by Scott McLeod | Jun 13, 2007 | Online Learning, Reading, Research and Evaluation |
Okay, it’s time to try out a new feature here at Dangerously Irrelevant: the
Report of the Week (ROTW). Can I find and feature an
interesting education-related report each and every week? I think I can!
This week’s report is from Education Sector:
Here’s a quote from the report:
There has been no shortage of solutions for improving the nation’s public
schools. School leadership, teacher quality, standards, testing, funding, and a
host of other issues have crowded reform agendas. But an important trend in
public education has gone largely unnoticed in the cacophony of policy
proposals: the rise of a completely new class of public schools – “virtual”
schools using the Internet to create online classrooms – that is bringing about
reforms that have long eluded traditional public schools.
All Reports of the Week will be listed under the Reading category (and, in most instances, the Research and Evaluation category). Happy reading!
by Scott McLeod | Feb 21, 2007 | Communication, Gaming, Online Learning, Pre-Service Preparation, Research and Evaluation, Tech Integration, Tech Tools |
Yesterday I uploaded our third
CASTLE Conversations podcast. I interviewed Julie Sykes, a doctoral student here at the University of Minnesota, about her Spanish Pragmatics Project, which is using virtual world software (like Second Life) to help postsecondary Spanish students learn how to communicate effectively with native Spanish speakers. Screenshots are included with the podcast.
The intent of CASTLE Conversations is to interview folks that have expertise and are
doing interesting things but may not have much national visibility. Keep giving us feedback and let us know what
you think. As always, we’re interested in your nominations for interviewees.
Happy listening!
by Scott McLeod | Feb 20, 2007 | Assistive and Accessible, Law, Policy, and Ethics, Leadership and Vision, Management and Operations, Online Learning, Planning and Funding, Tech Integration, Tech Tools |
My letter to Secretary Spellings in the previous post about online multimedia textbooks is the outcome of a conversation that I had with Jim Hirsch, Associate Superintendent for Technology and Academic Services for the Plano (TX) Independent School District, at the TIES conference last December. I’m not the only one thinking on this front. For example, Scott McNealy, Chairman of the Board for Sun Microsystems, said last June that ‘technology trumps the textbook.‘ Similarly, four days ago Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, noted that textbooks as we know them will disappear.
To be honest, the two most visible free online textbook initiatives still have a long way to go. WikiBooks, a project of the Wikimedia Foundation, seems to be having a hard time getting off the ground; most of its content has yet to be created or is in the very earliest stages of development. Curriki, which is sponsored by Sun and has gotten a lot of media attention, so far seems to consist primarily of disparate resources and activities rather than comprehensive, meaningfully-organized textbooks. Both seem to be relying on volunteers’ efforts for most of the content. While both initiatives have potential, so far that potential remains unfulfilled. It’s early in the game, though. The National Repository of Online Courses (NROC) also is doing some interesting work but appears to be complementing, rather than replacing, print textbooks.
As my letter indicates, I think we need something more intentional and systematic. A strategic investment of monies could go a long way toward creating some pedagogically powerful, wonderfully engaging, online multimedia textbooks that then could be used by anyone in the country (or world). Can you imagine what a rich, interactive, media-saturated textbook a team of expert teachers, professors, and computer / Web programmers could create given a year’s time and $800,000 to play with (above and beyond their sabbatical salaries)? Can you imagine how fiscally and educationally empowering it would be for schools to have free and open access to 150 to 200 high-quality online multimedia textbooks created by the top experts in the country?
Clearly this an expensive venture from a raw dollar standpoint, at least to do it well. That said, the $200 million per year figure that I proposed represents less than 4 one-thousandths of the current federal discretionary funds allocated for K-12 education. The federal government clearly has the money to pull this kind of thing off. So might a consortium of states or maybe a large private foundation. As big as the numbers are, the return on this strategic investment would be HUGE.
Textbook publishers probably would oppose this idea. So might others, for a variety of political, educational, and sociological reasons. But Public Education Network CEO Wendy Puriefoy’s February 14 statement that "the new federal education budget is full of enthusiasm but lacks powerful ideas and transformative levels of funding" strikes home with me. I think this is a powerful, transformative idea whose time has come and I hope someone besides me will think big and make this happen.
by Scott McLeod | Feb 20, 2007 | Assistive and Accessible, Law, Policy, and Ethics, Leadership and Vision, Management and Operations, Online Learning, Planning and Funding, Tech Integration, Tech Tools |
[send this letter to Secretary Spellings, Director Magner, and Congress]
The
Honorable Margaret Spellings
Secretary
United States Department of
Education
400 Maryland Avenue SW
Washington, DC 20202-7100
Dear Secretary Spellings,
The United States Department of Education currently administers a budget of
approximately $56 billion per year in discretionary monies. I am sending this
letter to encourage the Department to make a relatively small, but extremely
strategic, investment that would pay enormous dividends for our nation’s
elementary and secondary students.
For $200 million per year, the Department could create phenomenal,
mind-blowing online multimedia textbooks that could be used by students all
across the country. Imagine 50 teams, each made up of individuals who took a
paid sabbatical for one year, working to create rigorous, standards-based,
online textbooks that included text, graphics, electronic presentations, audio,
video, simulations, learning games, interactive problem-solving and review
activities, etc. The teams could be comprised as follows:
- 16 expert teachers * $100,000 each = $1,600,000
- 4 university professors * $100,000 each = $400,000
- 8 computer / Web programmers * $100,000 each = $800,000
- 1 assistive technology expert * $100,000 = $100,000
- 1 national organization representative * $100,000 = $100,000
- 1 project manager * $200,000 = $200,000
- Communication and other software, supplies, travel, etc. =
$800,000
Four teachers plus a professor plus two programmers equals a workgroup; four
workgroups per team. Each team receives ongoing feedback from a representative
from an appropriate national organization (e.g., National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics, National Council for Social Studies), has an assistive technology
expert to ensure content accessibility by students with disabilities, and has a
project manager to keep the workgroups moving along. The workgroups create
content; post that content online as they go along for review, comment, and
input from others; and, over the course of a year, create several units each
that add up to a complete, amazing, deep, rich online multimedia textbook.
Each year would see the completion of 50 textbooks. Over three or four years,
these Department-sponsored teams would create 150 to 200 textbooks for common,
key courses (e.g., Algebra I, Physics I, AP English, United States History, 5th
grade reading) that are present in nearly every school district nationwide.
Textbook content would be refreshed every three or four years to ensure content
relevance and usage of the latest digital technologies. If the textbooks were
wiki-based, much of the content could be revised and updated even before their
refresh cycle came due.
Once created, these textbooks then could be hosted by the Department, state
departments of education, and other entities or could be downloaded for hosting
on local school district servers. Federal provision of these textbooks would
free states and school districts to spend funds on laptops, classroom-level
high-speed wireless connectivity, and other technologies necessary to ensure the
global competitiveness of our students in the decades to come. All textbook
material would be free and openly accessible to our nation’s K-12 students and
educators.
I hope that you can see the instructional power of teachers and students
tapping into expert-created content delivered via the latest interactive,
engaging digital technologies. Although a few organizations (e.g., Wikibooks or
Curriki) are attempting to create free online textbooks or learning materials,
their reliance on volunteers has resulted in relatively little progress. A
strategic investment by the Department could make an extremely powerful
contribution to the K-12 educational landscape and would be a powerful lever
toward ensuring that all students had access to top-quality, engaging learning
materials.
Please consider instituting a national online textbook initiative. I believe
that this is an idea whose time has come and would welcome the opportunity to
discuss this further with you.
Sincerely,
Dr. Scott McLeod
Assistant Professor, Department of Educational
Policy and Administration
Director, UCEA Center for the Advanced Study
of
Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE)
Affiliate Faculty, Law
School
University of Minnesota
by Scott McLeod | Nov 30, 2006 | Law, Policy, and Ethics, Leadership and Vision, Online Learning, Professional Development, Tech Integration |
What if every student, not just those in Michigan, had to take at least
one high-quality online course before they graduated from high school?
What if every teacher and administrator also had to participate in at
least one high-quality online professional development experience every
three years or so? What would our schools be like? What would our
children’s lives be like?
by david_quinn | Sep 21, 2006 | Guest Bloggers, Online Learning |
I just finished teaching my Thursday night class "Leading Change" and decided to blog about the changing paradigm of offering courses and entire programs entirely online or through a blended model using face to face and online instruction. Over the last 4-5 years I have taught under a web-enhanced model. Classes would still meet weekly but I used the web to provide additional opportunities for collaboration, uploading assignments, posting readings, etc. This is a model that many professors use and I personally believe that it has been very effective.
This past spring I taught my first completely on-line course – "Data-Driven Decision Making". While I am a huge advocate for technology, I still believe in the power of personal interaction and the synergy that can emerge from a group of people deeply engaged in group discussions and activities. I was somewhat trepidatious, wondering how I might engage students as meaningfully as I had within a classroom setting. However, as the course progressed, I was extremely pleased with the level of dialogue and interaction that emerged among the 21 students in the class. In a "good" face-to-face class meeting (like the one that I led tonight), students may deeply engage in discussions with four or five other peers, and may hear other classmates share out briefly in a whole group setting. However, the online forums and wikis that I utilized in the DDDM class, allowed students to interact with all of their peers, not just a small group. Many of my students commented that the depth of interaction in this online class was much greater than most of their traditional courses. This didn’t just happen though. I put in much time preparing for the course and establishing expectations and norms to create a community of learners. I have seen many of my own colleagues successfully transition to on-line learning. I have also seen those who did not put the time and energy necessary for their on-line classes to be successful and the results were as bad as expected.
My preferred teaching mode is probably a blended approach. I used this model this past summer to teach "Technology Leadership in Schools". We met in a computer lab the first 6 class meetings and met face to face about every third scheduled class. The remainder of the content was delivered in a similar method as my DDDM class with online discussions, wikis and other tech leadership related activities and assignments.
I hope to continue teaching courses under these various modalities: online, blended,and face to face, because they acknowledge interactions needed for effective adult learning while utilizing new technologies to allow some of those interactions to occur from a distance. Good night. DMQ
by Scott McLeod | Aug 22, 2006 | News and Events, Online Learning, Professional Development |
NACOL, UCCP, and Pepperdine University are co-sponsoring a regional online learning symposium in Los Angeles, California on October 11, 2006. The web site for the symposium states that the presentations, workshops, lunch, and discussions will explore and inspire strategies about online learning, including math and science, credit recovery, meeting the needs of gifted students, alternative students, remedial education, and increasing access to advanced courses and college prep. I like how they included a panel session for symposium participants to hear from virtual high school students.
Registration is limited to 150 participants. Sign up soon!
