the old model. This problem is well articulated by the author who cites former Iowa State Senator Richard Varn on the current state of affairs for funding issues in virtual education. Both the author and Senator Varn suggest that such conflict over financing of virtual schooling could be best handled by cost capturing. That is, there are many opportunities to redirect state budgets to allow for virtual education. Chiefly among them are, state-to-state and district-to-district credit acceptance of online learning, and dual enrollment or articulation agreements among highschool and post-secondary institutions. Perhaps the Minnesota State solution is best, the dollars follow the student model is argumentitively the most student-centered and cost effective, even if it means more virtual schooling.
Topic Two: Efficacy and Pedagogy-A case for the Virtual Environment
Detroit has a large variety of alternative schools, but they seem doomed to fail from a curriculum and instruction planning perspective due in part to their similar approach to pedagogy from the very institutions these At-Risk student came from. That is, in theory let's say we take 100-200 students who for a variety of reasons (social, economic, etc.) have not succeeded in the traditional high school. Now we concentrate them in an environment where they are now faced with a "last chance" mentality, with the same curriculum and instructional methods, or even "dumbed down" material, and we expect them to succeed? This is where I believe we fail these students.
Brick and mortar type schooling may not be the answer for this group. Perhaps it is time to give this special population a chance at online learning instead of "Last Chance" learning. A place where many of the instructors are not highly qualified, or even certified! Why not instead, allow them the latest technology, a more interactive curriculum, and more importantly, the necessary job-related higher order thinking skills that virtual schooling has to offer.
Brad.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Virtual School and Stigma
After reviewing the readings and watching the video clips on the history and current state of virtual schooling in the U.S., I would have to say that there were some surprises. First, I was rather shocked to read in Watson and Ryan (2007), that in order to teach for the Michigan Virtual School, I must first pass Michigan Virtual University's Online Instructors Course. I found this particularly disturbing, given the monopoly on MDE's alliance with MSU for provision of this training. If Virtual Schooling is indeed a growth area, one would think that the state would have the forethought to accredit more than one teacher prep school for this endeavor to meet growing demand. Further, nowhere does it state in Public Law 123 or 124, that Highly Qualified Teachers according to NCLB (MTTC qualified and graduates of state approved teacher education programs) cannot teach these courses. How is it I can teach Virtual High School in another state that has reciprocity with Michigan, but I cannot teach at the only VS system in this state? This one is begging for a court challenge under the Full Faith and Credit Article in the Constitution (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Faith_and_Credit_Clause ).
Secondly, I did not realize that there was such varying degrees of support, either financially or politically, for virtual schooling as one reads the state-by-state comparisons in Watson & Ryan. Some programs receive Federal funding (Colorado), some states fully embrace it (California), while others treat it with the stigma that correspondance schools once had (New Mexico). While I realize that Public education is mostly a state controlled venture, there are already enough inequities built into the system to hinder student progress. In addition, until Michael made note of the differentiation in definitions of Cyber School and Virtual School, I wouldn't have known there was a difference. Overall, I am suprised at the level of work that appears to go into planning and preparing for teaching a virtual school class using the course management system with it's high levels of feedback and communication requirements. As the NACOL article suggests, the isolated virtual school student is definitely a myth from the examples of Synchronous and Asychronous modules provided in Michael's lecture on IVHS.
Next, what I did know about Virtual School was that it existed in just about every state in the U.S., and every province in Canada. In fact, my experience as a participant of online learning and its early forms span more than a decade. While trying to complete my undergrad degree, I had taken a few courses that were hybrid correspondence, video, audio, and even web-based over that time. Fast forward to 2004, where I even spent a year in a California law school pursuing a J.D. via online/correspondance before the state passed a law requiring all Baby Bar participants to have a Social Security Number (I'm still waiting!). Since then, I have taken almost all of my Graduate CTE classes at WSU in a virtual environment, which for a commuting Canadian I am most grateful given the tie-ups at the tunnel on some days.
Finally, I have to admit that I have gained quite a bit of knowledge on the subject of the history of Instructional Technology, ergo virtual school, because of the IT 7100 course I am taking this semester with Prof. Mihalak. She had us do some readings on the history of IT, which included the many independent learning forms discussed in the Clark (2007) reading . It also happens to be the subject of my term paper in that class too.
Brad.
Note: California is the only state that allows alternative forms of earning a J.D. God Bless the Republic and Arnie too! Someday, I will finish that degree too.
Secondly, I did not realize that there was such varying degrees of support, either financially or politically, for virtual schooling as one reads the state-by-state comparisons in Watson & Ryan. Some programs receive Federal funding (Colorado), some states fully embrace it (California), while others treat it with the stigma that correspondance schools once had (New Mexico). While I realize that Public education is mostly a state controlled venture, there are already enough inequities built into the system to hinder student progress. In addition, until Michael made note of the differentiation in definitions of Cyber School and Virtual School, I wouldn't have known there was a difference. Overall, I am suprised at the level of work that appears to go into planning and preparing for teaching a virtual school class using the course management system with it's high levels of feedback and communication requirements. As the NACOL article suggests, the isolated virtual school student is definitely a myth from the examples of Synchronous and Asychronous modules provided in Michael's lecture on IVHS.
Next, what I did know about Virtual School was that it existed in just about every state in the U.S., and every province in Canada. In fact, my experience as a participant of online learning and its early forms span more than a decade. While trying to complete my undergrad degree, I had taken a few courses that were hybrid correspondence, video, audio, and even web-based over that time. Fast forward to 2004, where I even spent a year in a California law school pursuing a J.D. via online/correspondance before the state passed a law requiring all Baby Bar participants to have a Social Security Number (I'm still waiting!). Since then, I have taken almost all of my Graduate CTE classes at WSU in a virtual environment, which for a commuting Canadian I am most grateful given the tie-ups at the tunnel on some days.
Finally, I have to admit that I have gained quite a bit of knowledge on the subject of the history of Instructional Technology, ergo virtual school, because of the IT 7100 course I am taking this semester with Prof. Mihalak. She had us do some readings on the history of IT, which included the many independent learning forms discussed in the Clark (2007) reading . It also happens to be the subject of my term paper in that class too.
Brad.
Note: California is the only state that allows alternative forms of earning a J.D. God Bless the Republic and Arnie too! Someday, I will finish that degree too.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Emerging Technology and The Great Divide
I read this weeks reading in the Horizon Report (2008) with great interest and contemplation. The potential for many of the emerging technologies discussed therein are as numerous as the mind can wander. While they would all certainly have useful and practical uses in the classroom, I believe that the Grassroots Video category shows the most immediate and user-friendly use for the K-12 setting. I have to look no further than my own home to see the potential and wide reaching implications of the YouTube "movement". My three children ranging in ages 6-13 will often congregate around the family room computer to view the latest buzz about a funny video, music video, or even instructions on how to make or do something. The technology is easy to use and provides instant gratification for the audience. For this reason, I believe the Grassroots Video category will have the greatest impact on teaching in general.
While content can be a source of concern to educators of all subjects, I believe a sort of filter could be explored by concerned administrators to address the wide open content available on site's like YouTube. I believe this is where the emerging technology converges based on the overviews of each one discussed in the Horizon Report. For instance, tagging and labels (Collective Intelligence), can make the task of finding appropriate materials easier. As users compile tags and data on Wiki-type sites, the compiled labels, tags, and other relevant intelligence gathering on a topic can function as a necessary filter for student use. Data Mashup technology also has an ability to "reverse" filter the data by pulling in only relevant data and RSS feeds to a single site using multiple forms of data that can be edited by the user or teacher (see Horizons Report 2008, p. 20). For me, the Collective Intelligence is the pre-cursor to Data Mashups, and when combined, hold the most promise for educators looking to combine the Internet into analysis, synthesis, and evaluation for teaching and learning purposes. This anti-teach-to-the-test recipe for weaving Web content into your classrooms will, without a doubt, transform the types of content available for my teacher toolbox. To me, these are the most exiting of the categories and as such, are inseparable.
Finally, due to the overwhelming negative position on use of cellphones in the classroom by the teaching profession (mine included), I feel that this technology will not make it's way into the classroom in a meaningful or sizeable way any time soon. Many Districts have a no cell phone policy during instruction or even during school hours. This is a controversial topic and would take years to fix.
While content can be a source of concern to educators of all subjects, I believe a sort of filter could be explored by concerned administrators to address the wide open content available on site's like YouTube. I believe this is where the emerging technology converges based on the overviews of each one discussed in the Horizon Report. For instance, tagging and labels (Collective Intelligence), can make the task of finding appropriate materials easier. As users compile tags and data on Wiki-type sites, the compiled labels, tags, and other relevant intelligence gathering on a topic can function as a necessary filter for student use. Data Mashup technology also has an ability to "reverse" filter the data by pulling in only relevant data and RSS feeds to a single site using multiple forms of data that can be edited by the user or teacher (see Horizons Report 2008, p. 20). For me, the Collective Intelligence is the pre-cursor to Data Mashups, and when combined, hold the most promise for educators looking to combine the Internet into analysis, synthesis, and evaluation for teaching and learning purposes. This anti-teach-to-the-test recipe for weaving Web content into your classrooms will, without a doubt, transform the types of content available for my teacher toolbox. To me, these are the most exiting of the categories and as such, are inseparable.
Finally, due to the overwhelming negative position on use of cellphones in the classroom by the teaching profession (mine included), I feel that this technology will not make it's way into the classroom in a meaningful or sizeable way any time soon. Many Districts have a no cell phone policy during instruction or even during school hours. This is a controversial topic and would take years to fix.
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