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.

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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.