As the reach of online learning continues to extend, there is one area that I believe has been unexplored by many practitioners, to the detriment of the students that they teach. One advantage of the brick-and-mortar setting is that the teacher has access to many resources to help ensure student success in their classrooms, for instance, collaborating with other individuals to deepen students' experience. Collaborating with the school library is one way good classroom teachers become great classroom teachers. Online teachers also have this access, but because it would be a non-traditional way of working, the resource is often overlooked. If more online teachers/programs integrated the services of school and public libraries, teachers could create learning experiences through online inquiry that would produce creative, resourceful and information literate students.
How?
Librarians are uniquely prepared to understand information and share how to inspire students to connect, wonder, investigate, construct, express and reflect on the world around them, per the Stripling Model of Inquiry . The business world looks for employees who are agile learners, able to change course when needed and map out a new way when the old way is no longer sufficient. Through traditional curriculum, we create students who learn information and regurgitate what they've learned. What they need to be doing is to connect with that they are being taught, question the relevance of what the have learned, investigate the answers to their questions, construct understanding from what they've found, share the fruits of their labor and reflection upon the process for true understanding. Libraries help teachers create this experience for their students. Online teachers can also do this classes, but often miss the opportunity (or do not realize the opportunity) to work with librarians. This connection can help online teachers take the next step in their classes, building lifelong skills with their students and creating an online class environment ripe for constructivist learning.
Curious?
Visit us at iNACOL's Virtual School Symposium 1:30 on Tuesday or contact me with questions @bekcikelly
Friday, September 28, 2012
Monday, September 17, 2012
Online Learning - Equivalent or Improve Student Outcomes
Online Learning has a long history - one which far out dates the adoption of the Internet into our everyday lives. I remember when I was in high school (the early 90's), I studied the Russian language using a program transmitted through our school's satellite. It was dynamic - we met with a tutor every Monday on the phone to check our pronunciation, watched programming the rest of the week as a class, and twice a month were the "online class" who had to answer questions as part of the presentation. I loved it - and still speak Russian, albeit poorly, whenever I get the chance. The satellite, alas, did not fare so well - it current sits lonely in a courtyard, abandoned and deteriorating.
My delving into online learning, however, just continued to grow stronger. In 2001, I started my graduate program at the University of Pittsburgh in Library and Information Science. We were the first online cohort - both for the program and the university itself. A wondrous success, this education allowed me to get an ALA accredited degree that I would otherwise have been unable to receive. This accreditation offers me a plethora of career opportunities that an unaccredited degree would not. My education was stellar at PITT, and I promote their program highly to anyone interested in a library degree.
As a teacher, I have now become engrossed in online learning for my students. This is the fourth year that our district will offer online classes, as well as building capacity for truly blended learning in our middle and high schools.
I've shared my online experiences, because I've learned that history always becomes more meaningful when seen through your own memory, and aligned to your life. It helps me focus and give a truly personal answer to our blogging topic - to make a case that K-12 online learning must achieve equivalent or improved student outcomes.
We often ask online learning to fill in a gap - a gap where we are losing students. These students might have a special condition that keeps them from attending school, a unique circumstance (for instance, we have a snowboarder who must compete during the school year) or social reasons for not wishing to attend public school. We have a duty, as educators, to ensure that students receive equitable education no matter how they are educated. I believe that the Common Core will go a long way in bring equity in education in general, and in online learning specifically.
To be truly viable, online learning must offer equitable student learning outcomes. The unique part of online learning is not what is taught, but the manner in which it is done - synchronous/asynchronous, on-site/off-site, etc. While there are different attributes that make teachers more successful in one delivery mode than another, creating a supportive classroom environment, individualizing education for each student, and using different modes to assess student learning remain constant in any teaching format.
It would not be realistic to ask online learning to be the answer to every educational need, but as we take the best from online learning, mold it together with high quality brick-and-mortar learning, and take the lessons learned for both, I believe we build the potential for students to truly individualize their learning, and be more involved in their education. However, we must keep checks and balances on any type of educating organization to ensure that quality education is taking place - common between them must be highly qualified teachers, rigorous curriculum, real world experience for students and the constant potential to grow through an educational program.
My delving into online learning, however, just continued to grow stronger. In 2001, I started my graduate program at the University of Pittsburgh in Library and Information Science. We were the first online cohort - both for the program and the university itself. A wondrous success, this education allowed me to get an ALA accredited degree that I would otherwise have been unable to receive. This accreditation offers me a plethora of career opportunities that an unaccredited degree would not. My education was stellar at PITT, and I promote their program highly to anyone interested in a library degree.
As a teacher, I have now become engrossed in online learning for my students. This is the fourth year that our district will offer online classes, as well as building capacity for truly blended learning in our middle and high schools.
I've shared my online experiences, because I've learned that history always becomes more meaningful when seen through your own memory, and aligned to your life. It helps me focus and give a truly personal answer to our blogging topic - to make a case that K-12 online learning must achieve equivalent or improved student outcomes.
We often ask online learning to fill in a gap - a gap where we are losing students. These students might have a special condition that keeps them from attending school, a unique circumstance (for instance, we have a snowboarder who must compete during the school year) or social reasons for not wishing to attend public school. We have a duty, as educators, to ensure that students receive equitable education no matter how they are educated. I believe that the Common Core will go a long way in bring equity in education in general, and in online learning specifically.
To be truly viable, online learning must offer equitable student learning outcomes. The unique part of online learning is not what is taught, but the manner in which it is done - synchronous/asynchronous, on-site/off-site, etc. While there are different attributes that make teachers more successful in one delivery mode than another, creating a supportive classroom environment, individualizing education for each student, and using different modes to assess student learning remain constant in any teaching format.
It would not be realistic to ask online learning to be the answer to every educational need, but as we take the best from online learning, mold it together with high quality brick-and-mortar learning, and take the lessons learned for both, I believe we build the potential for students to truly individualize their learning, and be more involved in their education. However, we must keep checks and balances on any type of educating organization to ensure that quality education is taking place - common between them must be highly qualified teachers, rigorous curriculum, real world experience for students and the constant potential to grow through an educational program.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Classifying K-12 Online Learning: A Look at Pennsylvania
To get a better understanding of online learning for our Virtual School MOOC, I examined several of the cyber programs that are available to Pennsylvania residents. Four of the programs I briefly classify are regional virtual charter schools with a connection to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, and because of this, Pennsylvania students are able to attend for free - the fees are covered by taxes paid by PA residents. The last one is a district created cyber program servicing the students who attend their schools. Each school/program was created to fulfill a unique need, and each is set up differently in reference to their curriculum and manner of supporting students.
This list is by no means comprehensive, as there are more cyber schools servicing students in Pennsylvania. In fact, of the nine new charter schools that have opened in Pennsylvania this year, four are cyber charter schools.
QCSD Cyber Program - Quakertown Community School District
This list is by no means comprehensive, as there are more cyber schools servicing students in Pennsylvania. In fact, of the nine new charter schools that have opened in Pennsylvania this year, four are cyber charter schools.
A regional virtual public charter school, PA Cyber was created to educate students
in an area where the local high school had shut down due to a declining tax
base. It currently has over 10,000
students from Pennsylvania in attendance, and utilizes National Network of
Digital Schools for its curriculum.
This regional virtual public charter school offers its services specifically to
Pennsylvania residents. Enrollment at its
partner company, Connections Academy, is also available to Pennsylvania
students, but as a national organization which charges a fee, not one where attendance is covered through PA taxes. Their curriculum is offered through Connections Academy.
This regional virtual public charter school in Pennsylvania opened in 2001,
and currently serves over 3,400 Pennsylvania students. Through a partnership with K12, a national
company, PA Virtual offers a comprehensive curriculum for its students.
A regional virtual public charter school servicing Pennsylvania
students in grades 6-12, 21st CCCS was started as a collaborative effort between the Intermediate Units of Bucks, Chester,
Delaware and Montgomery Counties, representing 64 school districts. This charter school’s curriculum was developed
by Pennsylvania certified teachers based upon PA Standards.
QCSD Cyber Program - Quakertown Community School District
A district-based program, QCSD Cyber was created to meet the
needs of students within the Quakertown Community School District. Students may take as many online classes as
needed to meet their graduation requirements from the district. They offer an outreach program through a
collaboration with the Bucks County Intermediate Unit to assist other districts
in creating in-house online programs called Bridges Virtual Education Services.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Blended Learning - That which we call a rose...
A question of linguistics - how do you describe your online program? I've found that conversations can get confusing, convoluted and down-right difficult when individuals discuss online learning programs. In semantics, meaning is sometimes confused, or lost all together. iNACOL has taken strides to work through this definition jungle, offering the Online Learning Definitions Project, and while I have never been a fan of jargon (my humble apologies, researchers) the question warrants discussion, especially as classrooms extend beyond their four walls achieving, sometimes, global reach.
My background with blended learning began as I coached teachers through integrating technology into their brick-and-mortar classes. As our school district added a virtual program to meet the growing needs of students, and implemented a 1:1 computer environment at the high school setting, that role expanded to helping teachers find content-rich materials to add to both their fully online and/or blended brick-and-mortar class. The idea was to offer ubiquitous learning - anytime, anywhere - as students' needs and interests continued to blossom under the influence of Web 2.0 philosophies and the constructivist classroom. Teachers were able to create learning environments, rich with multimedia and online resources, that not only supplemented their curriculum, but became a integral part of it.
In our district, there was little difficulty in explaining what we were trying to accomplish for students. If there was any confusion, it was easy to focus back on students and question, "What must we as an institution do in order to meet the needs of students?" However, once I ventured outside of our district, and became engrossed in the panoramic online education landscape - vibrant with nuance and unique circumstances - my understanding of blended learning became muddled when reading the research, or having conversations with practitioners around the world.
Although these conversations have helped me grow as a professional, this adolescence has been painful, with misconceptions and misunderstanding abounding. However, I have recently been introduced to a graphic which has offered a much clearer picture of what I've been trying to describe to others. Through Greg Vanourek's Defining Dimensions of Online Learning I was offered my "a-ha" moment.
For me, it has been impossible to have a word, or word pairing, that encompasses all that is involved in online learning. This graphic - complete with punctuated stop lines that show divisions between concrete "types" as well as flowing arrows to designate a continuum - offered me the first clear picture, in my mind, of a way to describe, compare and contrast ones online program in a way that would be discernible to others.
I believe my confusion stemmed from an understanding of what "blended" learning is, and once that concept was in mind, a plethora of understandings came along for the ride. It would be like using the word "snow" to represent what is meant by "winter." In this graphic, visually I see represented aspects, or dimensions, of an online program, and by showing what one means, rather than forcing a concept to be hammered into a word, I believe conversations can more easily take place between practitioners. By showing and explaining aspects or dimensions of my program, anyone can compare/contrast it with their own. For conversations, this is brilliant, and I am so pleased to have this visual reference.
For offering studies, sharing information, and research work, a clear understanding and definition of terms is important, but as I spend time learning and sharing what I'm doing through conversations, I appreciate the power of a graphic!
My background with blended learning began as I coached teachers through integrating technology into their brick-and-mortar classes. As our school district added a virtual program to meet the growing needs of students, and implemented a 1:1 computer environment at the high school setting, that role expanded to helping teachers find content-rich materials to add to both their fully online and/or blended brick-and-mortar class. The idea was to offer ubiquitous learning - anytime, anywhere - as students' needs and interests continued to blossom under the influence of Web 2.0 philosophies and the constructivist classroom. Teachers were able to create learning environments, rich with multimedia and online resources, that not only supplemented their curriculum, but became a integral part of it.
In our district, there was little difficulty in explaining what we were trying to accomplish for students. If there was any confusion, it was easy to focus back on students and question, "What must we as an institution do in order to meet the needs of students?" However, once I ventured outside of our district, and became engrossed in the panoramic online education landscape - vibrant with nuance and unique circumstances - my understanding of blended learning became muddled when reading the research, or having conversations with practitioners around the world.
Although these conversations have helped me grow as a professional, this adolescence has been painful, with misconceptions and misunderstanding abounding. However, I have recently been introduced to a graphic which has offered a much clearer picture of what I've been trying to describe to others. Through Greg Vanourek's Defining Dimensions of Online Learning I was offered my "a-ha" moment.
For me, it has been impossible to have a word, or word pairing, that encompasses all that is involved in online learning. This graphic - complete with punctuated stop lines that show divisions between concrete "types" as well as flowing arrows to designate a continuum - offered me the first clear picture, in my mind, of a way to describe, compare and contrast ones online program in a way that would be discernible to others.
I believe my confusion stemmed from an understanding of what "blended" learning is, and once that concept was in mind, a plethora of understandings came along for the ride. It would be like using the word "snow" to represent what is meant by "winter." In this graphic, visually I see represented aspects, or dimensions, of an online program, and by showing what one means, rather than forcing a concept to be hammered into a word, I believe conversations can more easily take place between practitioners. By showing and explaining aspects or dimensions of my program, anyone can compare/contrast it with their own. For conversations, this is brilliant, and I am so pleased to have this visual reference.
For offering studies, sharing information, and research work, a clear understanding and definition of terms is important, but as I spend time learning and sharing what I'm doing through conversations, I appreciate the power of a graphic!
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Leadership in Online Learning - A Missing Link
The prevalence of online learning continues to spread. Recently, Education Week reported on a district in Wisconsin that requires its students to take an online course for graduation. This is not a new trend, but one that has been expanding through K-12 as districts look to prepare students for the 21st Century workplace and/or continued schooling. In both cases, part of that continued education will most likely lead to an individual taking a course through electronic means, so the preparation is more than appropriate.
As this trend grows, colleges and universities that prepare students for the education field have started offering courses and concentration areas in best practices in online teaching. With guidance from organizations such as iNACOL, International Association for K-12 Online Learning and SREB, Southern Regional Education Board institutions of higher education have gained a clear and solid picture of the attributes needed in order to be a successful educator in an online environment. This understanding has helped mold stronger teacher candidates graduating from these innovative programs - an impressive and necessary occurrence.
My focus shifts to the educational leader. How are colleges and universities preparing leaders in the online environment? I've found examples of guidance for current leaders who begin overseeing online programs, and there are current administrators who are successfully overseeing online programs, but the link that I am missing, or cannot find, is how higher education is preparing aspiring leaders to lead in the online environment.
How can we embed leadership in the online environment into educational leadership programs, just as we have been embedding teaching in the online environment into teacher preparation programs?
As this trend grows, colleges and universities that prepare students for the education field have started offering courses and concentration areas in best practices in online teaching. With guidance from organizations such as iNACOL, International Association for K-12 Online Learning and SREB, Southern Regional Education Board institutions of higher education have gained a clear and solid picture of the attributes needed in order to be a successful educator in an online environment. This understanding has helped mold stronger teacher candidates graduating from these innovative programs - an impressive and necessary occurrence.
My focus shifts to the educational leader. How are colleges and universities preparing leaders in the online environment? I've found examples of guidance for current leaders who begin overseeing online programs, and there are current administrators who are successfully overseeing online programs, but the link that I am missing, or cannot find, is how higher education is preparing aspiring leaders to lead in the online environment.
How can we embed leadership in the online environment into educational leadership programs, just as we have been embedding teaching in the online environment into teacher preparation programs?
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Leaving a Legacy
You are what you leave behind. As educators, we leave a constant stream of influences, which pulses out of our classrooms and affects much more than we will ever see. However, it is in looking at our purpose, that we focus fully on what we are offering the world. Like Randy Pausch delivering his last lecture "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" to a packed audience at Carnegie Mellon, or Mitch Albom returning to the company of his college professor for wisdom on the meaning of life, there is something within every educator compelling us to not only share, but also make this world a better place today than it was when we arrived.
We sit at an incredible threshold of educational philosophy. No other time has been as interesting, or tumultuous, in our profession. It is my hope in this blog to look at leadership in this time of change. As I look into myself, molded by professors and mentors, I am driven to fulfill a larger purpose. As a librarian, I affected many students - fostered a love of reading and learning in all I touched. As a leader, I hope to affect those who teach, and create rivers, not streams of influence, that help reshape an educational system in need of change.
As I explore what it means to be a leader in this fantastic time for education, I will share my influences with you. Please join me as I learn to lead.
We sit at an incredible threshold of educational philosophy. No other time has been as interesting, or tumultuous, in our profession. It is my hope in this blog to look at leadership in this time of change. As I look into myself, molded by professors and mentors, I am driven to fulfill a larger purpose. As a librarian, I affected many students - fostered a love of reading and learning in all I touched. As a leader, I hope to affect those who teach, and create rivers, not streams of influence, that help reshape an educational system in need of change.
As I explore what it means to be a leader in this fantastic time for education, I will share my influences with you. Please join me as I learn to lead.
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