Monday Notes by Marcia

Marcia’s notes…
NACOL VIRTUAL SCHOOL SYMPOSIUM NOVEMBER 5-7, 2006
Monday, November 6
Welcome and Opening—Susan Patrick President and CEO, North American Council for Online Learning

NACOL Mission: Education, Innovation, and Online Learning
Virtual school offers all students the best education with the best teachers –Susan Patrick
21st Century Assessments for today’s students.
Innovative changes in education—trend of the future.
PQ + CQ > IQ (Passion quotient + curiosity quotient is greater that IQ)

Currently there are147 virtual charter schools in 18 states, and
1/3 of high schools offer elearning.

Rationale: 4 key points favoring online education:
1. Online learning expands options and providing equal access. This levels the “playing field”—all students have access to a vast variety of courses, not just those in larger, financially proficient schools.
2. Online learning is rapidly growing.
3. It is effective.
4. It improves teaching

AP scores up to 10 points higher through online courses.
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Seymour (?)Papert—AI tells the story of the steamship.
A quicker way to cross the Atlantic was needed—the steamship was just too slow. In 1952, the rush was on to create a better, faster steamship—and it was created, and it was much faster than the old. However, the jet airplane was also created that year, making the newer, faster steamship obsolete.
Education could be compared to that story.
Are we trying to fix up the old, or should we jump into the new?
The old steamship is a systemic design, and can be improved to a point. The new technology, the jet plane, can go faster than ship, and thus would be the better choice to improve travel time across the Atlantic.
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The brick and mortar schoolhouse was created during the Industrial Revolution. Schools were designed to educate students for work in menial jobs, with 25% going on to college.
Currently 26% go on to college.
That brick and mortar schoolhouse is still doing what it was designed to do!

Perhaps it’s time to quit trying to fix the old.
How many students graduate from high school? Overall average is 70%.
Breakdown:
78%white
52% Latino
56% black

Transformation, not integration is needed—regarding technology.

Allan Jordan—story
A student, who was struggling in class, goes to school door, almost goes in, but turns away. “Why?” asked Jordan. Student said he has to “power down” to go to school—at home online, he has many things going on, but in school, he has to operate on a bell system, antiquated ideas, etc.

Leadership is TIP: trust, integrity, passion
Oliver Wendell Holmes said that a mind stretched to new dimensions never returns to its old dimension. (paraphrased)

TOM CARROLL
President, National Commission on Teaching and America’s future.
Advocacy group for 21st century teaching and learning

Erate grants
10th anniversary of virtual high school in Hudson
In 1995-96, the Erate grant applications were mainly for CD-ROM content—and at that time, everyone thought that CD-ROM would be forever.
In 1998, the grant applications for Internet/web access surpassed those for CD-ROM

The last radical change in education was during the industrial age--graded learning, stand alone content, little boxes inside big boxes (school/classroom)—and we’ll call that Education 1.0
We now need Education 2.0 and3.0
We have the potential to transform education—the new teachers are the ones who grew up with the web/internet, etc.
Should we be the agent of change or target of change?

Obstacles
Data in No Dream Denied book
Accelerated the number of new teachers in the 90s, but also accelerated leavers
Many new teachers leave within the first three years, and after five years, 46% have left.
Teacher turnover is a serious problem.
Why are these new teachers leaving the teaching profession?
1. They feel they were not prepared for conditions/challenges of teaching.
2. They feel isolated—no support.
3. No opportunity for growth was visibly forthcoming—no advancement.

Teachers’ training has not changed, and the teaching “career” is the same—teach the same old thing, year after year, and then retire.

The Generation X, and the Millenials, those who are now in their 20’s, grew up very connected.
They seek collaborative relationships, need mentors, want career advancement—and they don’t find this in the education field.
TV reflects culture and its changes:
Then—“Dr. Kildare”—stand alone hero, individual saves the day
Today—“Gray’s Anatomy”—teamwork is important –teams save the day

Same parallel exists in Perry Mason vs. Law and Order

Key to success is collaborative team work
Superman vs. Pokeman
Flash Gordon vs. Star Trek and NASA (no astronaut went to the moon without teamwork)
The teams are diverse, women involved.

Currently, the teacher dropout rate is higher than student dropout rate.

Where are the advancements in education? We had the stand alone teacher of the50’s, now we have the stand alone teacher in 21st century. This creates three things to be worried about:
While that teacher may be a good teacher, he/she has no colleague to learn from, and so can only be as good as he/she can get alone.
Students are struggling when they have an ineffective teacher
Teacher teaching alone in a flat world cannot develop necessary skills unless we use 21st Century teaching.

Teaching 1.0—Teacher’s job is to stand and deliver content, then test to see if content is captured. All students are taught at the same level. This is what we have been doing for many years. It’s Teach and Test—if they get it, they get it, and if they don’t, they don’t.
T→S

Teaching 2.0--Teacher is the Learning Leader
The teacher is a coach, and manages resources. This learning is project based, community centered, the focus is on the learners’ needs, and the students become resources to each other.


T

S
↕ ↕
S ↔ P↔S
↕ ↕ ↕
S ↔ S
The problem with this is that the teacher should not be off to the side. The teacher should be learning along with the students, and in doing this, the teacher will be modeling learning, how to form a hypothesis, etc.

Thus, the diagram above would change to show the teacher within the circle as a learning leader, the students become learners, and all participate in a blended environment.

Teaching 3.0 Teacher’s job is to create meaning with students. The focus is on relationships—learners are in an environment without walls. The learners can be anywhere geographically, but still in the same class. The teacher is the learning leader, and keeps the learning structured and focused.
In the drawing for Teaching 2.0, the “walls”—the circle in the diagram, representing the school building, is removed. All continuously learn together, both from their leader, their resources, and each other.

Ideas are presented in the book The Teaching Gap


Prepare teachers by:
using “Teaching Academies” where teachers can develop team skills.
using “Learning Design Studios,” such as DaVinci—space designed for multiple purposes (including outdoors)

When you change the role of the teacher, you change the role of the school. The school becomes a hub in a larger environment.

For more information:

Website
topic
www.edutopia.org
Edutopia
www.designshare.com
Designing for the future
www.archfoundation.org
Great Schools by Design
www.school-works.org
School works




Due to time constraints and la ck of skill, I am not able to accurately recreate the drawings/diagrams on the slide presentation. The slides of this presentation by Tom Carroll can be seen on www.nctaf.org