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“How to start a successful virtual learning program?

December 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Virtual learning can help districts address many needs, such as filling a gap between courses a school offers and courses students might want to take but aren’t currently offered—and a new report offers insights on starting a virtual learning program from a number of seasoned experts.

Statistics indicate that more than 1.5 million students attended fully online or blended learning programs during the 2009-10 school year, and more school districts are turning to online instruction for its expanded curriculum offerings, flexibility, and cost-saving potential. Some experts predict that roughly half of high school courses will be offered online by 2019.

In “How to Launch District Virtual Learning,” a new report from the Blackboard Institute, 17 virtual learning experts agreed that getting buy-in from teachers, administrators, parents, and the community is absolutely essential to success.

The report’s authors interviewed a panel of 17 virtual learning experts, all of whom have led online instruction initiatives. Those experts agreed on seven important questions that schools and districts must answer before initiating or expanding a virtual learning program. The experts split into three categories, although most shared expertise beyond those categories: blended learning, course expansion, and professional development.

Those seven questions are:

  • What challenge are we trying to address?
  • Who are our champions?
  • What is our messaging?
  • How are we going to pay for it?
  • How do we get teachers on board?
  • How are we going to create and deliver the courses?
  • How will we measure success?

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“Online Schools Go Old School to Nab Cyber-Truants”

December 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Minnesota’s online schools have quietly persuaded county prosecutors to accept an expansive view of the state’s outdated truancy law and use the courts to reel hundreds of cybertruants back to class, but both prosecutors and educators agree the makeshift arrangement can’t last.

It’s important work, school officials say, at a time when enrollment in online schools is soaring, but so are dropout rates. Online students made up a disproportionate share of truancy cases last year, and virtual schools worry about a backlash against their industry if they are perceived as havens for slackers.

“It is very easy to become truant in online,” said Stacy Bender, dean of students at Minneapolis-based Minnesota Virtual High School, which has 1,300 students spread throughout the state. Unmotivated students can just stop logging in and then lie about it to their parents and within two weeks, they are truant, she said.

To catch online truants, Bender and her colleagues in online schools in Minnesota use mathematical formulas that compare the hours spent on online lessons and academic progress. The formula allows for high achievers who work quickly, while catching students who are just going through the motions.

Bender has been key to spreading the interpretation, both in her current job and previously at the smaller Wolf Creek Online High School in Lindstrom. She runs a website, mnonlinetruancy.weebly.com, and has written on the subject for a trade journal and presented it Nov. 10 at the annual conference of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning. She said she has also put 3,500 miles on her Honda Civic since January working on truancy issues in counties throughout the state.

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Online High Schools Attracting Elite Names

November 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

In June, about 30 seniors will graduate from a little-known online high school currently called the Education Program for Gifted Youth. But their diplomas will bear a different name: Stanford Online High School.

Yes, that Stanford — the elite research university known for producing graduates who win Nobels and found Googles, not for teaching basic algebra to teenagers. Five years after the opening of the experimental program, some education experts consider Stanford’s decision to attach its name to the effort a milestone for online education.

“This is significant,” said Bill Tucker, managing director of Education Sector, a nonpartisan policy institute. “One of our country’s most prestigious universities feels comfortable putting its considerable prestige and brand behind it.”

As the line between virtual and classroom-based learning continues to blur, some see Stanford’s move as a sign that so, too, will the line between secondary and higher education. Several other universities — though none with the pedigree of Stanford — already operate online high schools, a development that has raised some questions about expertise and motives.

“From my perspective, colleges, concentrate on what you’re good at,” said Ronald A. Crutcher, president of Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., who added that he had recently declined an offer from a for-profit education company to join other small liberal arts institutions in forming an online high school in their image. “Be consultants, but don’t contribute to a trend that I think has some real problems.”

About 275,000 students nationwide are enrolled full time in online schools, according to Susan Patrick, president of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, a nonprofit advocacy group. Most of these are free public charter schools, but colleges — private and public — have begun to get into the business as well.

The University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and the University of Missouri have awarded diplomas to about 250 and 85 students, respectively, annually for the last several years. The George Washington University Online High School opened in January.

Capitalizing on its reputation in foreign language instruction, Middlebury College in Vermont last year worked with K12, a for-profit company, to develop online high school language courses serving 50,000 students nationwide. An individual student’s course costs $749 per year, and Middlebury will share the profits. Ronald Liebowitz, Middlebury’s president, said that while “it looks like mission creep beyond belief,” the opportunity to raise revenue carried the decision.

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New Laws Take Aim at Bullying

October 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The issue of bullying rose on state legislative agendas this year, with 21 states passing anti-bullying laws—some of which expanded schools’ responsibilities to keep a check on any harassment that goes on among their students.

States set out to write clear definitions of bullying and to regulate school policies and responsibilities in reaction to the U.S. Department of Education’s stepped-up focus on the behavior, renewed public concerns following a series of high-profile student suicides, and an increase in cyberbullying.

The most far-reaching of the new crop of laws is arguably New Jersey’sRequires Adobe Acrobat Reader, which requires each school to have an anti-bullying specialist and to report incidents to the state.

Laws passed this year by other states vary in their scope and prescriptiveness, reflecting debate about the respective roles of state, local, and federal governments in dealing with school issues like bullying.

But anti-bullying legislation is a relatively new priority, and legislatures are still refining their strategies.

“In 2005, there were fewer policies, and they were all over the place. In 2011, we’re seeing greater consistency. … Some requirements for schools are increasing, and there’s greater specificity about what constitutes bullying,” said Jennifer Dounay Zinth, a senior policy analyst for the Denver-based Education Commission of the States.

States began passing anti-bullying laws in earnest in the early 2000s, according to Josh Cunningham, a research analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures, also in Denver. By late 2005, 17 states had passed anti-bullying legislation. By last week, only Michigan, Montana, and South Dakota had no such laws, according to the ECS.

In addition to states like North Dakota that adopted anti-bullying bills for the first time this year, many states that already had such laws in place strengthened or revised their requirements for schools this year, including California, where three bills involving bullying were signed into law last week.

New Laws Take Aim at Bullying

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Will Amazon’s $200 tablet spark interest among schools?

October 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Amazon’s unveiling of the Kindle Fire, a tablet computer that costs a few hundred dollars less than Apple’s iPad, sends a bright-hot message: The online retailer is ready to rival Apple in an effort to be the world’s top provider of digital content.

It might sound odd coming from a company that pioneered online sales of physical books in 1995. But since it first entered the digital market in 2006 with its video download store, Amazon has bet consumers will pay for high-quality digital content.

Besides the millions of physical items it sells, Amazon’s trove of digital content now includes more than 1 million eBooks, 100,000 movies and TV shows, and 17 million songs. This is about 1 million fewer songs than iPad maker Apple Inc. sells, but more than twice as many eBooks and many thousands more TV shows and movies.

Amazon.com Inc. CEO Jeff Bezos is confident that its content is what will help the Kindle Fire do better than others who have trotted out tablets.

“The reason they haven’t been successful is because they made tablets. They didn’t make services,” Bezos said in an interview after his company unveiled the tablet at a New York media event Sept. 28.

The price will probably help, too: When it goes on sale Nov. 15, it will cost $199, which is less than half of the $499 you’ll pay for Apple’s cheapest iPad and $50 less than book seller Barnes & Noble Inc.’s Nook Color eReader. This leaves buyers with plenty of money left over to spend on content.

“It’s important to remember at the end of the day that Amazon’s core business is retailing, and this is a way to sell more digital media on a sort of 7-inch vending machine,” NPD Group analyst Ross Rubin said.

For the rest of the article, go to eSchoolNews.com.

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Los Angeles District Tackles Social Media Policy

October 4, 2011 By 1 Comment

Polytechnic High Principal Gerardo Loera is a big fan of social media, posting everything from football scores to schoolwide test results on Facebook and Twitter for students, parents and the world to see.

He even includes a live feed of his tweets, usually typed from his cellphone, on the school’s website.

“It’s just such a useful and immediate way to disseminate information to my school community in a very quick way,” Loera said.

“In a few minutes one of my messages can reach thousands of people and if something I post gets retweeted … well then Poly can be read about all over the country.”

But not all uses of social media by teachers and administrators are seen in such a positive light. School districts throughout the country are studying how to best use the technology while steering clear of its drawbacks.

Nationwide, teachers have been fired for online behavior, from serious breaches like making passes at students on MySpace to the seemingly innocent, like posting a picture of themselves on Facebook having a drink at an after-hours party.

To help teachers avoid problems, last month Los Angeles Unified began debating a new social media policy.

Until last year, LAUSD had a strict ban on using social media sites during work hours or on district computers, which were kept out of the district’s Internet server by the same filtering software and rules used to keep pornography and violent Web content away from students.

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Article is located on Digital Directions/Education Week

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Neb. Launches Pilot Program for Online Education

August 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The state launched a pilot program Friday that will allow Nebraska high school students to supplement their learning through online courses.

“This is the wave of the future and we need to be prepared,” Gov. Dave Heineman said at a news conference in Lincoln announcing the program for the 2011-12 school year.

He and leaders from the University of Nebraska, the state Education Department, the Educational Service Unit Coordinating Council and NET signed an agreement establishing the Nebraska Virtual Partnership. Through that effort, the university will launch the pilot program, the Nebraska Virtual Scholars.

The program will be available for the upcoming school year for 50 high school students. School districts must apply to have their students participate. Applications will be taken starting Monday.

Students will be able to take courses not available at their high schools, such as language or advanced-placement classes.

Education Commissioner Roger Breed said it will be especially beneficial for students in rural schools that have just one math teacher or can’t find someone to teach Spanish, making for limited course offerings. It will also help students in urban areas who face barriers to education because online courses mean they can learn at their own pace and at a time convenient for them.

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