Tom Vander Ark: How Edtech will Benefit Low-Income Students

Digital learning will benefit all students—particularly students from low income families where education leaders are proactive.  In light of the ‘OER exacerbates the gap’ flap  launched by Justin Reich’s blog and Audrey Watter’s response (see the post below this one for links), I thought it would be worth expanding on the ways in which Edtech, blended learning, and open education resources (OER) will benefit low income kids. Click here to see my 10 ways that digital learning will benefit low income students.

Guest Commentary: Open Education Resources and Educational Inequality

Audrey Watters is a technology journalist, freelance writer, ed-tech advocate, recovering academic, and a self-proclaimed rabble-rouser at her blog "Hack Education."
Earlier this month, Watters took aim at a  post on the blog "Educational Technology Debate" by Justin Reich on Open Education Resources and the Digital Divide.
"Reich’s story, along with his related research, raises important questions about whether or not the push for more OER is really benefiting all students in the ways that we pat ourselves on the backs, thinking that it is," she writes.
"Everyone benefits, yes. But in practice, Reich argues, not everyone benefits equally, nor in a way that’s going to close any sort of achievement gap. Rather, more affluent students may actually benefit disproportionately from OER, in part because both teachers and students have the time and the technological capacity to do more with the material," Watters adds.
Click here to read more.

Guest Commentary: A 10-Year Update on Tech & Education

Interactive Learning, a web site is dedicated to demonstrating how schools can use technology for teaching and learning, recently published an excerpt from "Technology in Schools: What the Research Says – A 2009 Update,"  a report issued by Cisco and the Metiri group, and written by Cheryl Lemke, Ed Coughlin, Daren Reitsneider.

The authors ask some provocative questions. 

"Have we over-promised and under-delivered with technology? A recent report suggests that the lack of dramatic results attributable to technology in schools is not the fault of the technology, but rather the lack of systemic changes needed to accommodate the technology, writes Jim Rosso, who authored the Interactive Learning overview.

"After three decades of technology in the schools, some people are expressing concern about the lack of transformative change that has resulted. As the report states, 'The reality is that advocates have over-promised the ability of educators to extract a learning return on technology investments in school,' " Rosso writes.

Where did virtual education advocates go wrong?

"The error was in underestimating the critical need for the system changes required to use technologies effectively in learning," Rosso attributes to the report.

Click here to read more about this thought-provoking report.

Guest Commentary: Michael Petrilli Praises 'Performance Pay--for Online Learning Companies'

The virtual education community continues to be abuzz about a New York Times article on K12 Inc.
Michael Petrilli, executive vice president at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, recently took aim at the Times article in a piece for the Education Next website.
"Whether you consider yeserday’s New York Times article on K12.com a “hit piece” (Tom Vander Ark) or a “blockbuster” (Dana Goldstein), there’s little doubt that it will have a long-term impact on the debate around digital learning," Petrilli wrote.
"Just as these criticisms aren’t going away, neither is online learning itself. The genie is out of the bottle. So how can we go about drafting policies that will push digital learning in the direction of quality?" he added.
Click here to read Petrill's complete post.

Guest Commentary: NRO Contributor Looks at 'States vs. Digital Learning Revolution'

The work of Lance T. Izumi, the senior director of Education Studies at the Pacific Research Institute and co-author of "Short-Circuited: The Challenges Facing the Online Learning Revolution in California" frequently appear in the Liberating Learning Blog.
Recently, Izumi contributed an article to the National Review Online in which he asserts that state governments and teachers unions are setting up roadblocks to the expansion of digital learning.
"Digital learning is not just the wave of the future; it is the tidal wave of the future. Government and special interests need to get out of the way and let this future in so that parents can exercise their fundamental right to choose the type of education that best meets the individual needs of their children," Izumi writes.
He even quotes Terry M. Moe, co-author of  the book "Liberating Learning: Technology, Politics and the Future of American Education" in the article.
Click here for the complete post.

Tom Vander Ark: A Kentucky Blend

Recently, I met with Kentucky Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday and the Kentucky Board of Education. Kentucky was the first state to adopt the Common Core and will soon it will shift to online assessment.
With Kentucky Virtual, the state was an early leader in providing virtual learning options.  But now, through intra-district arrangements, Jefferson County eSchool and Barren Bavel Academy serve far more students statewide.  In keeping with Digital Learning Now recommendations, I’ve been recommending that the state shift from provider to authorizer and invite more providers to expand student options.
Like other states, the Kentucky board is beginning to think about how encourage quality digital learning. Click here to learn more about my discussions with Kentucky education officials and why I believe Kentucky will be a state to watch in 2012.

Michael B. Horn: Is Mandating Online Learning Good Policy?

I’ve never been bullish on mandates. As a general rule, they tend to distort markets and sectors, have unintended consequences down the line at best and immediately at worst, and lock in ways of doing things at the expense of innovation.
That said, an increasing number of advocates for online learning have come out in favor of mandating that states require students take at least one college- or career-prep course online to earn a high school diploma. Digital Learning Now!, a national campaign chaired by former Govs. Jeb Bush and Bob Wise to advance policies to create a high quality digital learning environment for each student–and where I serve as a “Digital Luminary,” is on board as well.
States are taking notice. Michigan jumped in first with an online-learning requirement for graduation five years ago, and Alabama quickly followed suit. In the last year, Florida and Idaho have jumped on board as well, and districts, such as Tennessee’s Putnam County schools, have adopted an online-learning graduation requirement, too.
But is an online-learning requirement a good idea?
Click here to read more about my thoughts.

Guest Commentary: Lessons Learned from a Blended Learning Pilot

Remember that assignment you got back in the fall? The one where you were asked, "What did you do this summer?" Well Envision Schools, Google, and the Stanford University D. School ( the Hasso Plattner School of Design) finally turned their report in. 

This report is a game-changer and a must read.

"Blend My Learning: Lessons Learned from a Blended Learning Pilot,"  is a dispatch from the frontlines of disruptive innovation in education. The goal was "to chronicle the performance and engagement of low-performing high school algebra students receiving a mix of traditional teacher-led instruction and self-guided instruction through the Khan Academy website," according the researchers.

"The quantitative results show that students in the 'control' or traditional summer school course increased their average percentage of correct answers by 5.2% over the five-week period, while the students in the 'treatment' or Khan class, on average, showed a 6.4% increase in their percentage of correct answers," the report added.

Now don't get the impression that this report swoons over the so-called "Flipped Classroom" model. The report asks some tough questions, which the researchers report there are no easy answers.

This report provides a realistic take on a blended learning environment using Khan videos. From classroom set up to software and hardware (students used Google Chrome laptops) the the pluses and minuses of the Khan system (yes, there were some short-comings to the Khan program, which according to the report, led to changes). The researchers even warned readers to take the above mentioned results with a grain of salt. Yes, they are high on the future of blended learning, but the researchers still had a lot of questions on whether Khan's videos and blended learning will work on a large stage.

Click here to read the complete report. (H/T EdSurge.)

Tom Vander Ark: How Will the Shift to Digital Learning Happen?

I visited Wireless Generation last week and received so many great questions, I’ve been answering a few at a time.
Click here to read the Q & A and to learn about my 10 change strategies that build on trends and may accelerate the transition to personal digital learning.

Guest Commentary: CQ Researcher Pro/Con 'Should Schools Use As Much Digital Technology as They Can Afford?'

CQ Researcher, the backbone for general research in politics, public policy, and American institutions of all kind, has taken an in-depth look at the growth and future of K-12 online learning in the United States.
The report, "Digital Education: Can technology replace classroom teachers?" includes a debate between Curt Bonk, an Indiana University technology professor and Paul Thomas, an associate professor of education at Furman University.
Their topic: "Should schools use as much digital technology as they can afford?"
Bonk is a definite "yes."
"Effective learning requires an environment designed for multiple paths to success," Bonk writes. In the 21st century, digital technologies--social networking, e-books, shared online video, mobile applications, virtual worlds, collaborative tools, etc.--enhance the learning opportunities for untold millions of learners."
On the "no" side, Thomas warns that "the foundational principles of public education for democracy and human agency must not fall prey to preparing children for the future by perpetually acquiring new technology because we can never know that future."
Click here to read both sides of the debate.
(H/T to CQ Researcher for citing Liberating Learning's 50-State Wiki Project as a place to track state developments in online learning politics and policies).

Tom Vander Ark: Questions About Digital Learning

I visited Wireless Generation, a leading education technology company, in Brooklyn this week.  In a discussion about my new book "Getting Smart," a couple dozen employees including teachers and technologists asked great questions about the future of learning.

Question: Your book includes a lot of “in 5-10 years” predictions, but online learning has been around for over 10 years and it still hasn’t been widely adopted by schools.  So why now?  Why haven’t we already seen the digital learning revolution, and what’s different about today that makes schools ready to accept these new forms of learning?
Click here to read the answer to this question, and the others that made for a lively debate.

Guest Commentary: Brian Bridges of California Learning Resource Network Asks 'Does Online Learning Work?'

“Just because online learning can work does not mean that online learning will work.” (Keeping Pace, 2011)
That's how Brian Bridges, executive director of the Californina Learning Resource Network, which provides resources to help California educators identify and acquire digital learning tools, starts his most recent post.
Yes, this is another volley being fired in the war of words and policy over accountability issues in K-12 virtual education community.
 According to Bridges, the line from the 2011 edition of Keeping Pace is spot on. " But you wouldn’t know it from the variety of recent reports and blogs about online learning. To summarize them, online learning is either all bad, consisting of for-profit companies churning out students who are far below grade level, or that they are all good and that eLearning is transforming teaching and learning," Bridges writes.
"The truth, I’m afraid, is somewhere in the middle and I’m somewhat disappointed that many eLearning advocates, those who believe in the promise and potential of online learning, are not more forthcoming about acknowledging some of the problems that do exist in virtual schools."
Click here to read Bridges' complete post on an issue that will surely continue to be debated in 2012.

Guest Commentary: Harvard Professor Edward Glaeser Says it's Time for 'E-Vouchers'

Edward L. Glaeser, a professor of economics at Harvard University and  author of “The Triumph of the City,’’ writes a regular column in the Boston Globe. Recently, Glaeser took a bold stand that would push the Federal Communication Commission beyond one of its current goals.
"The FCC is now considering whether to use some E-Rate money on a new digital-literacy training initiative. But the agency should go further and retool the program to promote educational innovation by rewarding e-learning systems that demonstrably increase student skills, and encourage competition, by providing schools with vouchers to buy effective new technologies," Glaeser wrote.
Click here to read his complete column.

Guest Commentary: Lance Izumi on How California Impededs Digital Learning.

There's a lot of California dreaming going on and the focus is improving the state's atmosphere for expanding online learning opportunities.
Earlier this fall, education blogger John Fensterwald called California a "backwater for K-12 online learning."
A few weeks ago, a plan to  an online learning initiative on the November 2012 ballot.
"The California Student Bill of Rights," the supporters say, would greatly expand high school online education, while breaking down geographic and other barriers that are denying many rural and urban students equal opportunities to attend a four-year public university.
Now, Lance Izumi, senior director of Education Studies at the Pacific Research Institute, using Digital Learn Now's online learning report, to show how California is short-changing students who want to take classes online.
"Jim Konantz, a top official at a large digital-learning company, says that he is surprised that much of the online-education technology "started out here in Silicon Valley, and we're the last to get on board here in California," Izumi writes.
Click here to read Izumi's complete article.

Guest Commentary: A 360-degree look at Fordham Institute's 'Creating Sound Policy for Digital Learning' Series

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute has given the virtual education community something to talk about.
Earlier this year, the institute announced an initiative to look at policy issues surrounding digital learning. The first report, by Rick Hess, was a no-holds barred take on the lack of accountability in online learning programs.
The debate over that paper continues and is still heated.
Now, the Fordham Institute has release two more papers in what is promised to be a five-part series. "Teachers in the Age of Digital Instruction," is written by Bryan C. Hassel and Emily Ayscue Hassel, the co-directors of Public Impact, a North Carolina-based education policy and management consulting firm.
Paul T. Hill, the director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington, Bothell, is the author of the second recently released report, "School Finance in the Digital-Learning Era."
The Hassels, according to Fordham, "propose a smaller—but more talented and better paid—teaching force with its impact magnified through the expanded reach and efficiency allowed by digital technology."
Hill, the institute reports, "explains why our current school funding system could cripple the promise of digital learning—and then proposes innovative solutions."
It didn't take long for people to respond to both studies.
Liberating Learning Blog contributor Tom Vander Ark takes a thoughtful look at both papers. The Hassels "teachers report," according to Vander Ark, "this is the best current description of the implications of digital learning on learning professionals."
If states actually did what Hill suggest in his school finance paper, Vander Ark adds, "I think it would cause a digital learning revolution."
Education Sector's Bill Tucker says the Hassels "paper both rightly recognizes the fallacy of technology replacing teachers and appropriately posits that digital tools will be limited in potential if shoved into traditional teaching models."
As for Hill's "school finance" paper, Tucker says readers might take his ideas beyond the education arena.
"While many might reflectively reject Hill’s ideas as a digital-age voucher, there’s also the kernel of another more radical idea. If taken to its logical extreme, localities might not just assemble K-12 funding, but also those for all sorts of other services, such as juvenile justice, mental health, out-of-school programs, etc., enabling an approach that just might resemble a digital-era Harlem Children’s Zone," Tucker writes.
If the response to the Hess paper is any indication, this is just the first round of reviews of this part of the Fordham series.

Guest Commentary: 'City Journal' on Disrupting Class

Larry Sand is a retired teacher and president of the California Teachers Empowerment Network, a group educators in California came about when several teachers became aware that they were not getting the type of balanced information at their school sites which would enable them to make informed decisions related to their profession.
Sand recently wrote an article for City Journal, an website devoted to urban policy issues.
"Slowly but surely, 'disruptive technology' is penetrating the nation’s ossified public education system. The effects may be liberating for students, but they would be devastating for teachers’ unions. In his extraordinary book, Special Interest, Stanford political scientist and Hoover Institution senior fellow Terry Moe describes a succession of union victories—for tenure, strike rights, and seniority protection; against accountability, charter schools, and vouchers for disadvantaged families. But Moe argues that those victories won’t last. Union power will be marginalized, in part, by online learning. Emerging technology-based education, Moe writes, is the 'long-term trend . . . and the unions cannot stop it from happening,' " Sand writes.
"The greater ramifications of digital learning—and the greater threat to union preeminence—will be seen at the K-12 level," Sand adds.
Click here to read his complete post.

Guest Commentary: County School Board President Wonders if 'Rocketship Vote a Game-Changer?'

Joe DiSalvo is president of the Santa Clara County Board of Education. He also  writes a weekly blog for San Jose Inside, an online publication dedicated to ”encouraging political debate," in San Jose.
On the eve of an important vote about the future of  Rocketship Education, charter schools and blended learning in the heart of Silicon Valley, DiSalvo posted this on the SJ Inside blog.
"I wonder if the growing presence of high quality charter schools in Santa Clara County will serve as the revolution for eliminating the achievement gap. Will innovative means of learning be the norm? Is the timing right for a revolution in our public school system in Santa Clara County? Will the status quo prevail? Or, can change be the only constant now?
"We will know answers to some of these questions after the Santa Clara County Office of Education board meeting this week," he continued.
"On Wednesday, Nov. 16, sometime after 6:30 p.m., the Board of Trustees will vote on petitions to authorize (or not) Rocketship Schools 6, 7, and 8—all potentially opening in August 2012.
"Also on Wednesday’s agenda, the county board will hold a mandatory public hearing on 20 additional Rocketship Countywide Charter Schools to open in San Jose and Santa Clara County over the next four years. If all receive approval, Rocketship will have 28 total charter schools in the county and approximately 15,000 K-5 grade students," DiSalvo added.
Click here to read DiSalvo's views on the behind-the-scene maneuvering before the vote.
Check back with Liberating Learning. We'll keep you updated on the Rocketship Ed vote.

Guest Commentary: Reimaging the School Day

Education Sector's Elena Silva and Susan Headden reported on a recent Wallace Foundation  forum on extended learning time. Their report is called "Reimagining the School Day."
The forum brought together educators, policymakers, and community leaders to talk about challenges of expanding learning opportunities for students outside of the traditional school day.
"Not all designs for expanded learning are about stretching the school year and school day," the researchers wrote. "Digital technology holds promise as well."
Click here to for the complete report.

 

Guest Commentary: EdWeek on Virtual Education's Accountability Movement

Ian Quillen follows virtual education  for Education Week and contributes to EdWeek's Digital Education blog. He's been attending the International Association of K-12 Online Learning symposium this week.
One of the issues he wrote about is the "shift toward emphasizing accountability and transparency" in online learning programs.
According to Quillen, authors and sponsors of this year's  Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning report say the focus on accountability of online learning "should be embraced, not feared."
"When these programs started, they started out of a point of pain. As a result, there wasn't a lot of measurability or a lot of accountability. I think that's changed a lot, and the report reflects that, Quillen quotes Andy Scantland, the vice president of sales and marketing for Advanced Academics Inc., the Oklahoma City-based provider of public and private online programs, and a sponsor of the report from the Evergreen Group of Durango, Colo., as saying.
Click here to read Quillen's complete blog post.

Tom Vander Ark: 10 Big Advance in the Past 12 Months

Fifteen years ago when I was a superintendent, online learning was a new idea in K-12.  Six years ago when Susan Patrick joined iNACOL as Executive Director, it represented a small but growing fringe.  And now, while many reform groups continue to fight old battles, iNACOL is front and center helping to invent the future of learning.
My year as board chair for the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) concluded today.  It has been a year of great progress in online and blended learning.  Click here to read what I believe are 10 big advances over the last 12 months.

Guest Commentary: The Releationship Between Teachers and EdTech: It's Complicated.

Roxanna Elden, author of See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers and  who teaches in Miami, recently completed a turn as a guest blogger for EdWeek venue "Rick Hess Straight Up."
Elden took the opportunity to share her thoughts--and what she says are the thoughts of many teachers--about education technology and classrooms.
"These days, we run into you everywhere. People who say you're just what we need have gone out of their way to introduce you, and are quick to criticize us for not showing more interest. So why aren't we more into you? Well, if you want to win teachers over, you have to understand where we're coming from," she wrote.
Click here to read why Elden says the relationship between teachers and technology is complicated.

Tom Vander Ark: My Tedx Manhattan Beach Talk

In October, I made a presentation at the Tedx Conference in Manhattan Beach, Calif.
In front of a big screen, I talked about the power of personal digital learning.
You know, about one-third of our kids don't graduate from high school. Another third don't graduate ready for college.
That's about two-thirds of our kids who are not ready for the idea economy.
We can do better.
Take a look at this short video and see why I believe digital learning will bring customization, motivation and equalization to education.

.

Guest Commentary: Q&A with Integrated Educational Strategies President

The Hechinger Report is a  nonprofit news organization that is focused on producing in-depth education journalism. This week it posted an interview with Lisa Gillis, president of Integrated Educational Strategies, a nonprofit that helps schools and district develop educational digital solutions.
Gillis is a blended learning advocate and her nonprofit's work has been featured in  “The Rise of the K-12 Blended Learning” by the Innosight Institute.
Click here to read more about Gillis, her firm and why she believes it is important to include digital learning platforms in all areas of education.

Tom Vander Ark: 10 Reasons the Shift May be Happening Faster Than You Think

At the State EdTech Directors Association (SETDA) annual conference I talked about a dozen of the factors accelerating the shift to digital learning:
The old system is being enveloped by new capabilities and the pace of tech development continues to accelerate.  We’re living on an exponential curve.  The warning on your rear view mirror may say: Objects may be closer than they appear. But in this case, objects (and events) straight in front of us are closer than they appear
Click here to read my top 10 and find out why I believe the shift to digital learning is happening faster than some anticipated.

Michael B, Horn: What We Can Learn About Learning

Bror Saxberg, the chief learning officer of Kaplan, Inc., is a man for whom I have great respect. Whenever I have a question about the science behind learning, he is the first person I turn to. He verses himself in the latest in cognitive and neuroscience research and applies his multiple degrees to great use.
When he forwarded me his recent blog titled “What to learn from a learning grant process,” I dove in with some excitement as he talked about his work helping review science and math grant applications for the Institute of Education Sciences within the Department of Education and posed some bigger questions and comparisons with health care. It’s worth the read.
Given that he knows so much more than I do about these topics—this is not my area of expertise even though I read about and am fascinated by the science behind learning—it is with some trepidation that I therefore am wading in to respond to his blog. I’m not sure he’ll disagree with anything I say here, but I figure that I should tread carefully. Click here to read more.

Tom Vander Ark vs. the National Education Policy Center

These days the  big dust up in the virtual education community is over a report that critical of virtual education as a replacement for the kind of education so commonplace inside bricks-and-mortar schools.
“There’s zero high-quality research evidence that full-time virtual schooling at the K-12 level is an adequate replacement for traditional face-to-face teaching and learning,” according to the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) report Online K-12 Schooling in the U.S.: Uncertain Private Ventures in Need of Public Regulation.
Adds Justin Bathon, University of Kentucky education professor and attorney, who, as a companion piece to the NEPC report,  has created model legislation language for regulation of online schools: "Virtual schooling is a good idea. Over the past decade or so, online education has proven itself a valuable component of the learning system, from elementary to post-secondary. I personally use a lot of online learning in my own teaching, so I am a tried and true advocate for online learning.
"But, it needs to grow up. And fast. As online learning approaches the knee of the exponential curve, we can’t ignore it as just a small tangential sandbox. With 200,000 full-time virtual students nationwide and growing, it is core to the system now and we need to treat it that way."
Liberating Learning Blog contributor Tom Vander Ark sees this situation--and the report--in another light. In a post headlined "Union Policy Shop Wants to Stop Online Learning," Vander Ark called the report a "hit piece on online learning."
"The real purpose of this hit piece is to block K12, Connections, and other private organizations from serving students," Vander Ark added.
Click here for all of Vander Ark's post.
Click here for the National Education Policy report.
Click here for Bathon's view and here for his model legislation outline.

A 360-degree Discussion about EdTech and a New York Times Series on Digital Learning

It seems as if every month or so, the New York Times publishes a story that it bills as being part of its "Grading the Digital School" series. Recently, a Times staff writer took a look at a Silicon Valley campus of a Waldorf School, a chain of schools that takes pride in its no-tech approach to education, where, according to the article, "the chief technology officer of eBay sends his children to a nine-classroom school here. So do employees of Silicon Valley giants like Google, Apple, Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard." 

The premise of the article is that while many schools are rushing to incorporate technology into curriculums, the designers and marketers of much of today's tech, send their children to a school where there is no technology in the classroom and educators ask parents to, when the students are at home, keep their children away from computers, TV, and other media as much as possible.

To say the article, as well as the series, has rankled advocates on all sides of the issue is an understatement.

In the Oct. 30 Sunday Review, New York Times editors published a series of comments about the Waldorf School story. The comments ranged from an editor of Education Technology to parent with children who are attending, or have attended Waldorf Schools. Teachers, who use technology or who want to throw computers out of their classroom window, spoke up. So did parents who love how technology engages their children, and parents who would love to disengage their children from technology. 

Click here to read the range of responses and the spirited discussion surrounding the digital classroom. 

Tom Vander Ark: Personal Digital Learning is Changing the World

About a decade ago, the launch of Wikipedia was symbolic of an important threshold in human history -- anyone with a broadband connection could learn almost anything for free or cheap.
This year inexpensive tablet computers and free resources like Khan Academy are extending the learning revolution. The teachers and students that grew up as digital natives are bringing new tools to school. The promise of personal digital learning is finally rippling through educational institutions of developed economies and creating new opportunities for getting smart in emerging economies. The outcome will be more students in the U.S. will be prepared for college and careers and more young people in developing economies will
connect to the idea economy.
Personal digital learning is providing three primary benefits, as outlined in my new book, Getting Smart: How Digital Learning is Changing the World.
Click here to learn more about my new book and to find out why I believe the first benefit of this changing world is is customized learning.

Guest Commentary: The Next Web on how the Future of Education Depends on Technology

Newark Mayor Cory Booker shared that he can no longer watch the way school systems have worked, there has to be change. Technology, he believes, can bring that change.
Booker made this, and other observations, during a whirlwind tour of Silicon Valley. Part of that time was spent listening to pitches from companies in the ImagineK12startup incubator in Palo Alto.
Click here for photos and text on how some in Silicon Valley,and others like Newark Mayor Cory Booker, are betting on technology becoming an integral part of education's future.

Guest Commentary: Slicing and Dicing Digital Learning Now's Report Card

Brian Bridges is director of the California Learning Resource Network (CLRN) a board member of CUE, a nonprofit, California corporation whose goal is to promote technology in education Board of Directors and a frequent commentators on the virtual education movement.
Bridges recently took a detailed look at the results of Digital Learning Now's Report Card. He was disheartened to find out that, by his calculations, California finished dead last when it comes to providing a nurturing atmosphere for expansion of digital learning opportunities.
Bridges then used this protocol and ranked all 50 states--something the Digital Learning Now Report Card didn't do. In one data base, Bridges used the 50 categories used by DLN. In another analysis, Bridges fine-tuned the DLN categories and 72 data points for his analysis. Bridges' results:
"While there are 72 data points, the highest score by any state was 49, shared by Utah and Wyoming. If we weren’t grading on a curve, both No. 1s would have 68% on our test, earning 'D' grades," Bridges wrote.
"However, given that this is a new test, one might ask if all the questions are valid, if some are more important that others, if there was a rubric indicating what is required to meet each point, or if the tests are fairly graded," he added.
Click here to read more of his analysis and to find spreadsheet showing DLN totals and a spreadsheet using Bridges 72-point database.

Michael B. Horn: Colorado's Crummy Policies Lead to Crummy Virtual Schools

An investigation of Colorado’s full-time virtual schools has revealed some dubious results and practices, which led the state’s Senate President to call for an emergency audit of all of Colorado’s virtual schools.
But the state shouldn’t be shocked by the report. As the truism goes, you get what you pay for.
Colorado’s policy environment incentivizes exactly what it’s getting from its full-time virtual schools—and arguably not just its virtual schools, but all of its schools statewide.
The biggest problem is this: It pays a school all of its funds on a “count day” on October 1 based on the number of students enrolled on that day. If students leave afterward, the original school keeps the funds. If students enroll elsewhere, the new school receives no funds.
This incentivizes providers to enroll students, but there are few incentives in place to focus on what happens after that. As a result, a significant number of online providers seem to have followed these incentives and done exactly what Colorado paid them to do. The end result isn’t pretty for students, as a great number of them allegedly leave soon after the count day and enroll back in district schools if they enroll elsewhere at all.
Some are using this to bash all online learning, as well as for-profit providers that are seizing this revenue-making opportunity (as many such providers did in higher education), but in so doing, these critics are missing the point.
As I’ve written numerous times, studying whether online learning is more or less effective than traditional learning is invariably asking the wrong question. Online and blended learning have the potential to dramatically transform our education system by being able to individualize for each student’s distinct learning needs, but whether it does so will have a lot to do with policy—whether we change the incentives and focus not on merely serving students and micro-managing the inputs, but instead focusing on the student outcomes and leaving behind an antiquated factory-model system for a student-centric one.
Click here to read my complete post on this. And you know what the biggest shame in all of this? By focusing on the wrong part of the story, it may set back our opportunity to leverage the rise of digital learning to transform our system into the student-centric one that each student deserves

Guest Commentary: Bryan Setser on the Mobile Charter School

Bryan Setser is Chief Innovation Officer for Open Education Solutions. Writing for the Getting Smart blog, Setser recently talked about his preparations for participating on a panel called, "Wireless Edtech."
"I am thinking about Mobile School Design as both a supplementary school service and as a future school design," he writes.
"Research in the corporate world is already underway in this space with formal and informal learning protocols for business design
"Schools and districts can design the mobile school by ensuring that e-learning courseware has a mobile component. This way students and educators can log on to courseware and professional development assignments at anytime and anywhere," he adds.
Click here to read more.

Guest Commentary: John Fensterwald of Educated Guess Bluntly Says--California is 'Dead Last in Digital Ed'

John Fensterwald is a veteran California journalist who has covered state education matters for decades. He now runs a blog called Educated Guess for the Silicon Valley Education Foundation.
This week he posted a viewpoint on where the Golden State stands as far a digital education.
"California is a backwater for K-12 online learning, according to a new analysis of states’ policies toward virtual education. Other states are clearing away obstacles and adopting innovative strategies, such as allowing middle school students to take high school courses online and letting students start online courses anytime and complete them whenever they show competency. California is stuck in the past, imposing the standard calendar and student-teacher ratios on a virtual world," Fensterwald writes.
Using the Digital Learning Now report card, Fensterwald added: "Brian Bridges, director of the California Learning Resource Network (CLRN) and a font of knowledge on digital courses, did calculate the states’ individual totals. Out of a possible score of 72, Utah and Wyoming topped the states with 49. The median was 27, he reports in his blog. With 14 points, California was last."
Click here to read Fensterwald's complete post, which includes suggestions on how California can muscle to the head of the digital learning pack.
Click here to read how Brian Bridges calculated rankings for California and other states using the Digital Learning Report Card.

Tom Vander Ark: 6 Reasons Kids Should be Allowed to Use Mobile Devices in School

Bans on student use of mobile devices exist for some good reasons—kids use them inappropriately at school and there are safety and security concerns. So why bother considering a change?
Click here to learn my six reasons for allowing kids to BYOD (Bring Your Own Device).
Click here to read my colleague Sarah Cargill's post "10 Unique Lesson Ideas for BYOD and BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology)."

Guest Commentary: The Bakersfield Californian Believes Digital Schools Must be Part of Golden State's Future

The Editorial Board of the Bakersfield Californian put it bluntly: "For a state that has been at the innovative forefront of digital technology since the beginning, it's alarming to note that California lags behind in the development and deployment of online learning in elementary and secondary educational settings."
Click here to read the complete editorial and find out why editors at the Californian say "state with education challenges as daunting as California's cannot afford to stand to the side and watch for long."

Guest Commentary: AEI's Special Report on 'How Government Supports Private-Sector Innovation, Except in Education'

The American Enterprise Institute's new "Private Enterprise in American Education" series is designed to pivot away from the tendency to reflexively demonize or celebrate for-profits and instead understand what it takes for for-profits to promote quality and cost effectiveness at scale. In this third installment of the series, John Bailey of Whiteboard Advisors demonstrates how for-profit educational providers are singularly excluded from federal governmental efforts to engage private-sector actors. Bailey notes that policymakers and government officials are comfortable with for-profits routinely playing a substantial role in addressing pressing social problems in areas like health care or green energy, but not in education.
"When it comes to other crucial challenges our country faces—creating a more reliable health care system, finding efficient sources of clean energy, or improving space exploration—policymakers do not ask whether they should engage for-profit companies, but how they should,” Bailey writes. “It’s time for education policymakers to follow suit.”
Click here to read his provocative study.
Click here to learn more about AEI's "Private Enterprise in American Education" series.

Guest Commentary: Denver Post Op-Ed Describes Balance Needed Between Innovation, Accountability and Cyber Schools

Pam Benigno has served on the board of a cyber charter school and directs the Education Policy Center of the  Independence Institute, a Colorado-based, free market think tank.
In the wake of a controversial series on the quality of online education in Colorado, Benigno wrote an opinion piece for the Denver Post.
"Technological advances are continually creating new opportunities to effectively educate Colorado's K-12 students through online learning. Colorado needs to look forward in protecting an environment for innovation, while balancing needed accountability for cyber school operators," say writes.
"Two decades of open public school enrollment have given Colorado families a gift that continues to be unwrapped. Today, Colorado school districts offer numerous charter schools and other options, including full-time online programs. Twenty-two unique online schools serve students anywhere in the state, while 23 programs serve only district residents.
"Some of the dismal reports about Colorado's full-time online education programs reinforce what many of us already knew. On average, these schools have shown disappointing results in educating and retaining students. The Colorado Department of Education plans to conduct a comprehensive review of the standards and accountability for online schools. Senate President Brandon Shaffer has requested an emergency audit of online schools," she continues.
"However, technology is being developed so quickly we don't know what future programs will look like or what the challenges might be," Benigno adds.
Click here to read her complete essay and why she warns readers not to "turn back the clock on expanded educational opportunities."

Guest Commentary: Ed Next's Paul Peterson on 'Jeb Bush, Melinda Gates, Sal Khan and the Coming Digital Learning Battle

Paul Peterson, editor of Education Next, was in San Francisco last week for the Foundation of Excellence in Education's conference. He was pleasantly pleased with what he found.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush "is promoting a strikingly innovative, bipartisan reform agenda that combines the Common Core standards promoted by the Gates Foundation and the Obama Administration with the accountability and choice principles to which he was committed during his eight years as Florida’s governor," Peterson writes.
"It is digital learning that holds together and gives spark to Bush’s agenda. Common standards provide a nationwide platform upon which next generation curricular materials can be built; choice allows students to pick the courses most suited to their needs, abilities, and interests; and accountability ensures that learning is genuine," he continues.
Click here to read more and learn why Peterson believes that school districts and teacher unions can be expected to fight publicly funded online learning that offers students a choice of taking courses outside their local district school.

Michael B. Horn: Beyond Good and Evil

The role of for-profit companies in public education–education financed by the government–has attracted increased scrutiny over the past few years. Though for-profit entities such as textbook companies have had contracts with public school districts for decades, recent controversy over what government officials and others perceive as low graduation rates and questionable marketing practices within the for-profit higher-education space has drawn significant negative attention. As this controversy heats up, it is prompting a wider debate about the role of for-profit companies in education–a debate too often characterized by faulty assumptions and misunderstandings on both sides.
Many in public education assume the worst about for-profit corporations, arguing that they are money-grabbing entities that will shortchange the public good if it means increased profits. Critics see no place for for-profit providers in American education. Supporters view for-profits as a force for good that can harness the profit motive to attract top talent and scale quality in public education. The government often perpetuates these divides by drawing lines in the sand of what activities companies can and cannot do based on their corporate structures. Despite these views on for-profits, however, the reality is different. Policymakers, officials, providers, and other members of the debate would do well to keep three key points in mind:
--Firs, for-profit companies are not inherently good or evil
--Second, there are far fewer inherent and predetermined differences between for-profit companies and their nonprofit counterparts than many assume.
--Third, the biggest inherent differences between for-profits and nonprofits stem from their fundamental corporate structures, which determine what they do with their profits–and thus affect their ability to attract capital and scale–as well as what opportunities look attractive.
Click here to read more of my thoughts on for-profits and the role they should--and can--play in education. You will also find a link to my paper"Understanding the Role of For-Profits in Education Through the Theories of Disruptive Innovation," published by the American Enterprise Institute. There is also a link to AEI's "Private Enterprise in American Education Series."

Tom Vander Ark: Marching Orders to Make California More EdTech Friendly

Computers, then smart phones, then tablets changed how we engaged the world. Medical technology extended and entertainment technology enriched our lives. Energy saving technology made our lifestyles more sustainable. Entrepreneurs in California's San Francisco Bay Area developed many of these disruptive technologies.
New York and Boston are home to the publishers; metro D.C. is home to the giants of learning online. But the San Francisco Bay Area is poised to lead the learning revolution.
That said, on many dimensions, California education is also behind most states. California should follow the road map and remove barriers to digital learning. Given the concentration of talent and resources, there is no reason that the Bay Area shouldn’t lead the global learning revolution.
Click here to read more on my view of California and why I believe it is ready to become even more of a leader in the edtech revolution.

Guest Commentary: A Teacher Talks About How to Implement a Hybrid Learning Program

OK, maybe Andrew Marcinek isn't a teacher. He describes himself as "an instructional technologiest at Burlington High School in Burling, Mass.
Marcinek had a conversation with Rich Kiker, Director of Online Learning at Palisades School District in Pennsylvania. Why Palisades? Well, it what is happening in Palisades sounds like what is happening in a lot of U.S. school districts.
"The Palisades Cyber Academy launched this year, driven by a demand for e-learning options, an increased focus on global connections, fiscal responsibility, and a desire to enact change that will impact student achievement. Through this launch, Palisades Cyber Academy is fostering communal learning while blending the traditional and the digital, the bricks and the clicks," Marcinek writes.
Click here to read more on what one Pennsylvania school district is doing to create a nurturing atmosphers for blended learning.

Guest Commentary: Guest Commentary: All4Ed Announces 'Digital Learning Day'

Sarah Cargill, whose work is posted on  EdReforrmer and Getting Smart covered this story.

"The alliance for Excellent Education and its partners call on teachers, schools, principals, community leaders, parents and students to participate in the first-ever national Digital Learning Day."

When? Feb. 1, 2012.

"Digital Learning Day will celebrate innovative teaching practices, personalized learning and more through use of digital learning tools that will prepare students for the 21st century," Cargill wrote.

Click here to read more and learn about former West Virginia Bob Wise's role in the announcement. Then, mark you calendar.

Here's Where to Watch Webcast of 'Draft Digital Learning Report Cards'

At long last, Digital Learning Now will unveil its look at the state of digital learning in all 50 states.
The reveal is scheduled for Oct. 13, 1:45 p.m. West Coast time.
Click here for the webcast of the "Draft Digital Learning Report Cards."
And thanks to everyone who sent in nominations for the first states for Liberating Learning to spotlight. We will be posting results and comments in our blog as quickly as possible.

Guest Commentary: Colorado Springs Gazette Wants State to Take K12 Inc.'s Advice and Let Money Follow the Student

The Colorado Springs Gazette took a bold stand. It said that the money the states allocates for each public school student should follow that student, no matter what school the students attends.
"School choice, the modern wave of education, is always under attack by the establishment. New schools threaten the old union-controlled, one-size-fits-all government education monopoly," the editorial board wrote.
"Those who liked the old way simply don’t like anything about the new way
A three-part investigative series that began running in last Sunday’s Gazette pointed out concerns about online government schools that deserve serious attention from politicians and the general public. An at-home, online education is exactly what a small percentage of students need. But it’s not for everyone, and it is probably not for most.
"When a student abandons an online school, the online school often keeps the state tuition cash. Colorado bases school funding on a single enrollment count. Once the count has been taken, the money is allocated and belongs to the school even if students soon thereafter," the editorial continued.
"That means another school ends up with former online students, but not the tuition.
"The administration of Colorado’s largest online public school, Colorado Virtual Academy, agrees that online schools should not keep the money.
" 'Colorado should move away form a school-funding model based on a single-count date to a better model, such as an average daily membership,'  said Jeff Kwitowski in a statement to The Gazette’s editorial board. He’s the vice president for public affairs for K12, the curriculum provider for Colorado Virtual Academy."
Click here to read the complete editorial.

Michael B. Horn: The Rise of Online Education

Clayton Christensen, my co-author on "Disrupting Innovation" teamed up again to write an article for the Washington Post.We take a look at the Los Altos School District and how it is disrupting methods for teaching math with a blended learning approach.
"Powered in part by the Khan Academy—a non-profit that offers free educational resources such as online lessons and online assessments—the school district is expanding the 'blended-learning' pilot it ran last year," we wrote.
"The district’s fifth, sixth and seventh graders learn online for a significant portion of their in-class math periods at the path and pace that fit their individual needs. Meanwhile, teachers will coach the students to keep up with their math goals and help them apply the math concepts in small-group and class-wide projects."
Lectures online and on video. Teachers coaching homework assignments and providing guidance to the students in groups and on projects.
Click here and read why we believe for the first time in roughly a century a dramatic change in the basic way we structure our educational system is afoot.

What Grade Did Your State Get from the Foundation for Excellence in Education?

About 700 education reformers are gathering in San Francisco for the 2011 "Excellence in Action: National Summit on Education Reform."
The agenda is packed with panels, workshops and speeches by leading reformers and innovators. The Grand Ballroom of the headquarter hotel will be filled by "edu-preneurs," software and hardware companies, digital textbook companies and more.
For the remainder of the week, this will certainly be the center of the universe for education reformers--from charter school advocates to leaders of the digital learning movement.
Even if you can't be there, you can be a part of it. Click here to find a viewer for live streaming of many of the events. Be part of the conference conversation by getting on Twitter and using the summit hashtag #EIA11.
The centerpiece of the summit is scheduled for Thursday afternoon. That's when Digital Learning Now co-founders former Govs. Jeb Bush and Bob Wise will unveil the "Nation's Digital Learning Report Card." This will be Digital Learning Now's first assessment of states’ policies on digital learning. The goal is to make this an annual assessment.
Now governors and state school chiefs don't need to start quaking in their boots. What will be reveal is being called "Draft Digital Learning Report Cards." Governors and state education chiefs will have until Dec. 31, 2011 to challenge the findings. After that, letter grades, possibly the traditional A-F, could be handed out to the states. The hope is that the report cards will "provide state leaders and reformers with the right questions and the potential policies to advance digital learning in their states."
“Our goal is to ignite a movement of reform to transform education for the 21st century,” said Patricia Levesque, Executive Director of the Foundation for Excellence in Education.
Feel free to come back to Liberating Learning on Oct. 13 and Oct. 14 and click here to see the live stream from the conference.
Liberating Learning will also be focusing on how each state fares in this comprehensive look at digital learning policies with the first postings to go up minutes after the report card is published.

Guest Commentary: Brookings Institiution on 'Using Technology to Personalize Learning and Assess Students in Real-Time'

Darrell M. West is vice president and director of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. He has just released a paper that looks at personalized learning and to set the stage, he reached back to see what John Dewey had to say about personalized learning.
That's right, John Dewey.
"In 1915, famed educator John Dewey wrote a book entitled 'Schools of Tomorrow' in which he complained that the conventional public school' is arranged to make things easy for the teacher who wishes quick and tangible results.' Rather than fostering personal growth, he argued that 'the ordinary school impressed the little one into a narrow area, into a melancholy silence, into a forced attitude of mind and body.'
"In criticizing the academies of his day," West continues, "Dewey made the case that education needed to adopt new instructional approaches based on future societal needs. He claimed that 20th century schools should reorganize their curricula, emphasize freedom and individuality, and respond to changing employment requirements. Failure to do so would be detrimental to young people. In one of his most widely-quoted commentaries, Dewey predicted that “if we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.' "
Dewey's words still hit the mark with many edtech reformers.
In his paper, West examines new models of instruction made possible by digital technologies. "Pilot projects from across the country are experimenting with different organizations and delivery systems, and transforming the manner in which formal education takes place.
"By itself, technology will not remake education," West writes. "Meaningful change requires alterations in technology, organizational structure, instructional approach, and educational assessment.[iv] But if officials combine innovations in technology, organization, operations, and culture, they can overcome current barriers, produce better results, and reimagine the manner in which schools function."
Click here to find the complete report.

Guest Commentary: What Do We Know About the Impact of One-to-One Computing?

James Rosso, writing for K-12 computing Blueprint, took a look at a recent report "Laptop Initiatives: Summary of Research Across Six States." This is a white paper issued by North Carolina State University’s Friday Institute for Educational Innovation and it takes a close look at how well such one-to-one computing initiatives goals are being met in Florida, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia's Henrico County.
Some of the findings include:
-- Teachers and students generally agree that laptops increase student engagement.
-- Teachers and students in some states concur that laptops increase student motivation, but results are mixed.
-- Students and teachers in some of the states thought that the use of laptops had a positive impact on student achievement, although this was not always supported by the test scores.
-- Students not only were participating more in group work but also were engaging in self-directed learning.
Click here to read a closer look at the white paper's findings and a link to the report.

Guest Commentary: Education Sector Looks at Reports on Online Learning

A hat tip to Bill Tucker and his "The Quick & the Ed" blog for taking a step back to put four recent reports on online learning into perspective.
Tucker launched what appears to be a multi-part series by looking at reports from Minnesota and Colorado. He also made mention of reports from Pennsylvania and Ohio. All the studies raised some concerns about the quality of online learning in those states. In Colorado, for example, a state senator has called for an audit of online learning schools.
Tucker's "Quick & Ed" post notes that the Minnesota shows that will the number of part-time students in online school nearly doubles and the number of full-time students more than tripled, since the 2006-2007 school year, "full-time online students have become less like to finish the courses the start; when compare with students statewide."
The Colorado study, Tucker reports, shows that the state expects to spend $100 million for about 18,000 students to attend online schools. What's more, "of the 10,500 students in the largest online programs in fall 2008, more than half--or 5,600--left their virtual schools by the fall of 2009. They were more than replaced by 7,400 new recruits by that fall."
The Colorado series is the result of a 10-month investigation by EdNews Colorado.
Click here to read Tucker's complete post and to find links to the reports.
Click here to see a video about the impact of online learning on one school and one student's perspective.
Tucker plans to update his report on Ohio online learning this week. We'll be reading and updating.

Guest Commentary: Fast Company Takes a Look at the Lexicon of EdTech

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own world, that we don't realize that we talk a talk that outsiders don't always understand.
That goes for folks involved in the virtual education movement. It took a short list in Fast Company to realize that a new language is growing up around online learning.
Take the term "edtech."
" 'Edtech': the fusion of education-technology. But please: leave out the hyphen," writes the Fast Company blogger.
Click here to read the complete list and take time to look at the blog entry below the list. It give a quick overview of the impact tablets are making in the classroom.

Tom Vander Ark: 10 Things States Should Do Now

The 2012 election season is in full swing. I listened to a great gubernatorial campaign speech this week suggesting that jobs and education where the priorities—and I couldn’t agree more. I spent a day with Policy Innovators in Education (PIE-Net), a great network of state policy groups. The speech and the meeting made me think about the Getting Smart policy agenda.
Click here to find a quick sketch of 10 things state leaders should do over the next four years

Guest Commentary: Forbes Columnist Asks 'Is Personalized Learning Another Education Fad ...?"

Writing for Forbes.com's "Human Ingenuity" column, Adam Garry launches a multi-part series by asking if personalized learning is another education fad, or " can it really happen in our schools."
He summarizes the personalized learning movement as "an approach that will help define a system that assumes that we can use technology and human capacity to figure out what students need to learn and what they want to learn and expose them to opportunities 24/7 formally and informally. So how does this help us transform our education institutions?"
Click here to read his entire blog post and stay tuned for his complete series.

Guest Commentary: A Teacher's View of Online Learning

Tami Caldwell's classroom is a loft that looks out through a bank of windows onto the calm waters of a lake in the state of Washington.
Her days are flexible enough that she can take her daughter to school in the morning, meet a student for a midday coffee or answer the regular buzz of students' text messages, though she tries to maintain a regular schedule.
Usually between 10 a.m. and noon each day, she sits in front of her computer for "lab" time, when students can dial in to a sort of virtual chat room and ask questions. And once a week, she and her students get together online for class.
Caldwell is one of the high school teachers at Insight School of Washington, which offers full-time online schooling.
Click here to read more about her school days and why she believes online teaching beats being in the classroom.

Liberating Learning ranked No. 5 on the '50 Essential Twitter Feeds for Education Reformers'

What an honor. Thank you.
BestCollegesOnline.com says that in this atmosphere of education reformation, the way to "follow education news, reform groups, influential people in education policy, and teachers at the front line, all here in our collection of great Twitter feeds for education reformers."
Click here for the complete list and see who joins Liberating Learning as one of the "50 Essential Twitter Feeds for Education Reformers."

Michael B. Horn: Education Entrepreneurship, Disruption Alive and Well

ImagineK12, an incubator modeled after Y Combinator to help education startups “get it right and get funded,” held its first demo day for its first cohort of 10 companies earlier this month in Palo Alto, Calif., and a week later the companies presented at TechCrunch Disrupt.

The companies’ pitches were crisp and intriguing, and I was struck—and encouraged—by how many of them are attempting disruptive strategies. Who knows how many in the cohort will be successful of course—they are all heading into notoriously choppy waters in a space that, as I’ve written about, feels a bit overheated at the moment—but by going this route, they do improve their odds.
Click here for a rundown of just some of the things that struck me.

Tom Vander Ark: 10 Things I'd Do Right Now if I was a Superintendent

A while back, I was asked a public school superintendent asked me what I'd do right now to bring a blended learning environment to K-12 classrooms.
Basically, to bring the shift to personal digital learning over the next 48 months, start with a high level plan in three phases, support a handful of pilot projects, learn as much as possible, and communicate twice as much as you might think you need to.
Click here to read my Top 10 to-do list.

Guest Commentary: Online Eduction Vital to Improvement

An op-ed article written by Darrel Deide, chairman of Idahoans for Choice in Education, has been getting a lot of traction in that state.
Little wonder.  Idaho has been the scene of one of the most hotly-contested and debated edtech-center reform plan in the nation. And there's no doubt the debate will continue through 2012. A referendum that would repeal most of the education reforms won earlier this year, is on the ballot.
That may be why Deidre's article hit a nerve.
"According to the leaders of the Idaho Education Association, Idaho’s education labor union, online education is wrong for Idaho students. If you have followed the testimony offered at the public hearings recently held around the state, you might have come away with the same belief," he wrote.
"In reality, the union’s objection to digital learning has nothing to do with the quality of education. It has everything to do with the union’s desire to maintain its monopoly," he continued.
"Why should the education union block our kids’ access to technology that they will need to use to be competent, successful and well-rounded for post-secondary education or a career? It simply makes no sense," he added.
Click here to read the complete article.

Guest Commentary: Sec. of Education Arne Duncan and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on 'A Digital Promise to Our Nation's Children'

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and Reed Hastings, chief executive of Netflix and a former chairman of the California Board of Education, made a digital pledge to the nation's students.
"It is no secret that advances in educational technology have been hailed as breakthroughs in the past, only to disappoint. Too often, the market for educational technology has been inefficient and fragmented. The nation's 14,000 school districts, more than a few of which have byzantine procurement systems, have been inefficient consumers and have failed to drive consistent demand. And a robust R&D base for improving and refining educational technology has been sadly lacking," the pair writes.
"To help remedy those gaps, the Department of Education is launching a unique public-private partnership called 'Digital Promise,' " they add.
Click here to read the complete post.

Tom Vander Ark: What the Connections Acquistion Means

Pearson is going to acquire Connections Education. I know both companies well and think this is a great combination.

Connections is another success story for Sterling Partners, backers of Laureate, Sylvan. Peter Cohen, President of Pearson’s School Group, came from Sterling/Sylvan and was on the board at Connections before joining Pearson about three years ago.
Connections has been very thoughtful and transparent about the formation and relationship with nonprofit boards and in contracting relationships with district partners.
For Pearson, this transaction signals a more rapid move into school management that was anticipated.
Click here to learn why I believe this transaction is good for Pearson, Connections, and education.

Michael B. Horn: Pearson Goes Bold, Acquires Connections Education

The announcement that Pearson is acquiring Connections Education in a move that should reverberate across the field of online learning and the education world more broadly.
My fellow Liberarting Learning blog contributor Tom Vander Ark wrote an insightful post about the acquisition today that I recommend highly.
In short, I agree with Tom on several parts of this, and, in what shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who reads our work, agree with him that the shift to digital learning is happening much faster than most realize—and that this transaction should raise that profile.
Click here to read my post and learn why I believe this move should open up more room for education entrepreneurs

Guest Commentary: iPad vs. Engaging Lesson on Percents

Almost every day, you can find an education story about a school introducing the latest technology into a classroom. For example, take a look at this Las Vegas Sun story, "Teachers Give Students Apples, Hope iPads Boost Test Scores."
There's nothing wrong with providing digital natives with the kind of tech tools they naturally turn to as a way to enhance learning.
But in a recent Washington Post column, Karim Khai Ani, founder of Mathalicious, writes that it should surprise anyone when new technology doesn't always lead to new and improved outcomes.
"We in society have a kind of blind faith that technology is able to solve all our problems. Yet while the iPad can and should replace textbooks, it can't replace common sense," Ani writes.
"Unfortunately, that's exactly what's happening in education reform. We're focused so much on the device that we're ignoring what's on it." Ani continued. Click here to read all of Ani's post.
There is a middle ground and Chris Dawson, edtech writer for ZDNet, is trying to carve it out. Dawson believes that more technology in the classroom means finding new ways to measure academic success.
Click here to read more about Dawson's viewpoint.

Guest Commentary: Measuring the Success of EdTech is not all About Test Scores

Christopher Dawson covers the EdTech beat for ZDNet, an online news and information source for the digital community.
"Let me start by saying that I’ve seen too many technology implementations in schools that add no real educational value, but take a nice dent out of taxpayer wallets. There are plenty of ways to go about making a school “technology-rich” that actually take away from the real business of learning," Dawson recently wrote.
"I am not in the give-everyone-computers-and-watch-them-succeed camp.However, I wouldn’t be in the business of Ed Tech if I didn’t think that the potential existed for kids to learn in new, engaging ways that prepared them for real-world challenges and managed to better differentiate instruction so that every student could be better served in our public schools," he continued.
Dawson believes that new ways need to developed to measure success in blended learning and online learning environments.
Click here to read his complete post.

Tom Vander Ark: Why States Should Contract with Multiple Online Learning Providers

The Internet has improved the public provision of services in a variety of ways and it is beginning to transform public education. The power of personal digital learning suggests that it doesn’t make sense to limit our children’s opportunity to learn to a local school or geographically defined school district.
In the 19th century, America developed an idiosyncratic system of public education based on local control. While federal and state governments have aggregated degrees of control, U.S. education is still largely a local issue—an unusual construct in the developed world. The growing potential of learning online requires us to rethink and revise how educational services are provisioned.
Digital Learning Now, the advocacy initiative chaired by former governors Jeb Bush and Bob Wise, released a video in which I try to make the case for multiple statewide providers of educational services. I know the video won’t be a YouTube favorite and that this won’t be my favorite column with my friends working in public school districts. Click here to read my complete post on this topic.
Click here to watch the video and please take time to comment so we can start a dialogue on this issue.
Extending educational options to the course level requires a new approach to school finance, one that is less dependent on local property taxes and is more need-based and performance-oriented (and a subject of future blogs). It will also require new strategies to ensure that every student receives a seamless web of support and, to the extent necessary, is plugged in to youth and family services in their community.
School districts will understandably oppose the idea of a multiple provider system but the opportunity to cost effectively improve services to students and families is worth pursuing.

Guest Commentary: How Digital Learning Can (and must) Help Excellent Teachers Reach More Children

The beginning of an essay written Bryan Hassel and Emily Ayscue Hassel, co-directors of Public Impact, a Chapel Hill, N.C. -based national education policy and management consulting firm, starts with a thank you to Liberating Learning blog contributor Michael B. Horn.

"We want to second his point (in his essay 'Why Digital Learning Will Liberate Teachers') and add another: schools--and nations--that excel in the digital age will be those that use digital tools both to make teaching more manageable for the average teacher, and to give massively more students access to excellent teachers," they wrote.
"And not just in the obvious ways. Yes, directly through digital instruction. But also by freeing excellent teachers to reach more students in-person," they added.
The Hassels continue by describing how digital learning can help to close the achievement gap. Click here to read their entire essay.

Guest Commentary: Gisele Huff on Philanthropy and the Free Market in Education

People in the education technology community know Gisele Huff. She is the executive director of the Jaquelin Hume Foundation in San Francisco. After a decade in the business world, she earned a PhD in political science, with a concentration in political philosophy, at Columbia University. She has taught at Golden Gate University, Dominican College, and San Francisco University High School, where she also served as the director of development for 12 years. Huff is currently chairman of the board of Innosight Institute and treasurer of the board of the State Policy Network.
Huff was recently interviewed by the Center for Social Innovation, which along with the Stanford Graduate School of Business, is sponsoring "Social Innovation Live," a series of interviews with people who are catalysts of change.
Huff talks about the Hume Foundation's focus on education reform and how technology will dramatically shift K-12 education. She also talks about the role the average citizen can play in this reform movement.
Click here to listen to the 25-minute conversation.

Guest Commentary: Competing for the Virtual Student

Competition. That's what's all about. And it seems to be working.
According to Hall Davidson, director of global learning initiatives at Discovery Education, by pioneering online learning and proving its effectiveness, K-12 districts have unwittingly broadened the market for for-profit schools.
"It's very clear that online learning has found its time and place," Davidson says, "and it lies at the heart of some serious competition between traditional brick-and-mortar schools and entrepreneurial proprietary schools that are taking advantage of the charter movement. It's just so easy in many states now for an online entity to come in and take enrollment. Here in California, I can enroll my daughter in an online program through a charter school in another county with a few mouse clicks. Some districts realize how heavy the competition is--that there's competition now for attendance dollars that were safer in the past--and some don't. I think the educational community in general needs a Paul Revere to sound the alarm."
Click here to read more about this new competitive education environment.

Tom Vander Ark: What Will School Look Like in 10 Years?

The digital side of the New York Times asked me, and several other education thought leaders, to describe what we believe school will look like 10 years from now.
Now, that's an easy question.
I told the Times that very idea of school has already begun to shift permanently. The digital revolution is the reason..
I also believe that, in many schools, traditional classrooms will give way to ad hoc and ever-changing groupings of students who are working on similar material on a given day.
Click here to listen to the podcast of my complete answers. Also, take time to listen to the answers from Karen Cator, director of educational technology for the Department of Education, and others.

Guest Commentary: A Wisconsin Principal Tells the Truth About Virtual Schools

Every principal looks forward to the beginning of school, when students return with fresh minds eager to learn and ready to work. But as students began to hit the books in the past couple weeks, some of them didn't have to take the bus to school, wander the halls looking for their classroom or search rows of desks to find their seat.
Virtual schooling allows students to receive a top-notch public education from the comfort of their homes.

As a principal, I know all parents want their children to receive the best education possible. There are many options available for families to consider, which is why it is important to have a complete and accurate picture of virtual schooling

But one thing I know for certain -- all of my students at Wisconsin Connections Academy are receiving a quality education that is second to none.
Click here to read more truths about virtual education.

Guest Commentary: Why Schools Should Stop Banning Cell Phones and Use Them for Learning

Audrey Watters writes about education and technology. In a recent post on Mind/Shift, which explores the future of learning by covering cultural technology trends and innovations, Watters wrote that she was tired of the obstacles prevent cell phones and other mobile devices from being used in K-12 classrooms.
"For man schools, these are formal rules written in school policy or in student handbooks," Watters writes. "But as phones become more like extended appendages in everyone's life, schools are rethinking their policies."
Click here to read the complete post and find out what classroom teachers are saying about using cell phones as learning devices.

Tom Vander Ark: Leading the Shift to Personal Digital Learning

The shift to digital learning is expanding educational opportunity in the United States and even more significantly in emerging countries. The potential to customize learning, to boost engagement, and to extend learning at reduced costs is a set of world-changing opportunities.
The shift is being propelled by expanding broadband, cheap access devices, cloud computing, and improving content. Six trends are propelling the shift in the U.S. K-12 sector:

• Higher expectations of college ready and career-ready standards reflected in the Common Core.


• Most states will help orchestrate improved student Internet access to support a shift to online assessment by 2014.


• An extended "new normal" period of flat or shrinking resources in most states.


• Expanding mobile access and student demands for learning options, both formal and informal.


• Expanding number of states that support choice to the course or multiple suppliers.


• Growing full and part-time enrollment in online learning.

Click here to read my complete post on why I believe we are on the verge of this historic shift in K-12 learning.

Guest commentary: The Atlantic's 'Project Classroom: Transforming Our Schools for the Future'

Rebecca J. Rosen is an associate editor at The Atlantic and spearhead's the publications "Project Classroom" feature. She recently used Duke professor Cathy Davidson's new book Now You See It, as a jumping off point to write about digital learning and the future of education.
"In 2003 the iPod was a relatively new gadget for listening to music. Billboard ads showed young people dancing, iPods in hand. Few people would have pinpointed this newfangled Walkman as a powerful teaching tool," Rosen writes.
"Cathy N. Davidson, a professor at Duke University, believes that classrooms aren't keeping up with the kids. She thought, what is the untapped educational potential of the iPod? She and her Duke colleagues worked with Apple to give every entering freshmen an iPod, and then they sat back and watched as students and teachers developed innovate and collaborative ways to incorporate iPods into their work: med students could listen to recordings of heart arrhythmia, music students could upload their compositions and get feedback from other students, environmental studies students interviewed families in a North Carolina community about lead paint in their town, and then shared their interviews online, for other students to download," Rosen continues.
"No one could have predicted all the ways the iPods enhanced learning once they were in the hands of students and teachers -- and that's a central point of Cathy Davidson's new book," Rosen adds.
Click here to read the complete article.

Tom Vander Ark: Take a Look at gettingsmart.com

Getting Smart: How Digital Learning is Changing the World (Jossey-Bass) is my new book. In it, I explore educational innovation in the United States and abroad. I try to make the case for a blend of online and onsite learning. I also highlight education innovation success stories.
The new book, which debuts in October, has led to a new website, gettingsmart.com. The site focuses on innovations in learning. We plan to keep the spotlight on K-12, but will but explore community based organizations (CBOs), early, and adult learning as well. We will cover developments in research, technology, learning entrepreneurs, and strategies.
Our first posts include two provocative articles. One, by Kentucky schools chief Terry Holliday, bluntly outlines the situation in his state.
"Kentucky was one of the early leaders in virtual learning. Today, we are struggling to find the appropriate methods for funding, support and innovation.
Over the past two years, we have been working first through the Transforming Education in Kentucky task force and now through an “innovative pathways to graduation” committee to define how we can create more opportunities for students and teachers to engage in digital learning," Holliday writes.
The other article is written by Indiana schools chief Tony Bennett. Here's what he said about innovation and education: "At a structural level, the freedoms we have pursued reflect my belief in local school corporations as centers of innovation. To level the playing field, every school — big or small, rural or urban, public or private — must have the freedom and flexibility to innovate on behalf of students."
Click here to see more of the new site gettingsmart.com.