Our nation is engaged in a rather heated conversation about how to eliminate injuries and deaths from gun violence in U.S. schools. Formal and informal debates are occurring in the halls of Congress, within state Capitol buildings, at our workplaces and around kitchen tables in our homes. Social media has exploded with conversation, and everyone seems to have a strong opinion on this critical subject. In many cases, intelligent and reasonable people have taken opposite positions when proposing solutions to school gun violence.

Recently, however, I encountered a “solution” to this problem that surprised me.

Due to these tragedies, at least one set of parents in my area has begun to seriously consider full-time cyberschool as an option for their children. They no longer feel comfortable placing their loved ones in brick-and-mortar schools. I am afraid other parents in Michigan will also begin to consider this as a viable alternative to face-to-face instruction.

To some degree, this mentality has existed for a while. Since the beginning of the public education system, a small percentage of parents have elected to homeschool their children for one reason or another, sometimes out of fear of the violence or ideologies they could be exposed to in school. But what we see now is something different. We have parents who have put their faith in the public school system for years who are now are genuinely afraid for their children’s lives upon dropping them off at school.

As a parent, I fully understand the emotion behind this response; however, implemented as a large-scale solution to the problem of gun violence, it concerns me on multiple levels. There are many good reasons to promote the value of online learning, but gun violence should not be one of them.

The Place of Online Learning within the Education System

For the past 20 years, I have dedicated my professional career to promoting the value of online learning in the K-12 community. During this time, I have engaged in hundreds of policy discussions with school principals, curriculum directors, district superintendents, legislators, parents and other stakeholders. I’ve listened to a plethora of perceptions about online learning, including that it:

• differentiates instruction
• generates cost savings
• diminishes the role of the teacher
• eliminates teacher jobs
• provides equity regardless of zip code
• privatizes public education
• represents a major reform strategy
• personalizes learning
• is inferior to face-to-face instruction
• represents innovation

Not once in the past 20 years has someone told me that online education is a good substitute for face-to-face instruction because of gun violence in traditional schools.

My professional opinion is that few children benefit from full-time online learning. Those who do benefit from full-time cyberschool (or virtual charter school) typically have serious medical conditions, athletic obligations or other extenuating life circumstances. In these cases, online learning can provide students who do not have the option to attend a face-to-face school with a pathway to education.

As a leader in the K-12 online education space, I fully believe that all students should have opportunities to experience online learning in some capacity, as this has increasingly become a critical part of the 21st-century learning skills required of them by colleges and workplaces. It is for this reason that Michigan became the first state in the nation to adopt an online learning requirement as a condition of high school graduation.

By and large, however, I do not believe a mass exodus of students from brick-and-mortar establishments to virtual schools would be beneficial for our children or for our society. There are still countless social benefits that children receive from working with teachers and peers in a face-to-face setting that should not be overlooked.

Migrating students into online courses is not a real solution, but merely an avoidance of the problem of gun violence.

Room for Growth in Online Learning

There is room for growth in the realm of online learning. We ought to investigate ways to leverage the technology at our fingertips to deal with some of the underlying issues behind gun violence. Specifically, more can be done to harness online platforms and communication tools to help address the social and emotional health of teens as they struggle with adolescence.

Clearly, too many young people are bullied, teased and ostracized. For students who feel uncomfortable asking for help in face-to-face settings, digital spaces can provide students with safe places to explore critical topics that are not consistently discussed in traditional classrooms.

Why is this? In part, it stems from what I like to call “intimate anonymity.” Certain topics are more easily shared behind the buffer of a screen. It’s why the Internet frightens us parents so profoundly — we aren’t always entirely sure who our children are speaking to and what they are sharing with them.

But this intimate anonymity can also be leveraged to the benefit of our children, so long as we create the appropriate contexts for them to explore in private what they might not be comfortable expressing in face-to-face settings.

Our online instructors regularly report surprise at how willing their online students are to share information about themselves. This might seem counterintuitive, but imagine how the following scenario might happen differently in a face-to-face classroom compared to a private message between teacher and student.

A teacher asks a student, “What’s going on, Sarah? You haven’t turned in your homework for almost a week.”

In a busy classroom, Sarah may blush and provide some off-handed excuse. But, through the privacy of an email, she may be willing to reveal more. Her instructor may discover, through this more personal form of communication, that she’s been struggling profoundly since her parents’ recent divorce and she needs help.

We already see some progress in this particular growth area. Some schools are using apps like “Say Something” or “Safe 2 Tell” to provide students with an anonymous forum to report events both at school and outside of school that cause them distress or discomfort. Some believe that the widespread use of apps like this could save lives by allowing school officials to intervene before tragedy occurs.

Other online services such as Evolution Labs’ digital character development and behavior intervention programs have emerged to help teach students to think critically about cyberbullying, mental health, anger management, substance abuse, social awareness, goal-setting and stress-management. For many students, it is easier to explore these critical topics at their own pace in a safe digital space, rather than being asked to speak about them in-person with 23 of their peers.

It is my hope that tools like these will build awareness and create new ways for children to learn and communicate with each other and promote civility. We are all discouraged that a growing number of children and parents view traditional schools as unsafe places. Regardless of your personal stance on possible solutions, I know all educators stand united in wanting to see an end to school violence. I hope local, state and federal leaders can put their differences aside and act with a sense of urgency to address this growing and complex societal challenge.

About the Author

Jamey Fitzpatrick, president and CEO of Michigan Virtual, serves as a catalyst for change and a champion of innovation in education. He provides strategic leadership for Michigan Virtual, a Michigan-based nonprofit organization focused on advancing K-12 digital learning and teaching. In addition to his previous leadership roles at the Michigan Department of Education and Saginaw ISD, Jamey also worked in the private sector for Pitney Bowes Corporation. He serves on the Board of Trustees for Olivet College.

A growing number of students take advantage of summer to earn credits before the next school year begins and — probably without even realizing it — to combat summer brain drain.

Students who take online courses from state online schools or other sources, learn and earn graduation credits and still have time to go on vacation with their family and hold a summer job.

Typically, online summer programs offer a variety of courses, from algebra to chemistry to world languages and electives. Students who complete course work earn credit that can mean they have more time during the school year for Advanced Placement courses or to be in band, choir or other school activities.

Summer is also a great time for students to stay connected to formal learning while in informal environments like at the cottage, state park or beach. Taking an online course during this three-month break gives middle and high school students an opportunity to get ahead in a high-interest subject area, or retake a course.

While summer school isn’t the only way to combat summer brain drain — a summer job or volunteering also help students from losing as much as two to three months of math and reading skills over the summer, as various studies show — the flexibility of online learning makes it possible to earn credits in advance of the next school year without missing out on a family vacation or spending time with friends during the summer.

Learning online can be anytime, anywhere — a student can take a laptop up to the lake and get online a couple hours a day while earning high school credit in English, math or in a variety of electives such as film studies, oceanography or personal fitness.

There are many advantages to taking an online summer course, including:

• Take NCAA-approved courses;
• Fulfill a prerequisite to take AP classes;
• Build flexibility in scheduling;
• Develop real-world skills;
• Study anytime, anywhere;
• Create excitement about learning;
• Recover credits;
• Accelerate learning;
• Expand course offerings for students; and
• Amplify 21st century learning.

Summer school enrollments among state online programs are growing much faster than the overall annual rate of online courses with an 8.8% increase between summer 2013 and 2014 and even more dramatic 18.34% increase between summer 2014 and 2015 (Keeping Pace, 2015).

Summer online learning provides students more choice and its flexible nature allows for a summer of relaxation and fun, and a summer of learning.

I recently learned about a high school teacher who gave her students a very interesting assignment. She asked her students to create a list to identify ten things they believe to be absolutely true. I thought it was an interesting exercise, so I gave it a try myself. I decided to use the lens related to my work in education reform for this brainstorming activity. I could’ve easily created a list about life, politics, family, religion, business or any other category. The ten things I believe to be true in education are:

1. Expectations related to student achievement are increasing around the globe.
2. Funding for K-12 education is declining.
3. Students increasingly perceive traditional brick and mortar school environments as boring and not relevant to their future.
4. Existing school calendars do not reflect the educational needs of most students.
5. Schools have been relatively slow to embrace the use of technology to fundamentally change how instructional services are delivered.
6. Young people around the globe enjoy using technology tools and the Internet.
7. Online delivery models have the potential to reduce education costs and increase student engagement and performance.
8. Mobile technology has become more affordable and easier to use, while offering increased functionality. These devices, platforms and applications are fundamentally changing the way people around the globe communicate, entertain, collaborate and access information.
9. Online learning solutions which are free of traditional time and place restrictions can enable unprecedented educational choice for students and their parents.
10. The intelligent use of data has the potential improve the decisions people and organizations make every day. The effective integration of technology tools in the instructional and administrative functions of education can significantly improve access to quality data and support better decisions for students, parents and educators.

I am curious to learn about your reactions to my “ten truths” related to education. I also challenge you to create your own list, not just for work, but for any important area of your life and share it with others. What do you believe to be true? It’s a fun exercise and the results may surprise you and others.

 

New frontiers conjures up images of pioneers, making their arduous journey over rough terrain through unexplored territory, landing in a place where they endure various challenges as they become accustomed to their new environment and, eventually, grow and thrive. This scenario is not very different from what we face in the exploration of digital teaching and learning and the adapting of the community affected to the new educational frontier.

Big box stores and the choices they offer have attracted customers away from the neighborhood groceries, but even small shops can find, acquire, and provide specialty items to meet customer demand and have cash registers that link them to a credit card network with a global reach.

Blazing the trail

Taming the territory requires paradigm shifts, especially for teachers. Appropriate, innovative use of educational programs and media can prompt increases in teacher productivity, giving teachers time to personalize the one-on-one and small group learning environment in a way the technology can’t. Building deep relationships with students, coaching soft skills, identifying missing support resources, and responding to students’ personal needs more quickly should be the norm.

Michigan attorney, Richard McLellan, has received criticism for suggesting new types of learning systems. He has introduced a new approach to an old icon: the one room schoolhouse. The Digitally Optimized One Room Schoolhouse – or DOORS – a model for testing digital learning concepts and strategies in a smaller environment, an alternative strategy to the overlaying of technology on the systems inherent to the current traditional school structure. The proposed model exemplifies personalized learning as it was in the original one room school, but it looks a lot different. It could be a possible settlement option of 21^st century reform.

Cultivating the land

We often see that pioneers in online and blended learning need support in conquering this digital territory. How is school different when the opportunity is highly personalized for each individual student? When does the day start for students? When does it end? How long does the student spend on a subject or task? Who decides what the ‘school year’ is?

The role of the teacher is a different in the digital frontier. Imagine an approach that personalizes the teacher/student relationship the way a doctor considers a patient and a coach works with an athlete. Instead of assigning academics based on an age or ability group, teachers could be diagnosing the areas and requirements that challenge a student and prescribing a personalized solution. Once the students are off and running, they benefit from the coaching behavior of motivating each according to their need to reach their potential. While these strategies are not new to teachers, the technology territory allows more opportunity to scale deeper student-teacher relationships.

Investing in the future

Every day we see the human, social, and economic impact an undereducated populace has on our communities. The current delivery model works well for approximately 60-70% of the U.S. student population, but not well enough for nearly 30% of the students who are not engaged and do not graduate for variety of issues. This population needs access to new delivery models that are hyper-personalized and make much more effective use of technology to modify traditional barriers of time and place.

Settling in

The one-room schoolhouse used to be the anchor of the community and continued to be used well into the 1950s. To this day, it is a universally popular iconic image. What we know works is naturally a part of the one-room school environment: personalized learning, focused areas of study, and relationships that offer as-needed support and prompt intervention. A perceived weakness of the one-room schoolhouse was the limited skills of a single educator in a remote isolated location. Today, a one-room schoolhouse with a well trained professional educator, robust technology tools and access to the Internet could offer most students access to a highly personalized learning environment that could be globally competitive with any school, regardless of size and location. Perhaps the pioneers of the one room school concept will show us another trail to thriving in the digital frontier.

During the next decade, thousands of educators in the U.S. will start a new professional journey by teaching one or more courses in an online environment. For some, this will be an exciting transition and for others it will feel like learning how to swim or ride a bike all over again. I am often asked what it takes to make a good online teacher. Many of the characteristics assigned to a successful face-to-face educator hold true for online teachers.

The results of a survey of Michigan Virtual School online instructors identified communication as the foundation of effective online teaching. The other components instructors mentioned most often are relationship building and teaching methods. Online instructors have had to develop new ways to communicate with students, parents, and mentors; connect with students; and present content, provide assignments, and assess learning.

Communication – Online instruction requires that instructors rely on both their writing skills and their verbal skills with students, parents, and mentors in order to initiate and sustain open, encouraging dialogue. Assignments and activities must be presented clearly and concisely. Much of the feedback students receive on assignments is delivered through email, text, discussion boards, or pre-recorded audio files.

Instructors also repeatedly remark on the importance of timely, frequent feedback. As one instructor describes it, feedback is a means of re-working the problems and forming a richer, deeper connection with the material.

Because online instructors see communication as so critical to student success, they put a lot of effort into developing strategies for establishing and maintaining contact with their students and mentors. One instructor suggests using whatever mode of communication parents, students, and mentors find most comfortable.

Relationships – Instructors must learn to build relationships with online learners without the usual visual clues received in the classroom: teachers can’t see the understanding or confusion, personal connection or isolation, academic interactivity or disengagement when they can’t see student faces or body language. Many instructors use video clips to personalize communication and allow the students to see the real person on the other computer.

Another aspect of building relationships with students is offering opportunities for one-on-one communication. Students need to know the instructor is there, ready and willing to meet the student’s needs. That means being available and responsive to students, parents, and mentors. Developing the expectation that the instructor will respond quickly is key to keeping the student engaged in the course.

One instructor pinpoints the foundation of relationship success: “It’s essential for students to trust you are there for them and that they are not alone online.” Teachers make it clear that they’re there for students by being respectful and responsive and making themselves available and accessible to parents, students, and mentors. This strategy includes speaking with parents and students directly about achievements and struggles.

The best learning relationships are formed when teachers find a way to connect with the student. Using a friendly, conversational tone whenever possible goes a long way in making communication personal and connecting with students. Phone contact with mentors of low achieving students may be especially important. Instructors suggest the following are critical for communicating effectively with online learners:

• Clear, concise announcements
• Clear, well developed instructions
• Well developed rubrics
• Prompt and relevant feedback
• Video greetings and announcements
• Welcome letters/emails to mentors and students
• Classroom journals
• Individual emails
• Frequent postings
• Quick responses

Best Practices – Instructors shared several elements that characterize best practices in effective online instruction:

• Setting clear expectations for interaction and participation;
• Presenting well organized, engaging curriculum that includes convenient access to instructional materials, easily understood assignments, clear objectives, and rubrics;
• Promoting group interactivity;
• Using multiple teaching strategies that incorporate a range of activities, a variety of materials, diverse resources, and current instructional technology; and
• Initiating personalized interventions for struggling students.

Instructors attribute their effectiveness to three behaviors: managing their relationship with their students, communicating consistently, and employing appropriate teaching strategies. They say that being effective requires more than the traditional teaching skills of knowing the content and explaining a concept in multiple ways. They must be tech savvy, use a variety of delivery methods, keep up with grading, and be innovative with teaching, assessment, and communication.

Top Ten Tips for New Online Teachers

1. Be highly motivated and enthusiastic
2. Demonstrate commitment to a student-centered learning approach
3. Communicate in a warm and friendly manner
4. Strive to improve student understanding
5. Motivate students to assume responsibility for their performance
6. Promote a safe and supportive learning community
7. Establish high expectations for each student
8. Provide timely, thoughtful reactions to all student work
9. Offer high quality feedback and continuous assessment
10. Ask questions, learn from your students, and get to know them

For a comprehensive review of the characteristics of effective online instructors, see the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) 2011 publication, National Standards for Quality Online Teaching. The Standards can be accessed online at: http://www.inacol.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/iNACOL_TeachingStandardsv2.pdf

 

 

Real time mobile connectivity has created monumental changes in how we use technology to communicate. “Smart devices” are changing all aspects of our daily lives in part because of the intelligence built into the systems. You can ask a question of your phone and get an answer. You don’t even have to ask to see where you are with GPS. Devices and applications work on your behalf, tracking your time, logging your activity, graphing your progress – whether it’s your workout routine, your diet, or your coursework. What’s the next big thing in educational technology? I am betting on predictive analytics and graphene.

Predictive Analytics

Going forward we will see tremendous improvements in how individual student data is collected and used in K-12 education. Unfortunately, current barriers related to accessibility, timeliness and granularity of student information limit educators’ ability to use the “numbers” to pinpoint academic challenges and identify targeted solutions in real time. One of the most exciting developments in education is the ongoing refinement of predictive analytical tools that can be used to make sophisticated decisions about learning gaps, instructional strategies and prescriptive learning assets.

I believe predictive analytics will be a core element of public education in the near future. According to Wikipedia, predictive analytics is based on statistical techniques that analyze current and historical facts to predict the future. In business, predictive models exploit patterns found in historical and transactional data to identify risks and opportunities. Models capture relationships among many factors to allow assessment of risk or potential associated with a particular set of conditions, guiding decision -making. One of the most well-known applications is credit scoring which is used throughout financial services. Scoring models process a customer’s credit history, loan application, customer data, etc., in order to rank-order individuals by their likelihood of making future credit payments on time.

The biggest game changer in educational technology may come from one of the nation’s largest online retailers, Amazon. One can argue that Amazon has become the best at using data to make decisions to better serve their customers. Last year, I spoke with executives from Amazon, and they confirmed their interest in using intelligent data tools to disrupt K-12 education the same way they have changed the traditional retail market.

Amazon is currently working on a plan that will ship products to customers before they purchase them because of their anticipatory analytics based on customers’ previous shopping habits. Can you imagine getting a pair of shoes, new golf clubs or a book delivered to your home that you like and want to purchase but did not order? This concept takes predictive analytics to another level.

Public education will be transformed if we can harness the power of these kinds of tools to make intelligent decisions about teaching and learning at the individual student level. We don’t need more data in public education, we need more efficient access to meaningful information that can guide decision-making in real time to help each student reach their potential. Sophisticated analytics can help schools:

• Pinpoint individual learning gaps
• Measure academic progress of groups and subgroups
• Assess the impact of instructional strategies
• Predict student performance
• Personalize learning for each student
• Identify students at-risk and recommend remediation strategies

The advantages of predictive analytics in education are yet to be fully realized, but hold significant promise in changing the landscape for students, parents and educators.

Graphene

Do you remember the popular 1967 film The Graduate? Actor Dustin Hoffman played a recent college student who was uncertain about his future. In this 20^th century classic film, one of the characters gives Hoffman advice on the future with one word: “Plastics.”   Today, the buzz is on a new material that will transform our world in ways we can’t fully predict. With a weight, strength, and density possibly imagined by science fiction writers decades ago, graphene may influence the makeup of a generation of devices and how those devices communicate with the user and each other. In 2010, physicists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novosleov received the Nobel Prize for their experiments with graphene. Researchers, physicists, and engineers continue to investigate the capacity of this material that is an atom thick but stronger than steel and can conduct electricity and heat. Sensors are being developed out of graphene, as are nano-antennas, nano-transmitters, and nano-receivers; and experiments integrating graphene electronics with biological systems are taking place.

Graphene is likely to be part of increasing the speed of electronic communications, decreasing the energy required to power devices, and developing new means of sharing information. Can you imagine wearable computers or molecular-sized devices in your body that monitor your health and communicate updates to your family doctor on an ongoing basis? Sounds scary and exciting at the same time.

Each innovation raises our expectations about what technology can do for us. From floppy disks to the cloud, desktop computers to tablets, silicon to graphene, trends continue to point to more affordable and powerful tools that are sure to change how we live work and learn. Today’s technologies have expanded our capacity to engage students in learning in a way John Dewey could never have imagined. What are your bets for the future and how do you think these developments will shape the future of education? I would love to hear your thoughts.