Tom Vander Ark: An Arizona Online Success Story

Last week I visited Arizona’s largest school, Primavera Online.  Headquartered in Chandler, Primavera serves primarily upper division students seeking an alternative pathway to graduation.  Half are juniors and seniors.  A quarter who have left school are classified as ‘grade 13’, what my friends in New York would call over-aged and under-credited
Primavera is powered by American Virtual Academy curriculum and learning platform (more on AVA in a later post).
In a few months, more than 500 graduates will gather (most physically, some virtually) at Grand Canyon University for a graduation ceremony.  Primavera has been helping Arizona students graduate for a decade.  It’s a homegrown academic success story. Click here to read more about my visit.

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: 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."

John Chubb: Overcoming the Governance Challenge in K-12 Online Learning

John Chubb co-authored with Terry M. Moe "Liberating Learning," the milestone book on the intersection of education and technology and the impact "edtech" would have on American education.
There are few people as qualified as Chubb to write the final paper in the Fordham Institutes series "Creating Sound Policy for Digital Learning."
In "Overcoming the Governance Challenge in K-12 Online Learning," Chubb reports that Online learning and our current system of local education governance are at odds with one another.
Chubb examines how local school district control retards the widespread use of instructional technologies. He argues that the surest way to break down the system’s inherent resistance to technology is to shift control from the local district—and thus the school board—and put it in the hands of states.
He then provides 10 education reform steps that would make the environment more conducive to expanding online learning programs.
Click here for a pdf of "Overcoming the Governance Challenge in K-12 Online Learning."
Click here for the complete Fordham series.

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.

Tom Vander Ark: Flex Schools Personalize, Enhance & Accelerate Learning

Innosight Institute’s seminal report The Rise of Blended Learning outlines several emerging school models that combine the best of onsite and online learning. Besides students taking online courses when possible, there are basically two emerging school models.

• Rotation: Students spend 20 to 50 percent of their time online. The Bay Area’s Rocketship Education is a high-performing elementary network where students spend two hours per day in a computer lab.
• Flex: Core instruction is conducted online with on-site academic support and guidance, integration and application opportunities, and extracurricular activities. Students in flex schools progress as they demonstrate mastery in most courses. In some courses, particularly those with teachers at a distance, they may remain part of a virtual cohort.

In short, rotation schools add some online learning to what otherwise may look like a traditional school while flex schools start with online learning and add physical supports and connections where valuable. As a result, the potential for innovation is higher in flex schools.
Click here to read my complete post and find out why I believe there are four big benefits of flex models.

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.