Michael B. Horn: Bright Spots Shine in Blended, Online Learning (Video)

A month has passed since the first-ever national Digital Learning Day. Given the excitement generated from teachers and others tuning in to the National Town Hall meeting and given today’s National Leadership Summit on Online Learning up on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. that iNACOL sponsored, I thought it was worth noting some great examples that weren’t highlighted during the day’s festivities.
To our friends in the field, these examples are familiar, but they remind us that what is so exciting about technology is the power that it holds to move our education system toward a student-centric model of learning where students can move at their own path and pace to boost student outcomes.
Click here to watch some videos of exceptional online learning programs

Guest Commentary: Innosight Institute Wonders if There is Trouble Ahead for Blended Learning?

Heather Clayton Staker is a Senior Research Fellow for the Education Practice at Innosight Institute. She recently took a look at the burgeoning field of blended learning programs, and she was worried by what she found.
"I’ve been troubled especially by early signs that government is starting to define and encode blended learning. Online learning, which involves the Internet delivering instruction and content to students, has been around for several years. But blended learning, meaning learning that takes place when online instruction blends into brick-and-mortar schools, is quite new. Policymakers are just starting to notice it. Their efforts so far have concerned me," Staker wrote.
"In one state (name withheld), a few legislators kicked around the idea of authorizing up to 25 'blended-learning demonstration programs' in schools throughout the state. The demonstration sites would weave online learning together with face-to-face instruction and have one year to measure results. If effective, the program could expand to more schools.
"Other state legislators recently debated the merits of allowing paraprofessionals, meaning adults without teaching licenses, to supervise students working online and thereby allow credentialed teachers time to pull aside clusters of students for small-group face-to-face instruction," she continued.
"In a third conversation, a national education group grappled with whether it should begin to pressure all states to define blended learning in law, and whether that the definition should specify that blended learning must include both online and face-to-face learning methods.
"The problem," Staker added, "with all three of these ideas is that codifying any of them into law will not improve education, and even worse, will likely prevent viable blended-learning models from coming to fruition before they get a fair chance to play out."
Click here to read Staker's complete post and her solutions.

Guest Commentary: Is Blended Homeschooling the Way Forward?

Tim Brady wrote a guest post for the education blog of the Innosight Institute, the home base for Liberating Learning Blog contributor Michael B. Horn.

In his post, Brady looks at homeschooling, which is more of an education norm than it was just a few years ago. Brady believes that blending virtual education with homeschooling could increase the growth potential of both.
"Given the access to online courses, great tutors, and unlimited information, the daunting part of homeschooling—trying to teach your kids everything—isn’t quite as daunting anymore," Brady wrote.
"The art of homeschooling is now more about thinking through what you want your child to learn, researching it, and then organizing the curriculum. There are websites to help you do that, too," he added.
Click here for the complete post and find out why Brady wants this new movement to be called "Blended Homeschooling."

Tom Vander Ark: 10 Things School Leaders Should Do to Boost Blended Learning

During a couple breakout sessions at a Rhode Island conference on Innovation Powered by Technology (#iptrideconf) I spent time with teachers and principals thinking about next steps as they prepare for the shift to personal digital learning.
Click here to read the 10 steps we discussed.

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.)

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: 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.

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.

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.

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.

Guest Commentary: Education Next Columnists Says Florida Got it Right When it Comes to Hybrid Learning

William Mattox is a resident fellow at the James Madison Institute in Tallahassee and the father of a "hybrid student."
My son Richard "took classes from an online provider, a small private school, and a performing arts program," Mattox writes.
"The rise of hybrid schooling bodes well for students whose needs, gifts, interests, and learning styles do not align with the factory school model of the 20th century, and for parents who know that no school can maximize the potential of every child every year in every way," Mattox continues.
Click here to read more about the Mattox family's experience with hybrid education in Florida and why William Mattox believes Florida got it right.

Tom Vander Ark: Former. Gov Bob Wise and I Talk about Gallup Poll and Results on Digital Learning

The 2011 PDK/Gallup Poll asked some important questions about digital learning. The results are heartening to anyone in or interested in the virtual education movement.
Former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and one of the co-founders of Digital Learning Now, and I sat down to talk about the poll results. We believe the responses point to the public's increasing awareness that a blended learning environment is the best way to provide students with customized learning and provide them with 21st century skills.
Please take a look at this short video.
Click here for the video.
Click here for a pdf of the report on the poll.

Tom Vander Ark: 10 Reasons Teachers Love Blended Learning

Teachers have tough jobs—lots of kids and lots of responsibility—and budget cuts are making things worse. They have administrators telling them to boost achievement and personalize learning, but most of them are on their own without tools. But that is beginning to change as schools are beginning to blend traditional teaching with online learning.
Blended learning is a shift to an online environment for at least a portion of the student day made to improve learning and operating productivity. In two important ways, this definition is different than layering computers on top of how we’ve always done things. First, this definition of blended learning means that technology is core to instructional delivery and it incorporates some student choice over time, location, and/or rate. Second, it requires differentiated (different levels) and distributed (different locations) staffing.
Click here to find the 10 reasons why I believe teachers love blended learning.

Tom Vander Ark: Gubernatorial Takeover of Oregon Schools Chief Job Should be Good for Online Education

In June, the Oregon legislature abolished the position of elected superintendent and gave the responsibility to the governor who will appoint a deputy. The change won’t take place until the current state schools chief Susan Castillo leaves office in 2015.
Traditionally, elected superintendent don’t lead very aggressive reforms because the majority of their support came from employee groups. However, Idaho chief Tom Luna and Oklahoma chief Jane Barresi are bucking this trend with very aggressive reforms to education employment laws and with the support of Republican-controlled legislatures.
This should be a positive move for education reform and specifically for online and blended learning in Oregon.
Click here to read more of my thoughts on what's happening in Oregon.

Guest Commentary: Education Next Article Looks at Blending Face-to-Face and Online Learning

In the Summer issue of Education Next, Jonathan Schorr and Deborah McGriff look at the blended learning movement and its impact on the future of education.
The writers start with Rocketship Education, a network of K-5 charter schools based in California's Silicon Valley. Located in predominately working class and minority neighborhoods, Rocketship academies use a blended learning model of education. The schools are based on the premised that every child deserves an excellent education, that every child can attend a four-year college, and that the path to college starts in kindergarten."
Schorr and McGriff found that "online work is essential to the long-term vision for the school’s instructional model—and for Rocketship’s growth trajectory."
The writers also discovered that "the larger impact of the technology is still ahead, in the ways it will integrate with, and alter, classroom practice. Rocketship is building a model in which kids learn much of their basic skills via adaptive technology ... software, leaving classroom teachers free to focus on critical-thinking instruction and extra help where kids are struggling. Likewise, teachers will be able to “prescribe” online attention to specific skills."
Click here to read about the future of learning and what it looks like in the Silicon Valley, San Diego, and Denver.

Tom Vander Ark: 2x with Digital Learning

Most kids in America would benefit from spending twice as much time learning in a positive place—and that should be a combination of more time at school, more time at home, and more learning time at community-based organizations (CBO). That’s why I’m excited about attending The After School Consortium (TASC) Digital Learning Forum on July 27 in New York. Here’s how TASC summarizes the opportunity:

"Digital learning could dramatically change the educational landscape and begin to connect all assets – schools, families, community-based youth development organizations, cultural institutions – into learning opportunities that transcend physical boundaries. Kids with means and access interact with web-based learning every day, at home and in school. We have a chance to ensure that the least advantaged kids aren’t left behind. Expanded school days and Out-of-School Time (OST) programs offer the ideal time, place and conditions to personalize learning, next-generation style – not just by delivering stand-alone enrichments such as tech clubs, but by using web-enabled tools across curriculum and activities, and by contributing to citywide networks of learning opportunities with students at the center."

Click here to read about the five factors I believe would lead to most students benefiting from extended learning opportunities.

Tom Vander Ark: Blended Restarts--Everything is Different Now

The only difference between a good school and a bad school is everything.
I thought of this maxim, draw from work with 800 struggling schools, this morning on a 5am call about school improvement. When you compare the attributes of a No-Excuses high schools (Aspire, Alliance, Green Dot, KIPP, IDEA, Uplift, Summit to name a few) with a big struggling urban schools, everything is different: expectations, culture, curriculum and course-taking patterns, community connections, structures for personalization, staffing patterns, teacher skill levels, support services, schedule of the day and year. It’s the difference between coherence—everything works together for teachers and students—and dysfunction.
Blended learning is a shift to an online environment for at least a portion of the day to boost learning and operating productivity. I’m enthusiastic about the potential of blended learning in school improvement (and first wrote about blended restarts in 2009) because it has the potential to 1) offer a comprehensive online curriculum delivered with consistent quality, 2) leverage master teachers across a larger number of students, 3) utilize remote teacher in hard to staff subjects/services, and 4) expand the number of high capacity providers (like Connections Learning) supporting restarts.
Click here to read my complete post and to learn about an exciting new direction the Walton Family Foundation is taking in the school improvement arena.

Tom Vander Ark: Anytime Anywhere Learning

Sometime in the last few years we passed a milestone in human development: anyone can learn almost anything anywhere. All you need is broadband and a browser. The explosion of informal learning resources has surrounded the calcified formal system and changed the opportunity set for another billion people. Personal digital learning is an inevitable component of human development–both formal and informal–from here on out.
The bottom line: The genie is out of the bottle. When our children, students and employees have so many learning opportunities outside the ones that we have provisioned for them, it requires us to rethink everything.
Click here to read my complete post.

Tom Vander Ark: Creating Cohorts in a Blended World

Michael Horn, my Liberating Learning blog contributor colleague and author of The Rise of Blended Learning, and I hosted a webinar in which we featured AdvancePath, a drop prevention week, and Carpe Diem, a blended college prep high school in Yuma.
Groups of kids with similar birthdays have been used as the basic building block of education for a century. As we gain the ability to customize learning for every student is there any value in learning in a group?
The Carpe Diem model relies on a backbone of computer-based instruction but it is supplemented with daily workshops in each subject. The computer-based instruction allows the student to vary pacing but workshops are generally cohorts of students moving at approximately the same pace. Like other high performing schools, Carpe Diem utilizes cohorts for integration and application. Workshops promote peer-to-peer learning and problem solving. Students at Carpe Diem generally start and finish classes together.
AdvancePath also relies on a backbone of computer-based instruction but students start and finish classes on their own. There is one-on-one help available on demand and some small group instruction. With students coming and going, there is limited efforts to derive benefit from the cohort; AdvancePath has a fully individualized approach to learning.
Carpe Diem and AdvancePath academies have a very intentional culture that is supportive and productive. Creating a graduation focused culture is important but it doesn’t dictate a cohort approach (i.e., an individualized approach like AdvancePath has a learning environment with clear norms).
As schools incorporate online learning and competency-based practices, we will see more innovative strategies for combining the benefits of customized learning and peer cohorts. Click here to read more about five strategies to promote learning together.

Tom Vander Ark: Carpe Diem--The Best of Leadership and Management

Carpe Diem, a charter secondary school in Yuma, Arizona, uses an online learning system called e2020 for primary instructional delivery. It's not as engaging as some web 2.0 components and apps, but it is comprehensive and offers a strong management and monitoring system. This week, students at Carpe Diem had the opportunity to provide direct feedback to the vendor (so watch for shorter and better instructional videos from e2020!).
While it's true that most of the learning is done independently and online, a talented group of teachers play an integral role in the school's academic success. Founder and director Rick Ogston says, "Rather than nursing students to passing grades, teachers here act as doctors creating surgical interventions or as personal trainers extending and deepening learning."
On a typical day, teachers run a series of topical workshops. If a teacher is out sick, there are no workshops in that subject (no subs here). One math, one science, and one social studies teacher ensure the progress of all 300 students.
Carpe Diem is a good example of blending multiple modes of instruction to boost learning and sustainability. Even with Arizona's thin charter funding, Carpe Diem is self-sufficient. The mix of online learning and teacher-driven workshops is quite effective, but the culture is the secret sauce.
Click here to read more of my take on this impressive school.