Lightning in a Bottle

Here’s another article about videoconference-based museum visits. I found a couple of things interesting in the story. First, I like the fact that the “virtual visit” is combined with hands-on activities, with items being shipped out to the students before the program happens. Second, there was an interesting contrast between how North Carolina and Washington state installed educational videoconferencing. Washington funded the installation of videoconference systems in every district in the state, but most of these systems wound up in the administrative buildings in the districts and end up being primarily used for meetings. North Carolina, however, apparently focused on creating “cyberclassrooms,” which even in the naming of them made clear the purpose of the facilities.

When I worked in the outreach program at the Pacific Science Center, we sent teams of teachers in vans all across the state, reaching students in every one of the 39 counties. I always thought it would be really cool to do some form of follow-up visit to the students through a video link-up. Now here we are, twelve years later, and the technology is finally almost there. The last impediment is the data connection between the school and the district headquarters - most in-district networks don’t have the capacity to handle the amount of data that videoconferencing provides. But with WiMax, we may solve that problem, too!

As school starts this year in Arizona, over 3,400 students will be participating in virtual schooling. A total of 14 cyberschools will be in operation, with half run by school districts and half through charter schools. An article in the online Arizona Republic describes some of the different programs and tracks the impressive growth in participation.

Indiana University has put together an impressive online learning program focused on technology integration. The Learning to Teach with Technology Studio has several dozen 1-credit courses that cover a variety of curriculum-specific topics. What I like about the structure of the courses is that they are built around essential teaching questions, such as:

• Scientific Graphs and Charts: How can my students use technology to organize and present their inquiry data?

• Using Internet-based Simulations to Explore Probability: How can I create a probability lesson that incorporates Internet-based simulations?
• Storytelling as Communication: How can I use technology to help my students improve writing and presentation skills?
  

It’s nice to see courses that don’t just focus on technology skills, but instead provides specific direction on effective strategies with students.

Registration is available to individuals, or a school/district can order site-based subscriptions.

The private company K12, founded by William Bennett in 1999, has contracts in several states to run virtual charter schools. Funding for several of these schools is in jeopardy due to questions about how the contracts were negotiated. Wired has an article today (www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,62889,00.html?tw=wn_story_page_prev2) that looks into the controversies in Florida and Idaho. Much of the concern revolves around the alleged use of political connections to land the multi-million dollar contracts.

eSchool News has an article about a new distance learning initiative in Alaska (www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=4503 .) The Alaska Online project is a consortium of nine districts. Most of Alaska’s high schools have less than 100 students, and it’s virtually impossible to provide a comprehensive schedule of classes with the teachers in those buildings. In particular, it’s hard to offer college prepartory and higher-level courses. The online classes are designed to help fill that need.

All of the classes offered through the program are developed by Alaska teachers, and are available to participating districts at no cost. Districts outside the cooperative can register students for a fee. The local building is required to assign a mentor who can provide in-person support and enouragment to the student.

One reality check is that the learning styles of some students aren’t suited to online courses. As the population of participants extends from more highly-motivated, college-bound kids, there may be more challenges. As one superintendent notes, most of his students are Native American that prefer to see things rather than read about them, and have a strong need to understand the local use of the information. (Sounds like the average adult learner, too.) He’s concerned that “…that this type of learning will really alienate a portion of our kids.” On the other hand, with high schools ranging in size from 5 to 25 (no, I’m not missing any digits there!), he hasn’t got many other options.

The website for the consortium is at www.eed.state.ak.us/Alaskan_Schools/ACS/alaskaonline/about.html.

Wired has an article today on a report that looks at student performance in cyberschools, and find that most score below the average of regular schools. There can be a variety of reasons for this, of course, including the possibility that struggling students may make up a larger portion of the online learning population. In reading the article, however, it looks to me that the bigger issue is how poorly charter schools are being managed in some parts of the country. In many cases these schools appear to be run by enterprenuers who know little about education, but sense a a new and potentially lucrative market to target. (One person interviewed has already had one charter school shut down, but is opening a new cyber-school.)

The article is at www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,62662,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2.

Another article about the Wisconsin virtual charter schools looks at the aggressive marketing campaigns that are being set up to recruit new students during the three-week window for registration. Wisconsin Connections (Sylvan is the private partner) will spend about $90,000 on marketing, or about 6% of their budget for the school. A new school just starting up will be spending $300,000 on marketing. Since their target is 500 students, that would be 12% of their budget if they reach their goal. There’s an overhead cost that public schools don’t have to worry about - yet.

The story is at www.jsonline.com/news/state/feb04/204381.asp.

Wisconsin has six virtual charter schools in operation, all set up in the last two years. Around 1,000 students are registered through these schools, and the roughly $5,000 in state funding follows them. The charter schools are partnerships between public districts and private education companies, and five more are being considered for next year.

While the students study at home, certified teachers provide support. However, there must be a parent available at home to participate in the program, in order to do tasks such as administering tests. This aspect of the program is a roadblock for some students, such as children from single-parent homes. Another issue (one that the state teacher union is arguing in court) is that parents are providing the face-to-face teaching support, and state law hypothetically requires a certified teacher.

Those participating in the program seem to find it positive. There is an article profiling the program on the Yahoo news service here. (It’s one of those long, ugly addresses.)

ASCD is hosting a one-hour seminar with Jay McTighe on “Balanced Classroom Assessment” on February 10, from 12:30 to 1:30 Pacific time. He will lead the online presentation live. You can read more about it and get registration information atwww.ascd.org/cms/index.cfm?TheViewID=2264.

As a techie-type person, I find the idea of a web-based seminar to be really interesting and possibly a promising method of disseminating information. Unfortunately, I find the idea of charging $99 for a one-hour presentation to be less appealing. Perhaps it’s geared at higher-ups, and they want to keep the number of participants low to increase the opportunity for interaction. It still seems like a lot to pay for an hour, though, especially for something web-based.

The Sacramento Bee has a fun article about how a teacher is able to work with his students while home recovering from surgery. With a cell phone and software that lets him remotely view student computer screens, he is able to do much of his normal instruction in a computer aided design class. A substitute teacher provides the in-class structure while he is working one-on-one with his students. The article is at www.sacbee.com/content/news/education/story/8096785p-9029177c.html.