VSS Attendees: Check Out New Demo

I got this in my inbox this afternoon. Not sure if this is open to others, but given it is a demo by a vendor one would assume that they'd like a wide audience.

The NACOL 2007 Virtual School Symposium proved to be a great success! We at Jones Knowledge appreciated the chance to learn more about how K-12 institutions nationwide plan to address the needs of 21st century learners.

To that end, we have created an opportunity for you to learn more about the latest Jones Knowledge tool designed to engage and retain your entire learning community.

Please join us for an online demonstration of the Jones Knowledge social networking tool.

Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008

Noon-1 p.m. (MT)

Attendees will learn about specific features and benefits for students, faculty and parents and will also be considered for an opportunity to offer the tool to your school and directly impact its further development.

To register, please go to our registration page.

If you have any questions, please call us at 877.277.5423. We look forward to meeting you and sharing this technology as one of the newest variables in the learning equation.

Sincerely,

Jones Knowledge

Anyway, if you attend feel free to comment here and let us know what it was all about.

Tags: VSS2007, NACOL, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education

Virtual School Clearinghouse

I think I may have posted something about this before, but if not here are the goods.

Virtual School Clearinghouse

This is a research project down at the University of Florida. In their own words...

The Virtual School Clearinghouse (VSC) is a website documenting a collaborative research project sponsored by the AT&T Foundation and the University of Florida. VSC seeks to aggregate and analyze data from virtual schools, particularly focusing on state-led virtual schools in the 9 state AT&T region. Drawing on existing research and current virtual school practice, the VSC provides multiple tools and metrics vital for school improvement.

Within this site, you will find collections of resources including research on virtual schooling, instruments used to evaluate virtual schooling, and websites dedicated to the topic. As a guest, you may browse these resources. Freely join as a registered guest and you may add and comment on resources. If you are a virtual school, contact us to share your data, and you will have free access to data analyses tools and evaluation instruments. These tools will help provide timely, continuous feedback for data-driven decision making and evaluation of existing policies and practice.

At the recent Virtual School Symposium in Louisville, their team made three presentations:

1. Informing Policy & Practice: Research on the Best Practices of Virtual School Teachers - Meredith DiPietro
   
2. Improving Virtual Schools: A Collaborative Research Partnership - Richard Ferdig, Kim Mulky, Meredith DiPietro, Erik Black & Jeff Boyer
3. Instructional Perspectives of Best Practices: Successful Strategies in Virtual School Courses - Richard Ferdig, Meredith DiPietro, Erik Black, Jeff Boyer & Kim Mulky

The third one was one of the presentations that was webcast by NACOL.

Instructional Perspectives of Best Practices: Successful Strategies in Virtual School Courses (Richard Ferdig)

This session will focus on the results of a collaborative effort undertaken between the University of Florida and Michigan Virtual to investigate the instructional practice of effective virtual school teachers. The goal of this session is to initiate conversations that can provide a basis for developing the body of research on K-12 best practices for online teaching by sharing the outcomes of this collaboration, and providing members from MVU an opportunity to share their perceptions and practices of virtual school teaching. Webcast

One of the items from the Clearinghouse's website that I will point out is their Resources > Bibliographies (see http://vs.education.ufl.edu/VirtualSchool/Bibliographies.aspx for a direct link). Apparently it is largely the citations from one of the team member's own dissertations, but still a fairly good list (even if much of it isn't specific to virtual schooling).

Anyway, this is the last sheet that I picked up while at the Virtual School Symposium, so this should be the last entry on the content of the conference (minus my own presentation, which I am still trying to figure out how to host my podcast).

Tags: VSS2007, NACOL, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education

Schools of the Future, A 10-Year Old's Vision

You may recall in my post about the student panel at VSS (see VSS2007 - Student Panel) I indicated that Susan Patrick and NACOL should get a copy of what the youngest participant wrote about schools of the future. Well, today that was posted in one of the NACOL forums and I wanted to make sure I re-posted it here.

Prior to 2007 VSS, Susan Patrick (NACOL CEO & President) asked the students: "In addition to the online learning questions, I would like you to consider what the "future of education" looks like for K-12 schools ­ specifically, imagine what schools of the future should look like to deliver the very best education in a global, information-rich, digital world. Please spend some time thinking through how schools should be designed in 20 years. How can time be used differently ­ learning at any pace? How can the buildings be designed differently ­ wireless, flexible spaces with internet connectivity and laptops like a huge Starbucks with conference rooms for teacher-student or student-student meetings? How would it look and function differently? How can information or courses be different and help students prepare for the 21st century?"

Here is one response we'd like to share with everyone:

I think all grade levels will be driven by the latest technology and the buildings will be altered to support that technology. I think instead of carrying backpacks full of books, every student will have a laptop. I also think elementary, middle school, and high school will place different emphasis on the level of technology versus the level of social interaction. For example, in elementary school grades K-2 will have some computer interface (online and teacher classes) with heavy emphasis on physical and social development and interaction. Starting in 3rd grade, students will begin more lessons on line and must master the skill set or subject matter before advancing to the next chapter, grade level, etc.

Middle schools will concentrate mostly on subject matter via online with maybe the exception of related arts classes. Middle schools will emphasize the development of thinking sills including problem solving and analytical thinking. This will also help students with their organizational and time management skills. Teacher interface will still be important at the middle school level.

By the time students reach high school the school will be more like an open campus with limited teacher interface. Students will have the skills to go further into the subject matter that interests them as well as taking harder, more demanding college preparatory classes. Students will have access to the latest in communications, real time videos, etc. which will prepare them for the working world.

I wish this is how the schools are set up now. I mean, having a laptop, how cool is that?!

-Elizabeth, age 10, student from Kentucky Virtual School

--------------------

Wendy C. Fleming
Communicatins Manager
North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL)
1934 Old Gallows Road, Suite 350, Vienna, VA 22182
Office 703-752-6216
Fax 703-752-6201

Save the Date!
2007 Virtual School Symposium
November 4-6, 2007 in Louisville, KY

www.nacol.org

Now, isn't that interesting! What do you think? Should schools look like this? If not, what would you change?

Tags: VSS2007, NACOL, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education

VSS2007 - Resources and Materials

I know I've already posted something today and I'm not sure what other content I'll have for the remainder of the week, but I finally noticed hat NACOL has posted all of the PowerPoint files, webcasts, and vodcasts from the various presentations at this year's Virtual School Symposium. You can access all of these materials at:

http://www.virtualschoolsymposium.org/resources.php

Note that I sent them a copy of my podcast for my session as well - but they didn't post it. I'm still trying to resolve my issues with posting it at Blogger. I used Garage Band to create it, as I wanted to add the PPT slides to the audio of my presentation, so it saved it as an .m4a or MPeg4 file. It is only 24MB and Blogger is supposed to support videos of up to 100MB, so I'm not sure what the problem is. I sent an e-mail to the Blogger support about three weeks ago and other than "yes, that is a problem and we are looking into it" response I haven't heard anything. I sent them a reminder yesterday.

Anyway, once they figure out what the problem is I'll try and post that podcast here. In the meantime, enjoy reviewing the items posted by NACOL.

Tags: VSS2007, NACOL, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education

A Guest Blogger for VSS2007

Just wanted to let you know that a doctoral student from BYU (and a frequent commenter here), Abigail Gonzales, has sent me the notes that she took from the recent 2007 Virtual School Symposium in Louisville so that I could post them here.

As she indicates:

"It is just the raw information, I was just taking down information with no analysis, so do with it what you like. Some of the sessions I didn't take as much down as others."

I have gone back and placed them in the correct order of when they would have happened as if she had been posting them in real time at the conference. You will note that the title for each of these begins "VSS2007 (Guest Blogger)" and then the title of the session. Each entry also begins with "Session notes from our guest blogger, Abby."

Our thanks to Abby for allowing us to post this "raw information" for those who were able to join us in Louisville.

Tags: VSS2007, NACOL, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education

VSS2007 - Final Thoughts

I trust that everyone who was in Louisville got home okay. Okay, I'm finally getting around to posting my final thought about this week's Virtual School Symposium. As someone more interested in research, my thoughts will focus upon that aspect.

One of the initiatives that we (i.e., the Research Committee) tried this year which I kind of took the lead in was these Researcher Sign-Up Meetings. It was kind of something that we added on shortly before the conference.

For those not in Louisville or those that simply did not hear about it, basically what we did was I took two sheets of paper and divided the days up in 30 minute slots, from 9:30am to 4:00pm on Monday and from 9:30am to noon on Tuesday. Each piece of paper had two columns, one for us to sign up in and one for the people who wanted meetings to sign up in. The system was promoted solely at the first timers meeting.

First of all, let me thank to the three researchers that signed up to meet with those who requested meetings, along with those who were willing to sign up if we had more people interested and all of the others that I saw who either helped me track down people to sign up.

We had three people, all doctoral students, sign up for four meetings. In talking with all three doctoral student after their sessions, all were very appreciative of our time and the advice/guidance that we provided. For me (as I met with one of the three students), I know that my meeting was a good one and I enjoyed the conversation. I think the doctoral student left with a better sense of how she could pursue a topic around virtual school teachers that she was interested in for her dissertation, plus more importantly a list of other researchers at VSS to track down who were more specialized in that area.

While the system we had in placed served the purpose this year, this was the first year that we have tried this, it was a last minute things and it was only promoted at the first timers meeting - so there are probably better ways to do this...

At another conference that I used to attend (i.e., the Qualitative Interest Group or QUIG), the qualitative faculty each set aside a half day of this three day conference for these meetings. Each faculty member has an individual sheet, so people can sign up specifically for their half hour slot with that researcher.

One of the researcher committee members made the suggestion that if there was a way for people when they register to indicate that they wanted to meet with one of us, and then have a series of boxes that had all of the different areas or expertises that they could check, in terms of what they wanted to meet about. That way we would know who is the best person to meet with them and that person could arrange things directly with them.

If you have other suggestions, I would love to hear about them...

One of the other things I have been reflecting on is how we structure out presentations. For example, there were some of the break-out sessions that only had one or had no research presentations going on, while there were other sessions that had three and four going on at the same time. This meant that some blocks I really had no choice where I was going if I wanted to focus upon the research currently being done, but others sessions I had to pick and choose between big names in the field and very interesting presentations. I'm wondering if there isn't a better way to try and even this out a bit.

Two weeks before VSS I was at e-Learn in Quebec City. In their planning, they categories the presentations (based upon the presenter's self selection) into the following categories:

• Content Development

• Evaluation

• Implementation Examples and Issues

• Instructional Design

• Policy Issues

• Research

• Social and Cultural Issues

• Standards and Interoperability

• Tools and Systems

• Other

In the printed program, there is a code for each of these so you know the thematic focus of the session (i.e., a session marked "RES" is going to focus upon research). It also allows the planners to spread out the sessions from similar thematic areas so that all of the SCI (i.e., social and cultural issues) are scheduled at the same time. This is something that NACOL might want to do to assist in both their own planning and in spreading out these sessions a little more.

Another model that could be used is one that the National Council for Social Studies (NCSS) and the College and University Faculty Association (CUFA) uses. CUFA is the faculty group in NCSS. They have their meetings, which are largely research focused, the day before the NCSS main convention. All participants at NCSS are also invited to attend the CUFA meetings. This gives those involved in research a day where that is all that is done and those practitioners that have an interest in research have the opportunity to be immersed in it for a day.

Just some ideas, and I think we should discuss these and any others that people have. That way we can begin to work out some more bugs and have a better system available next year. BTW, the conference will be in Phoenix next year and will be held the weekend before the Presidential election (can't recall the date in my head now).

So, let the discussion begin...

Tags: VSS2007, NACOL, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education

21st Century Learning: 'We're Not Even Close'

Well, I am back up north again, after a successful Virtual School Symposium and a six hour drive home. After thinking a lot about the conference on the drive home I have some additional thoughts that I'll post later today or tomorrow, however, when I checked my e-mail this morning look at what I found.

21st Century Learning: 'We're Not Even Close'

T.H.E. News Update: November 7, 2007

What You Need To Know Now

******************************************************

:::::: NEWS & ISSUES

: 21st Century Learning: 'We're Not Even Close'

******************************************************

:::::: NEWS & ISSUES ::::::

: 21st Century Learning: 'We're Not Even Close'

Without incorporating technology into every aspect of its activities, no organization can expect to achieve results in this increasingly digital world. Yet education is dead last in technology use compared with all major industrial sectors, and that has to change in order for schools to meet the challenges of 21st century learning--this according to a paper released Monday by the State Education Technology Directors Association (SETDA), the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills at the SETDA Leadership Summit and Education Forum in Washington, DC.

Click to continue:
http://www.1105newsletters.com/xrciscb_tuxzvxuxu.html

******************************************************

I figured that this was worth posting, given my little rant yesterday about VSS2007 - Virtual Schools and 21st Century Skills. Enjoy...

Tags: VSS2007, NACOL, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education

VSS2007 - Student Panel

I'll be honest and state that of all the Virtual School Symposiums that I have attended, this is the first time that I have attended the student panel, so this was new for me.

There were four students, one young lady was in grade six and the other three students were high school students. They had a variety of experience, from students who were taking their first virtual school course to one young lady who had taken half dozen or more AP courses over her high school career.

Many of the students indicated that they were taking virtual school courses because the courses simply weren't offered in their school. One young lady was pursuing a career in modeling and being a virtual school student allowed her to travel for further her career, but still be a student in the state. The grade six student had already skipped one grade in her academic career and instead of skipping a second grade, the virtual school courses allowed her to stay with her student colleagues and simply supplement her learning at a higher level online.

One of the students mentioned that her online courses have taught her discipline and organization, two of the other students mentioned that they have gained a great deal in the way of technology skills because of their virtual schooling. The youngest panelist was quite a witty young lady and even at the age of eleven or twelve was able to give the standard answer to the question, with the charm of a child... blah, blah, blah, etc... :)

The same young lady read this little essay that she wrote about what her vision of the school of the future would look like in twenty years time. I'd encourage NACOL to get a copy of that and post it to their website, as it was quite refreshing.

The final thing that I found interesting was the panel was asked a question about whether or not they were concerns about the fact that if school was all online that they didn't have as much or the same level of interaction with their friends. What I liked about the students' responses was that they didn't focus upon their interaction in online or virtual environments, such as instant messaging or social networking, but they focused upon all of the other ways that they interact with their peers outside of the formal school and after-school environment. Kind of opposite from what Prensky, Jukes and some of the others talking about digital natives and other generational differences. One young lady even mentioned that there are more community-based sports and activities that are beginning to replace some of the school-based extra-curricular items, and this is where more of that social interaction takes place as opposed to only in school.

Tags: VSS2007, NACOL, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education

VSS2007 - Instructional Perspectives of Best Practices: Successful Strategies in Virtual School Courses

This was another session given by the University of Florida group, being led by Meredith Dipietro.

It was an interview study with teachers at the Michigan Virtual High School that looked at best practices for virtual school teaching. She used Elluminate Live as a means to conduct these interview. The data from those interviews were put into three categories:

1. general characteristics - such as personal and instructional
2. classroom management - such as monitoring behavour and communication
3. pedagogical strategies - such as making content meaningful, providing support, and assessing student knowledge

A second part of the study, or a follow-up from the initial study, was a survey that looked at what kinds of PD were needed or desired by the Michigan Virtual High School teachers. The survey had eight items, plus and other category - and the teachers chose based on a likert scale their level of interest in the specific PD topic. The most requested topic was "content-based technology integration" and the least requested topic was "content specific knowledge."

This was majority of the actual research presented in the session, and then two of the people from the Michigan Virtual High School gave their perspectives about the research and Meredith's findings.

Tags: VSS2007, NACOL, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education

VSS2007 (Guest Blogger) - What Works in K-12 Online Content Area Teaching

Session notes from our guest blogger, Abby.

What Works in K-12 Online Content Area Teaching
Cathy Cavanaugh
Bob Blomeyer
Meredith DiPietro
Lynne Anderson-Inman

Language Arts and Literacy: Meredith DiPietro, Rick Ferdig
(Didn't share any research)

Background:
5 principles

• Positioning practices around literacy (Shoman's Pedagogical Content Knowledge)
• Balanced literacy approach
• Reading/writing connection – reciprical nature of the two. Cannot be taught separately
• Various constructivisms -
• Component architecture – taking content and breaking it down into chunks effectively
• Importance of standards (NETS, IRA, NCTE, US DOE) provides structure for how use technology to meet standards

Reading and Technology Online

• Decoding: kidpix, hypersudio, PPT, Electronic storybooks
• Developing context strategies (facilitating prediction abilities in content and word): Cloze activities and scramblers
• Phonics Instruction: Rhymer, Merriam -Webster dictionary
• Reading comprehension: Internet research activities
• Fluency with speaking tools: create story in word or ppt story and add audio component to these

Writing and Technology

• Concept maps and venn diagrams: Inspiration, Gliffy (collaborative concept mapping tool), PPT, or Hyperstudio
• Collaborative writing and editing: google docs, telecollaborative; internet project registry
• Collect, reflect, and share student writing: online publishing with blogs, wikis, online portfolios
• Vocabulary: visual thesaurus, vocabulary university
• Writing and inquiry: Yahooligans, web searches

Three other areas

• Technology and literature : internet classics archive
• Struggling, diverse, and at-risk readers: IRA focus on struggling learners; say Hello to the world
• Technologies for listening and speaking: Podcasting, vodcasting

Tech and literacy: Teacher PD

• Online PD courses: free ed, word2word language courses
• Online professional journals: Reading online, language literacy
• Listserves, blogs, podcasts, and discussion forums: L-Soft, early childhood education groups

Future Trends with Teaching literacy

• Understanding media literacy and role of new literacies (media literacy)
• Importance of social software (myspace, facebook, 2nd life)
• Need more research and funding for understanding at-risk students
• Importance of pedagogical technological content knowledge

Humanities - Bob Bolmyer
(Didn't share any research)

What are the humanities?

• Fine and performing arts
• Languages and linguistics
• Philosophy

Why the humanities

• Not recall or recognition
• Analysis and synthesis
• Creation of new knowledge and
• Communication of such knowledge in highly engaging form

Humanities offer content areas ideal for bringing 21st century skills into any classroom.

Mathematics Online - Cathy Cavanaugh

Scope

• US DOE showed 15% of public school DE enrollments were in mathematic
• Advanced HS math courses focus on teaching abstract concepts and problems
• Symbolic representations of math concepts can be made more concrete for students through virtual manipulations

Virtual Manipulatives:

• Study of online algebra class at FLVS compared performance on graphing linear equations of students who used online graphing tools to students who didn't (Cavanaugh, Bosnick , Hess, Scott, 2005) No sig. difference but still could be helpful.
• Studies supporting shared whiteboards. Illuminate spaces. Peer to peer tutoring.
• Hwang's 2005 study of data mining for diagnosing student problems in learning.

Teacher PD: teacher support and feelings of cohesiveness in online math class were higher for teachers who had more hours of PD in math and content

Co-teaching and Facilitation: Kleinman, Carey, Bonifaz, ...2005) onsite math tutors worked with groups had significant effect with student performance

Practices of Effective Math Teachers:

• Strong communicators
• Regular feedback
• Monitor performance
• Schedule tutoring
• etc—missed it

Science learning

• (Leu, Csateck, Hartman, .... 2005) Use of internet integration resulted in lower level achievement on simple declarative K and greater achievement in conceptual science learning among middle school students. Inquiry based science.
• Collaborative PBL/ Inquiry-based science showed promise

Teaching students with special needs - Missed presenter's name

Special Needs students are numerous and diverse

• Students with disabilities: 14% of students nationwide. Of these, 47% have learning disabilities
• ESL students: 20% nationwide, of these 40% qualify for ELL support

Competency problems

• Inadequate reading and writing skills (in English for ESL students)
• Inadequate study skills
• Inadequate background knowledge

Choose “accessible” websites and text materials

• Law: Section 508 of rehabilitation act 1998 – screen readers
• Web accessible Initiative (WAI) of W3C
• National Instructional Materials Standards (NIMS) Going into implementation this year. All published materials have electronic version.

Select online courses that are accessible and customizable

• Indicators of accessible courses – Burgstahler, 2006
• Adopting principles of UDL- Rose and Meyer, 2002. Have multiple ways to present information, multiple ways to express learning (input fields, concept maps, collaboration. work, different types of deliverables), multiple ways of engaging students (interviews, roll plays, team inquiry, think-links)
• Incorporate supported text

Suggestions for improving learning

• Incorporate “supported text” (Anderson – Inman and Horney 1998, 2007)
• Adopt materials to be read out loud (best is to have highlighting that goes along with it)
• Provide vocabulary supports (hyperlinked to glossary, map my word dictionary)
• Enhance background knowledge: link to more information (picture, text, additional context)
• Provide text in smaller chunks (i.e. one paragraph at a time --> feel successful and feels manageable)
• Chose dynamic vs. static illustrations
• Teaching in 3D immersive worlds in second life has promise (Richter, Anderson-Inman, & Frisbee, 2007)

Tags: VSS2007, NACOL, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education

VSS2007 - Deepening Learner Understanding via Games and Simulations in Online Courses

This session I actually got to spend some time with a topic that hits upon both of my research interests: virtual schools and gaming. The session was “Deepening Learner Understanding via Games and Simulations in Online Courses” and was delivered by David Gale and Missy Hilton.

While there was nothing in here research or theory-wise that I hadn’t heard or read before, it was very interesting to see an example of virtual school people doing this as a part of their course design. This group, e4TN, in Tennessee is beginning to work with their new state-wide virtual school that has been developing down there.

They described their online games and simulations as computer-based learning activities (CBLAs) and divided them into passive and interactive. The passive CBLAs are those where the students simply view, click, read, but there is no input from the student. The interactive CBLAs are those where the students can input or manipulate the variables. These CBLAs were further divided into prescribed and exploratory. The prescribed ones are ones where there is a prearranged course of actions regardless of student input, while the exploratory ones have a variety of pathways that take the students in different directions based upon student input.

Overall, it was a refreshing presentation for me because of my dual interests. Information about the presenters' session, including their PowerPoint slides, is available at https://www.e4tn.org/cms/index.php?page=vss-presentation2.

Tags: VSS2007, NACOL, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education

VSS2007 (Guest Blogger) - Virtual Schools and 21st Century Skills

Session notes from our guest blogger, Abby.

21st Century Skills

Achievement and Accountability: Challenge is to use data to demonstrate progress. Expose learning going on and document how learning is occurring. Assessment rubrics: use competency maps. Multiple rubrics that blend into 21st century skills.

Tags: VSS2007, NACOL, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education

VSS2007 - Virtual Schools and 21st Century Skills

This was a panel discussion by Julie Young of the Florida Virtual School, Allyson Knox from Microsoft Corporation, and Tim Magner of the Office of Educational Technology for the federal DOE. I imagine it largely came about because of the report that NACOL prepared with the Partnership for 21st Century Skills earlier this year (see Virtual Schools and 21st Century Skills).

While I don't want all of my entries about the Virtual School Symposium to seem negative or critical, but I have to ask where is the research supporting this notion. I know that the media talks all of the time about this topic, but the media is also always talking about millennials and other labels for today's student and there is little reliable and valid research to support any of the differences that the proponents of these generational differences claim.

For example, one of the slides that the person from Microsoft brought up included:

Life and Career skills

• flexibility and adaptability
• initiative and self-direction
• social and cross-cultural skills
• and two others that I didn't get typed in before she moved to the next slide...

I'm just wondering which of these skills weren't valued in the workforce prior to the twenty-first century or which of these skills that my father or grandfather didn't possess. My grandfather only completed formal school up to grade eight, as he went to work in the fishery when he was fourteen as way the norm for young men in rural Newfoundland. And while he worked in the fishery for most of his life, eventually becoming a captain of a government boat, he also enlisted during World War II and was sent to England to train for the eventual invasion of Europe. He went from being a fishing captain to a member of the artillery. He fought in Europe in France and Belgium as a member of the artillery, nothing to do with being a fishing boat captain or anything to do with the fishery or the sea in general. He served alongside soldiers from England and her colonies (and other Commonwealth countries), France, and the United States. These soldiers came from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. I'm wondering what skills my grandfather, who only received nine years of formal education, lacked in terms of what the panelists think lacked in terms of the skills outlined as twenty-first century skills.

When Julie Young began to speak, she referenced a report that was completed by the 21st Century Skills people that reported on a survey of private sector companies about what skills they felt today's graduates were lacking (see Are They Really Ready to Work? - at least I think that this is the report in question). The list that she mentioned during the panel included: ability to write effectively, professionalism, collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving. Then within 90 seconds she made the comment, "What we do very well in this country is teach students to take tests, we don't teach them how to think."

Now, isn't that the truth. Maybe the issue isn't that the skills needed to be successful in the workforce in the twenty-first century aren't all that different than the skills necessary to be successful in the twentieth century or even the nineteenth century, but that schools are just not doing as good a job today as they were ten years ago or twenty years ago or a hundred years ago. So you have to ask yourself what has changed in the United States from then to now that has cause all of these ill-prepared graduates? I think that Julie Young has hit the nail on the head with her teaching to take tests comment.

In the United States, there is a fact fetish in the current political administration. Students must learn the facts, and we need to test these facts, and make sure that students perform well on these tests. And if they don't perform as well as we want, we'll decrease their funding, fire their teachers, essentially publish the school for those failing grades. Let's forgot about the fact that many of the reasons that these students don't perform well often have little to do with the quality of teachers they have access to or the quality of instruction that they receive. To illustrate how ill-informed this notion is, I suggest that you read No Dentist Left Behind.

Before I went into the academy, I was a social studies teacher. When I look at the amount of social studies that is actually taught at the elementary and middle school levels in the United States I get depressed. The reality is that most states do not test social studies and because schools are punished for not performing, subject areas that are not tested get left out. So maybe this whole issue of twenty-first century skills are actually regular career skills that have existed long before the twenty-first century, and the only difference is that because of the political climate of education in the United States schools simply aren't preparing students at the same competency that they used to - through no fault of their own.

The bottom line is that as I listen to the panelists, I don't hear what you would expect - talk about technology skills that are necessary to be successful in the twenty-first century. The soft skills that seem to be included as a part of this initiative simply don't measure up to any kind of research-based support that I would expect to see.

Finally, I should note that apparently that the 21st Century Skills people will be releasing a database called Route 21 that will be released tomorrow morning at http://www.21stcenturyskills.org.

Tags: VSS2007, NACOL, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education

VSS2007 - Early Tuesday Morning Notes

Well, back at the Virtual School Symposium again this morning. My own session is later this morning and I am still planning to record this session on my iPod and prepare it to be podcast laster this week (i.e., sometime between Wednesday to Friday when I get some time to work on it).

Just a reminder that many of the sessions are being webcast, I posted the complete list in one of the entries yesterday (see VSS2007 - Early Monday Morning Notes).

So, this morning's keynote is a panel that includes Julie Young of the Florida Virtual School, Allyson Knox from Microsoft Corporation, and Tim Magner of the Office of Educational Technology for the federal DOE. The topic for the keynote is "Virtual Schools and 21st Century Skills." I'll try and post some notes or comments as the session develops.

Tags: VSS2007, NACOL, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education

VSS2007 (Guest Blogger) - Providing Virtual Success for At-Risk Students

Session notes from our guest blogger, Abby.

Providing Virtual Success for At-Risk Students
Julie McIntosh
University of Findlay
www.findlay.k12.oh.us/fda

Group Questions:

• What experience do you have with at-risk students?
• Have you worked with digital high schools or online teaching?
• What programs have been successful for you?
• What barriers have been in place at your district?

Findlay Digital Academy

• 2100 students, 30% defined as at-risk
• Defined at risk as meeting one or more criteria:
• failing one or more classes
• low SES
• behind in credits
• social issues/problems
• emotional problems
• health issues
• teenage pregnancy
• OR Traditional Model was not working for student – Gifted & Talented or learn in large blocks of time.

Coaches were a huge intervention mechanism. Licensed teacher available as instructional coach for help. Students not showing up. Pressured them. Started coming and increased performance scores.

Several Models utilized for remediation

• Continuous improvement model – more teacher driven, not immediate feedback
• Plato – test-mastery, liked instant feedback
• Apex – provide AP course opportunities, work with APEX teacher
• Family Education Partnership Program- parent can earn diploma at the same time.

Findlay statistics:

• If student has not logged on in 21 days they are removed
• 2006 had 35 students ended with 124
• 2007 had 70 students
• GPA prior to FDA .73, during FDA 3.46, GPA after returning to traditional classroom 1.2

Session really didn't go into much detail about how instructional coaches or other methods were specifically used to help at-risk students. Several of her slides went over starting a virtual school as opposed to addressing the issue of at-risk student support, in my opinion.

Tags: VSS2007, NACOL, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education

VSS2007 - Improving Virtual Schools: A Collaborative Research Partnership

This was a session delivered by the research team at the University of Florida involved in the AT&T/Bell South grant that they have been working on down there.

This is a very large and comprehensive research initiative looking at virtual school data. This work began with the NCES data that was collected a few years ago and have been playing with that data using 160 variables based upon the following categories:

• Student
• Teacher
• Course & Course Instance
• Entity
• Other

To date, the vast majority of virtual schools are able to input about 40% of the variables.

The presentation itself largely discussed the model that they are using, describing the complexity of variables that they are using. I was puzzled during the presentation when one of the presenters made the comment, “This is fascinating!” It puzzled me because while I was interested in some of the way in which they

Their first year findings were focused upon the following categories (i.e., the points on their PowerPoint slide):

• understanding for the unique context
• understanding of the big picture
• recommendations

One of the main things that they have gotten from this first year is an understanding of unique situations of each of the virtual schools, what data they collect, and how they operate in terms of their data management. “Every virtual school is an entity on itself.”

Another was an understanding that in order to see the bigger questions they needed to stop asking “what? questions, and began to ask “why?” questions. This has allowed them to focus upon what information is useful for the individual stakeholders (i.e., virtual schools).

For those of you who haven’t taken a look at their system, it is entitled the Virtual School Clearinghouse and can be accessed at http://vs.education.ufl.edu. One of the interesting things that any user can access is the resources section, which contains many useful readings focused on K-12 online learning (and a lot that is just focused on online learning in general). Apparently they have some publications coming out of their first year of study that will eventually be posted to their site.

When they look to the future, the slide read:

• A deeper level of analysis
• formation of thoughtful deliberate questions with our partners
• Investigation of practices that advance both the virtual school and the field
• Creation of new partnerships with additional states
• Innovative analysis

When they began to show some of the graphs that they are able to generate, that was quite nice as it gave a real visual as to what this data could be used for and how useful it could be for some forms of analysis.

There is eighteen months left in the grant, so it will be interesting to see where they end up when they are done.

Tags: VSS2007, NACOL, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education

VSS2007 (Guest Blogger) - “Cyberschool” Myths and Realities: Towards a Better Understanding of Full-Time Programs

Session notes from our guest blogger, Abby.

“Cyberschool” Myths and Realities: Towards a better understanding of full-time programs
John Watson

• Definitions: Nomenclature important because people have preconceived ideas.
• Online is definition of choice.
• Supplemental program (not required for NCLB scores) verses full-time program
• Multiple and single district programs (geographical reach)
• 200% increase in 4 years – full time online program about 175
• Students who gravitate to K-12 online schools
• gifted and needing more challenge
• struggling
• rural
• urban
• elite athletes/performers
• homebound
• teen parents
• students with high functioning autism-Asperger's syndrome
• Mobile (military family)
• Myths hearing about full-time schools

Myth #1: No Accountability

• Reality is that full-time, online public cybershools publicly accountable through performance on state tests, regular reporting to authorizer/partner, open meetings of its non-profit goering body if charter school
• students are required to participate in the state tests

Myth #2: Cyberschools are for middle class white kids.

• Full time online schools across the country report 48% of students qualify for free and reduced lunch and 23% are minority students.
• Students regardless of color and SES can do this.

Myth #3: Cyberschool teachers don't really teach

• FT teacher interact with students/parents via telephone, email, in-person meetings, and we conferencing
• Report knowing their students online as well or better than students F2F
• Some states require state certification and online PD

Myth #4: Full-time online students sit in front of computer all day

• lower grade levels on computer much less than upper grade levels

Myth #5: online schooling is much cheaper than traditional schooling

• Augenblick Palaich / Bell South study: real cost is ranges from 7200 to 8300 per FTE for full-time online schools. Bottom line: Same cost as brick and mortar. main cost --> teachers and personnel. So even though can scale technology cannot scale student -teacher ratio.
• Cyberschools can channel more funding to instruction than traditional schools can.

Myth #6: Full-time online schools aren't accountable

• Cyberschools are accountable in the same ways all public schools are accountable in same ways as public schools, in some cases MORE
• All NCLB/AYP requirements apply
• State tests, including end-of-course and graduation tests
• Reporting to the charter school authorizer
• Online learning requirements in some states
• An immense array of school data

Myth #7: Full-time online schooling is easy (especially for cheaters!)

• Curriculum often notably rigorous
• Multiple mechanisms for ensuring academic integrity
• Teacher practice
• Plagiarism check
• In online school, every student is visible – no where to hide.

Myth #8: Cyberschooling isn't appropriate for younger students

• Much better option in many cases than keeping kid at home being home-schooled in poor quality manner.

Myth #9: Full-time online schools have terrible test scores

• Not all full-time online schools are created equal
• Performance diverse as schools themselves
• Florida: both online k-8 programs get A on 2007 school report
• Arizona: Leading TAPBI schools rated performing and performing plus for 2006
• Nevada: Exemplary AYP status and significant reduction % of non-proficient at risk students

Myth #10: Online students miss out on socialization

• They don't necessarily want their kids to be socialized in that manner.
• Parents want to control the socialization

MORE RESEARCH: Need to demonstrate longitudinal growth. So remediation --> Take them 3 -6 grade levels behind and bring them up to date.

Tags: VSS2007, NACOL, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education

VSS2007 (Guest Blogger) - Informing Policy and Practice: Research on the Best Practices of Virtual School Teachers

Session notes from our guest blogger, Abby.

Research Practice and Policy with Online Teachers
Meredith DiPietro

Study overview
Method:

• 12 teacher interviews focus general, content specific, and technology questions.
• 2 layers of analysis-- 1. preliminary list of practices, 2. focused on distinctions.

Dimensions of Pedagogy

• Establishing environmental context
• Practices related to classroom management. structure-Virtual course classroom management needs to increase in focus. ALMOST UNEXPLORED from RESEARCH perspective
• Facilitative connections between teacher and student. Student and content. Teacher student
• Coaching content interactions (fluid practice and meeting students needs)
• Question: how is facilitating connections – connecting students and content different that coaching student content interactions????

Facilitating connections:

• Knowing student initially helps teachers adapt content and teaching. Core of teacher practice.
• Standard: teacher post info about self. Student posts too.
• accessibility issue – multiple means for contact. Helps form trust with students.
• Connecting students and content
• web-based and course based tools
• Pedagogical content knowledge
• Conversation: guided , redirected, directed student conversation. Used well designed prompts.

Experiential Context (what do to enhance, adapt course content)

• Structuring the experience (enhancing the environment)
• Observing the environment (delineating rules)
• Cheating- encouraged students to keep going overwhelmingly when caught. Not give up.
• Identifying students in personal crisis: discussion boards where found cues about student harming self or others. How address?
• Variations – Adaptive release of content – Can't get to the next phase until pass the first phase. “Hide assignments' and only open up when sure that students covered content so not overwhelmed.

Coaching Content Interaction

• Knowledge giver --> knowledge guide shift.
• Individualized learning experiences
• Mentor's role: intervened when change in performance. Filled in holes of F2F for students that needed that contact.
• Collaborative interactions
• group work.
• Practice considerations
• Diversity of students
• Uniqueness of content
• Affordances
• pacing had to change based on students
• course-based features/tools
• Policy Recommendations:
• Pre-service and inservice training in nuances of online learning. WHAT ARE THESE THOUGH?? Based on what she shared, seems the same as F2F.
• Research on best practices --> Action research with teachers involved.
• Caveat
• Variations and variability in V.S.
• Variation in instructor's situational context.
• Research areas
• Mentors
• Distinction in practice between content areas

TPCK Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (technology is considered in the teaching of content knowledge)

Tags: VSS2007, NACOL, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education

VSS2007 - Informing Policy and Practice: Research on the Best Practices of Virtual School Teachers

This was a session delivered by Meredith Dipietro of the University of Florida. It was based upon interviews with twelve teachers from a single virtual school (and not the Florida Virtual School according to the presenter).

I was a little surprised to see that the room was full and a number of people were standing in the back (I know this because I came in late and had to sit on the floor for the first hour). I say surprised because historically the research-based sessions have no had the same level of interest as the practitioner-focused sessions.

The session itself was interesting. The presenter put forth a model for Dimensions of Pedagogy which contained three components:

1. Facilitating Connections
• connecting with students
• connecting students with other students
• variations
  
2. Experiential Context
• structuring experience
• observing environment
• variations
3. Coaching Content Interactions
• knowledge giver to knowledge guide
• meeting student needs
• variations
  

What I found interesting was that as I listened to the presenter I kept wondering to myself what am I hearing here that is unique to the virtual school environment? I can buy the argument, which the presenter was partially selling, that the virtual school environment is set-up in such a way that it facilitates this kind of pedagogy more easily - essentially the notion that the way in which virtual schooling is designed and delivered forces teachers to adopt this kind of pedagogy (while the traditional classroom doesn't necessarily force teachers to do it, but also doesn't stop good teachers from doing).

While I don't see this as a problem, I do have problems with the people that are trying to sell good pedagogical practices that are unique to the virtual school environment - and I'm not sure where this presenter was on this issue (although she did use the phrases "unique tools of their medium" and "unique practices associated with virtual school teaching"). Granted, I should note that during the question and answer she did say that she believed that there were few differences between pedagogical content knowledge and technological pedagogical content knowledge (i.e., good science teaching is the same thing as good science teaching with technology). So, I'm still unsure.

In my opinion, good teaching is good teaching. The tools are different in a virtual environment than the traditional classroom, but the way in which you conduct a good discussion in the classroom is very similar to how to conduct a good discussion on a discussion board. A well delivered lecture in person uses the same pedagogical foundations of a well delivered lecture in a synchronous or asynchronous environment. But that's just my opinion...

Tags: VSS2007, NACOL, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education

VSS2007 (Guest Blogger) - Welcome and Opening

Session notes from our guest blogger, Abby.

Susan Patrick

• 44% attendees 1st time attending.
• Primary goal: make sure every child learns
• Online Learning at “cusp of a revolution”
• World future society – Top 10 breakthroughs for transforming life globally
• #1 alternative energy, ...#8 Virtual education and learning.
• Global Expansion
• Fundamentally going to shift supply chain and huge inequities that exist globally with learning.
• Gave China example – growth of internet. 21st century skills. World open.
• 58 billion dollar k-12 online education deal. UK and China deal in October.
• Singapore online learning in 100% of high schools. Have e learning week. Second life training.
• K-12 online learning has potential “To spark the interest of the disaffected students.”
• Many models of K-12
• state, district, for profit, charters, etc. Pull from all.
• 4 Key things know about K-12 online learning
1. Expand opportunities for kids
2. Growing—30% a year
3. It is effective: equal or better.
4. Improves teaching – Susan Lowe's study

Tags: VSS2007, NACOL, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education