Online Learning Options
There are two interesting articles in Edweek today. The first one looks at individualize tutoring programs such as Cognitive Tutor, and the positive results that schools are seeing. It’s hard for old tech dawgs like me to get past the historic aversion to drill-and-practice software, but the reality is that in the 28 years I’ve been at this (gad!), computers have increased in power by a factor of six or seven orders of magnitude. We really do have the ability to create intelligent tutoring software that can monitor and adjust to the individual student in ways that a live teacher hasn’t the time to do. One of the newer programs discussed in the article literally watches the body language of the student - now that’s impressive/scary! And remember, this is what we can do with today’s technology. What will we see in another ten years, when computers are roughly 200 times the power of today’s devices?
The second article is about the rapid increase in participation in online AP courses. For instance, Apex has seen an almost 4-fold increase in course registration in three years. Similar increases are reported from other providers. There appear to be several factors driving this trend - AP course are all the rage right now (I almost used the word fad, but there is actual research that correlates AP course participation with improved success in college), school and home connectivity has improved quite dramatically in the last few years, and acceptance of online learning (and the awareness of parents that it’s an option) have increased as well.
It seems pretty clear that online learning doesn’t work for everyone. The experience of almost all online schools is that successful students need to be self-motivated and focused. Is this an immutable aspect of online learning, though, or a limitation of how we currently construct it? Will we figure out over time how to build systems and online interactions that will increase the success of other students? It would be troubling if we create a powerful system of learning that benefits only a subset of our students, especially when for courses such as AP, the online version is the only one available.
