Teacher, Teacher...

This week we reviewed the impact and development of online teachers.

I was turned off by the concept of "teacher-proofing" virtual courses.  I don't see how taking creative input and course guidance out of the hands of teachers positively affects the course.  Even in a recent thought exercise where I had actors teaching courses, they still could respond to their audience and potentially change their performance based on how things are evolving.  Being able to inject class and even student-relevant information, context, and application into courses is important to me.

I thought it was interesting that the near elimination of classroom management provides teachers with more time to connect with their students.  Eliminate having to lord over the room and that time can be better used.  But once again, we are dealing with motivated students.  How much classroom management issues would there be with a room full of highly motivated students?

Both HVLN's E-school and Delta Cyber School provided teachers with courses in the Course Management package of choice, but I had a hard time finding out how else the teachers were trained for the online environment.  If the bulk of time needed to train teachers is concentrated on learning technology, does that mean that younger, more technology adept, online teachers will make up the majority?  In addition to generalized technology literacy, I am talking about usage of the Course Management packages themselves.  I am sure there are young people at TC right now that can build on their prior usage in high school, college, and grad school and learn the producer side of the Course Management systems over lunch.

What will this mean to have younger teachers potentially with little or no f2f experience?  I would like to see current demographic information on online teachers beyond those of the "Going Virtual" sample.  Actual ages are of interest to me because I can get a sense of exposure to technology.

I ran across the growth of home schoolers who take advantage of online schooling.  This segment intrigues me more and more because of my myopic view of what and who home schoolers were.

I didn't see teacher development to the extent demonstrated by the Louisiana Virtual School.  It seemed like my schools were all one phase programs - learn the software and you are off the the races.  I did like the LVS's phases and their coverage.

I love the concept of teachers helping other teachers to excel and grow in the online environment. I find it funny that much is being made of this since it seems like the only way to go! I guess it is being mentioned because the schools should make this intercommunication as fluid as possible.

I didn't like what seemed like a push to get kids to take virtual courses before graduating.  I love love love technology, but I am not one of those people who believes in technology just for technology's sake.  If there isn't a need, don't use it.  The shift to required courses may reduce the number of "motivated students" and expose a very different side of online schooling.  I don't think f2f is going anywhere anytime soon, so students should take courses in the format that is most beneficial to them.  

As with the VS NACOL survey, I found that the teacher survey was a lot of common sense mixed with oddity.

"Facilitates and monitors appropriate interaction among students."

This was interesting because students can always have out-of-band conversations.  Is it the responsibility of the teacher to keep conversations through proper channels?

"Demonstrates the ability to effectively use word-processing, spreadsheet and presentation software."

This is always tricky because, which package you use can impact how well these skills come across.  I have difficulty... mostly frustration.... with Google Docs.  Things that I do easily in Excel aren't as easy for me to do in Docs. I wouldn't want to be penalized because of my choice of package.  I would almost abstract this a bit to capture the skills and not project it onto actual software. 

"Assesses each student’s background and content knowledge and uses these data to plan instruction."

I think this is great, but how individualized can these classes be?  I have yet to see an example of an individualized course at either of my schools.  I can think of how it works, but I haven't seen one yet.  Speaking to my earlier point,  I fear that "teacher-proofing" will creep in as more and more schools grow reliant on external content making this point hard to satisfy.... and not because of the teacher. 

"Meets the state’s professional teaching standards or has academic credentials in the field in which he or she is teaching."

Does this open the door to people in industry teaching?  Very interesting and up my alley because none of the people that I want to volunteer will jump through hoops to get state certification or give up hours to take other forms of standardized tests when they have demonstrated their subject knowledge through work and prior academics.

On the matter of Teacher ratios, I was disappointed that the information was not more readily available.  Class and school stats like these should be upfront and center on all of these sites.  I also had a hard time with scale.  I didn't really know if my values were high or low because I didn't have a good reference point. What are we comparing it against? F2F? Other online programs?  Does that metric even make sense?  The funny thing is that I wouldn't care how many students were being served if my experience is a good one. All of these schools should take advantage of economies of scale!  Technology can help increase the ratio in a non-destructive manner.

I didn't understand the social reform component of the TPI.  It felt like they threw it in as a counter weight to other values.  Are there many people in the social reform camp?  It felt like the social change that they were promoting had a specific trajectory.

Random chuckle:  When I do my reading, I put all of my files in a single folder, identify them by their filenames for note taking, and then chug through them.  I had to laugh how midway through "Chap10.pdf", I thought the author's definitions and tone sounded very much like that of Prof. Lowes.  Ha!  In a paper environment, I would refer to the printout by the author.  In an electronic setting, I refer to the reading by its filename.  I wonder if people print out notes or do electronic reading?

I know Apple and Adobe are not on the greatest of terms right now, but I am surprised that they did not demonstrate and play up a dedicated Apple PDF viewer (like preview) for the iPad.  It can display pdf's emailed to the device, so why not make a dedicated viewer especially since files can now be moved over USB directly to the device?

Also, PDF's are wonderful, but true PDF's are even better.  I really like to be able to copy and paste, highlight, and annotate directly in my documents.  Are there any studies that compare the effectiveness of online note taking with written note taking?  I would think that the process of writing out notes in my own words would be more involved, active, and beneficial for retention?  I will have to check on this...  

Another good week!

Step Right Up...

The charter and for-profit schools generally presented themselves better than the state schools.  Better content. Better information design.  Better graphics design.  This is most likely due to the fact that they are competing directly for student dollars.  If state schools do not care about the competition, then everything is fine, but I noticed wording and dead links on their sites to the contrary.  Development funds are always an important resource that larger institutions are fortunate to have, but a strong web initiative can be developed completely and inexpensively with better planning, organization, and a little bit of creative drive.

The NACOL check list seemed to be mostly common sense sprinkled with odd and often vague requirements.

For example, "The course intentionally emphasizes 21st century skills in the course, including using 21st century skills in the core subjects, 21st century content, learning and thinking skills, ICT literacy, self-directed learning, global awareness, and includes 21st century assessments, as identified by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills."

What are 21st century skills?  Do we really want to focus on these 21st century skills in the online domain?  I was part of a cultural exchange program to Cuba a number of years ago and attended a lecture about their career planning at the university level.  The government assigned students to careers that they believed would be important in the coming century.  I chuckled at their planning then as I do about the partnership's now.  We should be very careful here.  I don't think we need radical shifts as much as we need better execution on what we do now.

Another checkbox that I had problems with was, "The course reflects multicultural education and is accurate, current and free of bias."

Is that possible?  How would Alpha Omega Academy score on that one?  How about coursework on wars or global warming?

The NACOL list did not speak to me about online coursework as much as it did about coursework in general.  There is nothing wrong with that, but it feels like it misses the mark coming from the NACOL.

I was disappointed to find more externally sourced content at my schools than their press, FAQs, and course descriptions led me to believe.  Is there greater value in internally produced content?  Do students care?  Do parents care?

I'm surprised how many minor contraints there are on the online learning environment: class pacing,  content sourcing, platforms, tools, etc...  For example, it looks to me like most courses still originate from a single source as opposed to being composed of the best content for each topic regardless of where it comes from.  

Isn't this truly the wave of the future?

TM™

I originally wanted to review the Alaska Virtual School™ (AKVS™) for my for-profit/charter research, but after closer inspection, it was not recognized by the NACOL clearing house.  AKVS™ has a nice public facing appearance, ample content, AND something that I'm always happy to see, nice DEMOs of their experience!

The AKVS™ platform is based around The Learning Center™ from an outfit called Illuminated Learning™.  I had not heard of either before.  Curriculum for The Learning Center™ is provided by a number of different providers from McGrawHill™ and Rosetta Stone™ to National Geographic™ and HippoCampus™.  It is interesting to note that Alaska Virtual School™ has very little to do with Alaska at all.  In fact, other than a quick mention of Alaska being a state of home schoolers, there isn't anything.  I will have to research some of the other schools run by Illuminated Learning™ to see if there is much difference in presentation or if they just use templates.  The Illuminated Learning™ site has many of the same stock photographs.

I half jokingly included all of those ™ symbols, but I also wanted to draw attention to how quickly you realize that you are no longer looking at the site of a public institution.  Instead of AKVS™, I decided to look for a more suitable program based out of Alaska to see how they addressed weather and distance related issues with online schooling.

My choice was the Delta Cyber School, a charter school based out of the Delta/Greely school district.

Things that I learned:

Delta Cyber School services diverse needs, but they also actively target home schoolers!  Unlike our current debate about whether the online schools that we have examined thus far are positioning themselves as alternatives to or extensions of f2f programs, DCS is positioning itself as a pure alternative to home schooling.  Neat!  Alaska is a very home school friendly state, so this make a lot of sense.  I hadn't really thought about that specific need before.  The school is free if you are not attending any other schools and fee-based for everyone else.  Who absorbs the costs?  Parent or school?

"DCS is a great alternative to homeschooling for parents who don’t feel comfortable teaching high-level courses (Chemistry, Calculus, British Literature, Alaska History) or subjects that require specialized skills (Spanish, Photoshop, Desktop Publishing)."

I had never really spent time thinking about the details of homeschooling and what would make the segment better.  DCS has.

There are four labs / third-places around the state where students can go to get their DCS work done.  This is one of the first examples of third places that I have come across.

Alaska has a corporate hardware donation/loaner program that provides students with loaner technology for their online classes.   OK, but who pays for connectivity?

Exit exams are requirements for graduation.  I wondered how Physical Education classes would be dealt with in an online schooling environment and they apparently deal with them the same way that they deal with any exit exam - you keep taking the exit test over and over again until you pass it.  I believe that all students should be required to play a sport every season instead of going to gym class.  Gym serves too narrow a purpose in my mind...

DCS uses the blackboard educational platform for their classes.  How did they decide on that?  How much of it was marketing?

The school was first chartered in 1997 and renewed for a 10 year charter in 2002.  Will it be renewed again in 2012?  I didn't get a feel for that other than from a statement in a school report card saying that the school was fully supported and fostered by the local school district.

There wasn't as much of a difference between the charter and the state school as I had expected.  You can immediately tell when you are on a for-profit educational site with the appearance of all of the trademarks, buzz words, and stock photos, but the differences between charter and state were more subtle.

Without the profit motive of the commercial providers, public sites tend to be as sexy as they can afford to be.  The better funded ones are better looking.

Why don't more programs allow for reduced speed courses?  Why can't I work on my foreign language a bit slower, so that I can get the nuances of pronunciation down. It seems like the schools only allow for up shifting.

I was impressed that the school allows for instant conferencing with teachers during traditional school day hours.  I believe immediacy of feedback and contacts is a huge selling point.

I was disappointed with the timeliness, quality, and quantity of data on the site.

Looking at my online charter school has been interesting and eye opening as I have begun to think about traditional home schooling environments and the problems associated with them.  I have been ignoring current home schooling environments as a fringe segment, when I really shouldn't.

Despite my interest in weather and distance related inefficiencies, I was surprised that these subjects were given only a couple of references under the general banner of "barriers" and Delta Cyber School can combat them all.