Guest Commentary: Education Week Quizzes Khan Academy Creator

Salman Khan, a MIT and Harvard Business School grad, was working as a hedge fund manager when he began posting videos on YouTube six years ago to tutor young family members in math. That led to the 2008 creation of the Khan Academy, a nonprofit organization that has built a free, online collection of thousands of digital lessons (nearly 3,000 of them created by Khan himself) and exercises in subjects ranging from algebra to microeconomics. Education Week Staff Writer Lesli A. Maxwell recently interviewed Khan. about the evolution of the academy and its potential for changing K-12 education.

Click here for the complete Q&A.

Tom Vander Ark: A Turning Point for Personal Digital Learning

It appears that 2012 will be the year where five mostly disconnected streams of tech-rich K-12 learning are finally connecting.
Districts and networks are beginning to mix and match innovations from these strands in new blended models that extend the day, personalize learning, and combine the best of online and onsite learning.
In the U.S., this confluence is being driven by the adoption of the Common Core State Standards and the planned shift to online testing in most states in 2014.
Click here to read more on why I believe we are at the turning point for digital learning.

Guest Commentary: EdWeek reports that 'Virtual Education Seen as Understudied'

Would online learning gain faster acceptance if there was more data about how it works?
That's the conclusion that an Education Week report makes.
In EdWeek's "Digital Directions" section, Michelle R. Davis reports, "At this point in the maturation of virtual education, the importance of high-quality, objective research is greater than ever. Education leaders need it to make informed decisions about how to use virtual education programs. But therein lies the problem: Very little high-quality, objective research on the subject is available."
"The research is definitely lagging behind," Barbara Means, the director of the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International, a nonprofit research institute in Menlo Park, Calif. told EdWeek's Davis."We're way behind on research when you consider how many schools and individuals are embracing online learning. It's understudied."
Click here to read the complete EdWeek report.
Click here for the 2011 paper "Quality Control in K-12 Digital Learning: Three Imperfect Approaches," in which Rick Hess provides insights and guidance of how to study online education.

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: 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: 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."

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 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.

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: 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.

Michael B. Horn: Edtech Market is Growing--If You're Disruptive

An article by Katie Ash in Education Week about a new report by the investment bank, Berkery Noyes, caught my eye recently because of its analysis about the education technology market. According to the piece, “companies focused on technology-based instruction and tools for data collection and analysis are thriving in the K-12 market.”
But beneath this, there are some important layers of nuance that seems to clarify what many education technology companies are seeing on the ground.
On the one hand, a whole series of education technology companies say the current budget crises are hurting their businesses. According to the article, if you are in the business of providing such things as supplemental content, then that is indeed the likely reality of your world.
On the other hand, several digital learning companies report to me that the budget crises seem to have driven an up-tick in their businesses.
Click here to read the complete article I posted on the Education Next website. And take time to read Rocketship Education's John Danner's comment on my article. He says the era of accountability is coming to online learning.

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.

Michael B. Horn: Why Digital Learning Will Liberate Teachers

I spend a lot of time writing about how digital learning can transform our education system into a student-centric one. In my last blog, I wrote about why parents—of all stripes—matter for digital learning and make it fundamentally different from past “reform” movements. Digital learning should similarly be a game changer for teachers.
Teachers will be critical to our nation’s future in a world of digital learning. Of course, teachers’ jobs will also be quite different from the way they look today—and if we do this right, they should not just be different, but they should also be a whole lot better, as it liberates them in many exciting ways.
Basically, as software increasingly handles direct instruction, this will create big opportunities for teachers to facilitate rich and rewarding project-based learning experiences for their students to apply their learning into different contexts and gain meaningful work in the so-called 21st-century skills. And as software increasingly simplifies administrative tasks and eliminates a significant need for lesson planning and delivering one-size-fits-none lessons, there will be significantly more time for teachers to work in the ways that motivated many of them to enter teaching originally—to work one-on-one and in small groups with students on the problems where they are in fact struggling.
Click here to read more on why I believe digital learning will liberate teachers.

Guest Commentary: Boston Consulting Group Report 'Unleashing the Potential of Technology in Education'

The Boston Consulting Group, a management consulting firm that specializes in business strategy, issued a report called Unleashing the Potential of Technology in Education.
According to the report, "We are at the dawn of an era in which educators have the potential to harness technology to produce a ... change in student achievement. Although visionaries have been promising for years that technology would transform primary and secondary education--and despite the billions of dollars spent networking schools and equipping them with computers and other devices--the actual impact on student outcomes to date has been disappointing. Even where educators have succeeded in introducing devices and software into the classroom, they've often failed to leverage that new technology to improve student performance. Yet when technology is strategically introduced into every step of the educational value chain, it does, in fact have the potential to enhance every aspect of instruction and learning.
"To fully realize the promise--and dramatically improve student outcomes in primary and secondary education--technology must be deployed in support of what is known as a closed-loop instruction system," the report continues.
The closed-loop instruction system:
-- Establishes educational objectives focused on 21st century skills.
-- Develops relevant curriculum offerings by using open source content.
-- Delivers instruction virtually.
-- Embeds frequent assessment with rel-time, continuous feedback
-- Provides appropriate intervention with immediacy and customization
"This approach will increasingly separate the best education systems from the more mediocre counterparts," the report concludes. "We recognized that there are risks--from making the wrong investments to failing to execute a technology strategy--and thus a need for careful execution. But we are also persuaded that the rewards will be enormous."
Click here for the complete report.

Michael B. Horn: Why Public Schools Need Less Regulation

Rep. John Kline (R-MN) recently introduced an act that would change a piece of that. The State and Local Funding Flexibility Act would give states and districts much more flexibility in how they spend federal education dollars -- in effect, trusting local educators to make the best decisions for their students. But Kline's measure created a firestorm when he introduced it shortly after July 4. Opponents fired back that it would unravel much of what the Department of Education has accomplished over the last half century and undermine students' civil rights.
As always with proposals of this nature, the devil is in the details, but there is a strong logic to Kline's basic premise. Over the past couple of decades policymakers have begun focusing on student outcomes -- and taken to demanding accountability for them. But they haven't loosened their controlling grip on the inputs -- the resources and processes schools can use to deliver those outcomes.
Click here to read the entire article I wrote for The Atlantic and learn why I believe Kline's bill could have a positive impact on the move toward digital learning.