Online High Schools

This weeks' post was inspired by a question posed by Diana Maughan about whether distance education is another fad in education or if it is here to stay. The question got me to thinking about a commercial I heard on the radio for a new online charter high school here in the state of Utah. The high school is called Open High School of Utah (openhighschool.org). Below are a couple of videos about the school:




Why are Students Excited about Open High School of Utah? from OHSU Teacher on Vimeo.





I think a online charter school is a fascinating idea. The state of Utah now has a Statewide Online Education Program that allows high school students to take up to two online classes from an accredited online provider. Every student will have the option to take a couple of online classes over the traditional face-to-face classes. Students who enroll full-time into this school will be allowed to take all of their classes online. It will be interesting to see how this turns out and to see if it is successful. If a charter school like this ends up being successful and they are able to maintain a steady enrollment. We might just see online high schools popping up everywhere.

What are your thoughts?

Can Online Learning Work?

This week, I read an article from Tech and Learning Magazine that outlines four different measures that need to be taken in order for online learning to work. The first measure suggests that Educators at every level should move forward with the development of online-based curricula and supporting digital content. Measure two indicates that policy makers should review accreditation rules, teacher licensing requirements, copyright law, and other regulations that would unintentionally undermine online access to educational content. Measure three requests that broadband connectivity be expanded throughout the United States. Finally, measure four recommends that technology experts and policy makers explore measures to create a universal broadband support fund, to enable deployment and adoption of broadband in high-cost areas.

I completely agree with these measures and believe that they would be a continuing benefit to people everywhere young and old throughout the United States. The more access and exposure that we have to online learning opportunities, the more excitement their will be for learning and improvement of people everywhere.

In addition to these measures, I also believe that evaluative measures need to be taken for quality control of the content delivered online. I am a firm believer that quantity doesn't necessarily ensure quality as I have seen this in my own profession. It is one thing to create and provide online learning content to the masses, but it is a completely different matter to ensure that the content will be an effective medium for learning. The better the online content, the more likely people are to get on board with it.

I am excited about the future prospects of online learning and I believe it is going to continue to evolve into something greater and more useful to students of all ages!

U.S. Distance Learning Association (USDLA). "Can Online Learning Work?" Tech and Learning 31.7 (2011): 10. Print.

Qualities of an Instructional Designer

For this week's post, I thought I would pose a question. Since my next assignment from my learning contract is approaching, I have been researching what qualities and skills are required in order to be successful as an Instructional Designer, especially for distance education. My next assignment will require me to create a list of qualities and skills that are needed to effectively fill the role of an instructional designer. After looking at various job postings for instructional designers at a number of institutions, I have come up with a small list of skills and qualities. Since I would like to get your own thoughts and ideas, I won't list those items just yet. However, in a post to follow I will share the results of my research and your responses. So please feel free to share your thoughts on what skills and qualities you think a person would need to possess in order to be an effective instructional designer. Thanks!

Digital content replaces textbooks in pilot program

Digital content replaces textbooks in pilot program

My response to this article:

I have always wondered why more text book publishers haven't made a bigger effort to create digital textbooks instead of publishing printed text books for schools. Now, I realize that not every classroom has a computer for each student and that it may be years before this happens, but it is on the horizon. When this does happen, I believe that more and more schools will choose to opt out of purchasing expensive text books, that become out of date in a matter of months, and will opt in for online learning resources. Online multimedia can engage students in the content much more easily than simple words and pictures in a book. Think of the possibilities! Interactive learning activities, online videos, sound clips, and a constant feed of new knowledge as it becomes available all in the hands of teachers and students!

I also wonder why many schools continue to invest money in textbooks when they could be using that money toward filling classrooms with inexpensive computers, net books, or iPads. Textbooks have not gotten cheaper. If anything textbooks continue to become more expensive, while computers seem to be dropping in price. Publishers and schools have many opportunities in this digital world we live in. Why not tap into the possibilities this world offers. What are your thoughts?

Online Learning for Student-Centered Innovation

Here is an interesting article that was posted in the Deseret News this past week. What are your thoughts?
http://bit.ly/e9MiwL

Online learning for student-centered innovation

By Clayton M. Christensen

Published: Tuesday, March 8, 2011 12:00 a.m. MST

As budget woes and rising pension and health care costs increasingly cut into the resources for our schools, we have an opportunity to use this crisis to transform them.

All students have different learning needs at different times. Most of us know this intuitively. I remember being in high school in Utah and struggling to master a physics concept while my best friend grasped it immediately. Much later in my life, when the same concept was explained to me in a different way, and I had more time to work with it, I understood. We all have friends who excelled in certain classes but struggled in others.

Yet our schools are not built to personalize for these different learning needs at different times. There is far more standardization than customization.

The reason is that schools teach using a monolithic batch system. When a class is ready to move on to a new concept, all students move on, regardless of how many had mastered the previous concept. On the other hand, if some students are able to master a class in a couple months, they remain in the class for the whole semester. Both the bored and the bewildered see their opportunity to achieve — and need to experience real success — shredded by the system.

Why is this? It's not that teachers, administrators, and others in the school system don't appreciate the need for customization. They do. The system in which they work, however, constrains their ability to customize because all of its parts are highly interdependent.

If our goal is to educate every student to the highest potential, then schools need to move away from this monolithic classroom model and toward a student-centric educational one with a modular design that enables mass customization.

The way transformation has occurred in nearly ever sector is through the force known as disruptive innovation — a force we must now harness.

In education, online learning represents this disruptive innovation, and as such, it presents a promising opportunity to make this shift. The proper use of technology as a platform for learning offers a chance to modularize the system and thereby customize learning by allowing students to progress at different paces and through different paths as needed.

Utah is no stranger to online learning. For more than 15 years now, the state and its districts have been using it in classic disruptive innovation fashion to serve areas of nonconsumption — places where the alternative is literally nothing at all. The current budget crises that at first seemed to be a threat to our schools actually create opportunities to transform them to this student-centric system, as they increase these areas of nonconsumption where school leaders can deploy online learning.

Disruptive innovations tend to be simpler and more affordable than existing services at the outset. But little by little, they improve predictably. Online learning fits the mold. At first it was most often used for distance learning. Increasingly, however, online learning is being implemented in brick-and-mortar schools in what is called blended learning; the content is becoming more and more robust for individual learners so that it motivates students to engage in deeper learning, and the communication technology is enhancing the ability of teachers and students to interact.

With the legislation now moving through the Utah House of Representatives, there is an opportunity to drive and shape this improvement further so that it is focused on each individual student. By creating competition between providers based on delivering positive student outcomes — and freeing up the process by which they get there — Utah has a significant opportunity to drive this innovation forward by leaps and bounds.

Embracing a disruptive approach that is mindful of children's different needs presents a promising path toward motivating students to maximize their human potential and realize their most daring dreams.

Clayton M. Christensen, a native of Salt Lake City, is the Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He has published numerous best-selling books on innovation, including "The Innovator's Dilemma." Christensen is a member of the Deseret News Editorial Advisory Board.

Distance Education in 2011

Today I read, "Top Ten Predictions for 2011 {With Proof}." in the January 2011 issue of Tech and Learning Magazine. The articles author Ellen Ullman makes two interesting predictions in regards to Distance Education. First of all, she predicts that rather than schools continuing to spends large amounts of money on paper copies produced by publishers, teachers will be encouraged to work within global communities to find content and learning strategies for use in instruction. Ullman's prediction is backed up by Scott Floyd, an instructional technologist in Texas. Scott is encouraging faculty in his school district to do just this. Ullman believes that the only real limitation to this strategy is time. Teachers are limited on time as is, and finding time to filter through the massive content available online in search for material that will fit their classroom situations can be challenging. I see myself turning to online resources over ordering textbooks and I certainly wish I had more time to search and explore more online resources.

The second prediction that Ullman makes is that more elementary and secondary schools will be using distance education to teach students outside of the classroom. A school district in Ohio has already planned on have two full days of electronically delivered instruction. These two days will take the place of a normal school day when weather conditions prevent students from coming to school. Each teacher in the district has developed electronic lessons for their classes. When the e-day is called, students will log on to the districts website to access their lessons for that day. the goal of this project is to equal or surpass the learning that would occur during a typical day of school. Personally I would be interested to see what the results of this project are.

Apps for Learning

This week a read a short blurb on educational apps in Tech and Learning magazine entitled, "Learning: Is there and App for that?" that are helping young children learn and develop important skills. This blurb stated that two-thirds of children aged 4 to 7 have now had access to an iPhone or iPod touch at some point in their short lifetime and that 85 percent of those children use one owned by a parent. The article also stated that many children who do use these apps on a regular basis, made significant gains in vocabulary comprehension, letter identification, and rhyming.

My own experiences with my three and five year old daughters show that the above is true. My wife and I both have iPod touches that include educational apps that my daughters love to use. I have seen a great deal of improvement in both of them especially in my three year old. She knows the alphabet and can count to twenty. I think this is due largely to her playing with apps that teach numbers and letters.

I believe that what was discovered from all of this is truly the essence of distance education. We live in a world where we can access and learn information on the go. Education is not confined to a classroom, but is mobile and ours for the taking anytime anywhere. This blog will be devoted to exploring recent trends, news, and issues in the field of distance learning. As I scour news articles and journals on the topic of Distance Ed I will post to this blog weekly summarizing what I have discovered and learned. Stay tuned and feel free to comment where you see fit.