Fear of Virtual High Schools

A reader sent this question to me today:

I was wondering if you read Clayton Christensen’s prediction that by 2019, nearly 50 percent of high school courses will be taught online.  What exactly did the author mean by this?  Did he mean that by this particular date that nearly 50 percent of high school students will be at home doing virtual schooling or that 50 pecent of the high school courses will have an “alternative online option” to the course.  I teach History, do you think there will still be a need for plenty of classroom History and Geography teachers?

This is a scary world we are living in.

I hadn’t read Clayton Christensen’s article before, but I’d heard the prediction elsewhere (Technology Seen Transforming U.S. Education System and The rise of ‘virtual schools’ divides education world, for example). I believe it means that half the courses taken will be taught online. For some students, that probably will mean they take all their courses online; for others, it will mean taking some courses face-to-face and some online. For example, a student might go to high school in the morning but take other courses online from home in the afternoon. I think we’ll also see continued growth in areas like online tutoring outside of the schools.

Online courses can give students more choices, for starters. Many schools in the US, especially rural schools, don’t have enough students to fill advanced math and science courses or to offer multiple choices for foreign languages. Online courses allow students in those schools to take subjects that simply wouldn’t be available to them otherwise.

There will absolutely continue to be a need for teachers with online schools. When we’re talking about virtual high schools, we’re talking about schools where teachers are employed. This isn’t homeschooling or completely self-paced learning; the student-teacher ratios are usually comparable to face-to-face classrooms. However, if you’re only willing to teach in a physical classroom and not willing to teach online, that may hamper your job opportunities in the future if the prediction is right. Your job prospects may depend on your willingness to learn to teach online, and it is a different set of skills than teaching in the physical classroom.

To get an idea of what a virtual high school might look like, check out the Colorado Virtual Academy. Their curriculum lists 20 different history and social sciences courses; clearly, the need for history teachers still exists.

Are we looking at a future where we’ll only need half the teachers we need now? No, I don’t think so. Are we looking at a future where the role of teachers changes, and many more people will teach online? Yes, I do believe that. I don’t think that’s scary though; I think it’s exciting. We have all these possibilities for global collaboration in education. We can provide choices for students so they can find the right environment for their individual learning.

For instructional designers and others who develop e-learning, I think the online K-12 market is definitely something to watch. Whether the prediction of 50% by 2019 is right or not, this is an area that’s going to grow. This is good news for instructional designers; it means a whole other market for jobs.

For teachers, I think this means a different set of opportunities–not necessarily more or less, just different. My guess is that teaching online will allow some teachers to do a “partial retirement”; instead of retiring from teaching entirely, they might choose to teach a few courses online while travelling or spending time on hobbies or whatever.

If you’re working in the online K-12 environment, either as a teacher or as an instructional designer, I’d appreciate hearing from you. How would you address the fears identified by this reader?

Leading by Example

The Big Question

The Learning Circuits Big Question this month is about learning professionals, leadership, and literacies. Tony breaks it down as several questions, but the Learning Revolutionary summed all the questions up nicely:

Should learning professionals be leading the charge around new work literacies such as social media and informal learning?

Because I’m outside the corporate world, I’m going to look at this from the perspective of 21st century literacy skills rather than “work literacy.” Granted, I think there’s a lot of overlap between the work literacy ideas and the Framework for 21st Century Skills. I see this as similar goals but different contexts.

Let’s start with the idea that K-12 students should be supported in learning 21st century literacy skills. This should not be a controversial starting point; after all, 80% of American voters agree that the skills students need now aren’t the same as the skills needed in the past.

If students need to learn these skills, then their teachers need to have them too, right? Granted, some students will learn the skills outside the system, in spite of whatever the schools teach. But we’re looking at what we want to happen, and I want these skills to be supported by the schools. That means teachers need to have the skills. They have to be able to model the skills for students.

Where will the teachers learn the skills? I don’t think there’s a single answer here: professional learning communities, workshops, conferences, university courses, and mentoring all play a part. Since I work in the higher ed realm though, that’s where I’m going to focus. I think our instructors should have 21st century skills. These are the people who are teaching the teachers, who pride themselves on being the “best of the best” in the field of education. They’re the next group of people who need the skills.

But where are they going to learn? From me and the other people on our team. We have to lead by example for these skills. Our team is leading the charge, and we are making progress. It isn’t nearly as fast as I’d like, but when I look at how far we’ve come in our little corner of the world, it does give me hope.

I want the K-12 students to learn those 21st century skills, but I don’t have access to them directly. Therefore, my responsibility is to work on my own sphere of influence, starting with our online course development team leading by example for our facilitators. When the facilitators have strong 21st century skills, they’ll pass those skills on to the teachers, who in turn will be leaders for their students. If I want others to lead in these skills, I have to do my part to lead by example too. It would be hypocritical to ask them to teach technology skills without practicing what I preach (that is, after all, why I started this blog in the first place).

If I had to focus on one single skill, it would be lifelong learning. Perhaps this isn’t a skill so much as an attitude. It drives me crazy to see educators who think they’ve learned all they need to learn and aren’t willing to even try to learn anything new anymore. Cultivating a culture of learning, where people expect and enjoy continuous learning, is the underlying solution for everything else. We’re never going to get teachers to use technology if they’re determined they don’t need to learn anything anymore. Until they accept their role as learner as well as teacher, we won’t get the changes to happen. Creating a culture that supports lifelong learning needs to start with the professionals who lead by example.

If you had to focus on one skill for this leading by example, what would it be? What’s the underlying skill that supports all the rest, the one where you will concentrate your efforts first?

Technorati Tags: workliteracy, learning+circuits, leadership, changemanagement

LCBQ: Ideal work environment

The September Learning Circuits Big Question is about the best places to work and the qualities that make them a good fit.

The Work Itself

One of the great things about instructional design, for me anyway, is the variety in what kinds of work I do. Designing and developing gives me a chance to write and be creative, working with SMEs gives me interaction with others, and coding webpages gives me more technical work to focus on those details. I love that I’m always learning new things for different subjects. I use all the different facets of my intelligence, and that’s a huge bonus.

With PLS, we’re trying new things because we’re a new team. It’s fun to be at the start of something and making the decisions about how our courses will work in the future. We’re really creating the rules as we go along, and that’s exciting.

At least at this stage of my life, I’m happier as an individual contributor than a manager. I tried my hand at management and decided that isn’t who I want to be. I don’t want to spend all my time in meetings, and I don’t always want to have to work after hours in order to get anything done. The politics and questionable ethics required aren’t what I’m looking to deal with. Then again, that may just be that particular company and environment where I had my management experience (they are currently under investigation by the SEC, DOJ, and who knows who else). When I left that job, I decided to go back to the creativity of instructional design, and I’ve been much more satisfied. I’ll leave the door open though; in a few years maybe I’ll be looking for something else.

Independence

Telecommuting means I have a lot of independence and control over my daily work, and I absolutely love it. It’s great to not worry about driving every day and to be able to deal with errands if I need to.

I also have the independence to determine my daily and weekly goals and to adjust as I see fit, which is a huge plus for me. I’m fortunate to work for someone who is the antithesis of a micromanager. She gives me direction on the major goals for several months out, and I have control over how I get to those goals. I realize not everyone would be comfortable with that, but I appreciate being able to project manage myself.

Relationships

I’ve realized in the last few years how much my satisfaction with my job is affected by my relationships with my supervisor and coworkers. When I have a good relationship with open communication and similar goals, it can be great. When I don’t, I can be absolutely miserable, even if the work itself is still rewarding. I know that isn’t the case for everyone; my husband doesn’t need that strong emotional connection with his managers. I do know that it’s a requirement for me.

Making a Difference

Being in education does mean that I have the reward of knowing the courses I develop can make a difference. Even though I’m not in a K-12 classroom anymore and working with those students directly, creating courses for K-12 teachers means I do influence those students indirectly. That said, I did really enjoy doing strictly corporate software application training. The reward is different, but it was still satisfying to know that I was making people’s lives a little easier.

Technorati Tags: lcbq, organizational+culture, e-learning, instructionaldesign, education, career

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Did You Know 2.0

The original Did You Know video by Karl Fisch has been remixed many times. In this version, the graphics have been substantially updated; the simple line drawings and animations on a black background create a lot of impact. They also “tried to minimize what some perceived as alarmism about globalism” and have updated some content.

Check out the Shift Happens wiki for other versions and updates.

Technorati Tags: didyouknow, Karl Fisch, shifthappens, video, education, change, globalization

Course Ideas for Teachers?

Lately at work I’ve been trying to brainstorm ideas for potential future online courses. Our audience is mostly practicing K-12 teachers. Our courses are fully online, offered through several colleges in the U.S. They are mostly asynchronous, although some synchronous group work might be possible through a tool like YackPack or Skype.

A few weeks ago, finished a new course on read/write web tools for teachers (blogs, wikis, podcasts, plus some connectivism and other media). I’m now getting started on a course about online primary sources (you’ll see a whole slew of resources I’ve tagged for myself in my bookmarks posting today).

We’re focused mostly on technology-based courses right now, but certainly other topics are possible too. I’m curious to hear if anyone out there has any ideas, especially if you are currently a teacher. What are you interested in? What would be helpful to you? I have some of my own ideas, but I don’t want to bias anyone towards my thoughts. Feel free to suggest something even if you have no clue how it would work in an online environment. I can be creative.

Thanks in advance for your help and ideas!

Update: Whoops! I suppose it might help if I told you we’re looking at masters of education courses. Too many things were going on in my brain at the same time…

Technorati Tags: k-12, highered, teacher+trainng, asynchronous+learning, synchronous+learning, e-learning

Computer Applications: Separate, Integrated, or Both?

David Warlick has a new post entitled What about Computer Applications? where he asks this question:

“Are computer applications something that should be taught in a class, or something that should be learned by the students, independent of a class curriculum?”

He also has a new poll which gives the following three options:

• Taught in a course
• Learned and demonstrated by the students
• Explicitly Integrated in to other subject areas

I’m not answering the poll this time because I don’t want an either/or answer; I want a both/and answer. I think this is a false dichotomy. Some introduction to office productivity applications as a separate class is helpful, and it can actually encourage more of the integration into other courses. Vicki Davis has mentioned that since she has been teaching blogging and wikis that her students have been going out to other courses and asking to use the technology. The other teachers love it because now they can use the technology with lesson plans that really focus on pedagogy, learning, and applying the subject matter rather than interrupting the flow to teach basic technology. I do think that these office applications (not necessarily Microsoft; OpenOffice would be fine) are better taught at the middle school level like Karen said in the comments to David’s post (or earlier–I learned word processing in 4th grade, and that was 20 years ago).

Also, David’s comfortable just going in and playing with applications to learn the features. Not everyone is, and not everyone has enough time with a computer to do so even if they can learn it on their own. I think it’s especially important to explicitly teach applications in disadvantaged districts where most kids don’t have computers at home. The middle school where I taught had over 95% free/reduced lunch. When I asked kids to type up poems, many of them centered their text by holding the space bar down until the text got to where they wanted it. When others were typing paragraphs, they hit Enter at the end of every line instead of letting word wrap handle it.

Speaking as a former corporate software trainer, when people learn on their own, they tend to find one solution which does what they need (or pretty close) and then stop looking to see if a better solution is out there.

• How many people create charts in Excel using the chart wizard rather than selecting the data and pressing F11, which instantly creates a new chart?
• How many people delete text that was typed with the CAPS LOCK key accidentally left on in Word, rather than selecting the text and pressing Shift-F3 to change the capitalization?
• How many Word users, even adults in professional environments, really know how to use styles correctly or to customize the AutoCorrect settings?
• How many Excel users know how to create automatic subtotals?
• How many of you reading this just learned something new, or at least realized there were things you didn’t know?

I think you can really gain a lot by teaching in a class with an expert. The catch is that the applications then need to be applied back in classrooms and integrated with everything else. I think you’re more likely to have the applications integrated if you prepare students with the basics though.

(As a side note, I can’t find the specific post on Vicki’s site where she mentioned students going out to other courses. Her blog isn’t loading well this morning and I got tired of waiting for it. I’ll try to update with a more specific link later in the day.)

Technorati Tags: David Warlick, Vicki Davis, computer applications, education, k-12, training, Word, Excel

Updated 3/7/08 with new link to David Warlick’s post

Lifelong Computer Skills

Jakob Nielson, usability guru, has posted a new Alertbox called Life-Long Computer Skills. This article summarizes what he considers to be the essential computer skills which will still be relevant when today’s elementary students join the workforce.

Here’s his list of lifelong skills:

• Search Strategies
• Information Credibility
• Information Overload
• Writing for Online Readers
• Computerized Presentation Skills
• Workspace Ergonomics
• Debugging
• User Testing and other Basic Usability Guidelines

Most of these I agree with. Search skills are not going to go away, even though the tools may get easier. Understanding how to evaluate information and filter what isn’t relevant is also definitely important. By credible, I think he probably means closer to published sources rather than blogs or Wikipedia, and I disagree with that philosophy. However, his specific examples deal with helping kids recognize ads and paid search results, and those are valuble skills. Information overload may not actually be quite a big a problem for younger students as it is for adults, as more children are accustomed to the fast paced multichannel flow of information. Knowing how to manage the overload and filter appropriately go hand in hand. Many people at the Online Connectivism Conference discussed how to help students learn how to build effective networks and how to filter and verify information.

“Writing for online readers” is something that I think we definitely need to help teachers learn as well as students. I feel fortunate that my job gives me the opportunity to do just that. My current major project is a course to teach K-12 teachers how to use blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other technologies. This is a very relevant quote:

Thus, we should teach students how to write hypertext and not how just to write printed documents.

With “Computerized Presentation Skills,” I don’t think he goes far enough. I think multimedia literacy should be part of the education, including audio, video, and animation. I also find it odd that he uses Microsoft Excel training as an example of what not to do in his introduction, but PowerPoint training as a necessary skill. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t teach these software applications; I think it’s important that we teach word processing and spreadsheets and slideshow programs. Every one of these programs that you learn makes it easier to learn the next one. I don’t think it’s a waste for students to learn Microsoft Excel formatting in Office 2003 even though Office 2007 will be very different. In seventh grade, I took a course that covered AppleWorks with the word processor, spreadsheet, and flat database. Those skills have been tremendously useful to me because they helped me understand the differences in the applications and their uses. That was fundamental for me, and I think there is still validity in teaching students these kinds of programs (although OpenOffice or any of the free web apps would be fine too). I don’t think that’s all we should teach, but it can be part of the skills.

Ergonomics and debugging are fine; I think usability is on his list just because it’s his pet subject and not because it really belongs with the rest of the subjects.

The big thing I don’t see here is how to connect, interact, or work with people online. I would add “Connect, Converse, and Collaborate” to his list. I suppose it’s not that surprising from a man who doesn’t have a blog or an RSS feed on his site, but I think the interactions will be increasingly important.

What would you add to the list of lifelong computer skills that we need to teach students–and teachers?

Image citation
2 & 1/2 and already a computer junky! from machado17’s photostream.

Teaching Old Teachers New Tricks

teaching an old dog
new tricks,
originally uploaded
by Trevor D..

Eide Neurolearning has a new post about Old Dogs and New Tricks. They explain some memory research comparing how young and old participants were able to remember word lists. Essentially, their memory was fairly comparable unless there were extra distractors in the list that had not previously been mentioned. The older participants had more experience and prior memories of these distractor words and that made it harder for them to filter the extraneous words.

They don’t present this as only bad for older adults; they talk about balance in approach from both older and younger.

If you’re older, may be it’s a good idea think about letting go of some of old knowledge or tricks if you really want to learn something new. And if you’re younger, it may be wise not to pursue new tricks so singlemindedly that you fail to consider what you already know.

As Will Richardson put it in his Skype quote yesterday: Steep unlearning curve ahead.

I think when we are trying to help old teachers adapt to new technology, we have to keep in mind that they’ve seen so many educational fads come and go. If we want this change to “stick,” we have to help them see that this change is different from previous fads. We also have to help them unlearn the traditional methods and power structures. Will’s list of things to unlearn is a good place to start, and he says it better than I do. Read his post and see what I’m talking about.

Technorati Tags: education, k12, highered, neurolearning, will richardson, unlearn

Passion in Learning

Will Richardson’s presentation at the Online Connectivism Conference had a number of great ideas, but one recurring theme was the idea of passion in learning. Will talked about creating networks of passionate learners. This comes back to my ideas about lifelong learning from my post last week; if we can excite our students, they can be motivated to continue learning beyond “what’s on the test.”

Konrad Glogowski has a great summary of this idea. He also includes a “reality check” about being too enamored with technology without keeping in mind the purpose–helping students.

Maybe I’m oversimplifying things here but, let’s face it, if all the theory and technology that we have at our disposal amount, in practical terms, to having students record an mp3 file, blog for a couple of weeks, or connect with other students to exchange ideas about a fictional character or their home province, then sooner or later these new tools and approaches will acquire the status of mere classroom work. They will become as uninviting as “chalk and talk” is today. It seems to me that we are often focusing on technology for the sake of focusing on technology. Are we helping students find ideas that they are passionate about?

That seems to be the crux of it all; the importance isn’t in the technology itself, it’s in what the technology lets us do. If you’re passionate about something, the Web 2.0 technology gives you a much better chance of connecting with others than what you had before. Wikipedia is full of examples of cultural knowledge that is perhaps somewhat obscure, but has passionate followers. Earlier today I saw a blog by someone who loves fruitcake, and that has to be a tiny audience. (Note: I am not part of the fruitcake fan audience.) The point is that people can share their passions. The information about these topics is much more accessible than it has ever been.

Someone asked Will how we can help older teachers (and others who resist this technology) adjust and become more comfortable with these changes. His suggestion was to use the things other teachers are passionate about as their introduction. Show them how to find out more about their passions and how to connect with others who share those passions. Once again, it isn’t about the technology itself; it’s helping them see how the technology provides opportunities. This is the case whether it is K-12 or higher education.

I’ve been listening in the connectivism conference for what I can use in my own instructional design practice, and this is certainly one thing I can try to improve. For e-learning, it should be allowing people to explore the environment and learn what is most important to them: providing learner control should be one of my goals. I think I also need to allow opportunities for students to research and apply content to whatever they are passionate about. That means I have to build in more open-ended opportunities for discussion and application.

My current course (with Will as Subject Matter Expert) is about Read/Write Web technology in K-12 classrooms. I think that passion will probably primarily be in the small group wiki project. I am going to provide some suggested topics, but I think groups should be allowed to choose what their wiki will be about. Ultimately, I think allowing that flexibility will help improve the quality of the final product; students will create better content and collaborate more effectively when they care about the subject. Students will also create blogs, so that should give them some opportunity to talk about their passions as well. It will be all school-related, but if a teacher can’t write passionately about their vision for education, I’m not sure what I can do for them.

What about other examples of engaging students’ passions in the classroom? I actually think it is harder in a corporate training environment, but I’d love to hear if someone has done so successfully? What have you done to create passionate learners?

Technorati Tags: OCC2007, instructionaldesign, k12, web2.0, highered, will richardson, connectivism, learning

Engaged Learning in 10th Grade

Vicki Davis is doing great things in her classes. I loved reading about what her 10th graders are doing; they have picked an area of interest as a “major” for projects. She has excerpts from student blogs about golf course management and optometry. She has done a similar research project with her students in the past, but she hasn’t used this angle before. Here’s a great quote:

So, instead of just teaching about hardware, each student is looking at it from the lens of their future interest.

What I think really struck me in this is how she is engaging students by using their already existing motivation. I think students are quite motivated to learn, they just aren’t always motivated to learn what we’re teaching them. That’s the case in K-12, higher ed, and corporate learning. Students want to know what’s in it for them–and I think they have a right to know. We should have a reason for teaching the things we teach. If it doesn’t have relevance or won’t be useful to them, why don’t we just ditch it from the curriculum? I know, I know, it’s not that simple. It is a goal I am working towards in my own courses as I’m developing though.

Technorati Tags: blog, education, k-12