Week 2 Reflection

Blog reflection: What did you learn this week that struck you as particularly important or interesting? Has your thinking changed as a result of what you learned this week?

This week, in starting to examine specific State virtual schools, I immediately noticed a wide variety of programs and options depending on State. In the Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning article, I was surprised to learn about the broad spectrum of online learning characteristics since I have traditionally just thought in terms of synchronous vs. asynchronous learning and course-paced vs. self-paced. More than anything else, the most interesting factoid that jumped off the pages was that New York, my home state, was practical non-existent in the world of virtual schools. I thought this was particularly surprising since the article also notes that virtual schooling is moving from "the fringe" to a strategic initiative across the country. So, where is NY? Why no presence? The article makes mention of BOCES as providing a limited number of online courses but as I explored deeper, it seems that they only offer online professional development courses and not courses for students (at least in my county - Nassau). SCOPE, similarly, offers member schools online professional development but not students. Next week I provide details on a charter school that operates in NY called Accelerate U, which offers limited courses for students. The article did mention that district programs are growing and I will be interested in following the progression of this development in New York State. 

I selected the North Carolina Virtual Public School to research for this week's assignment but also began examining Michigan Virtual High School before deciding. NCVPS's website is clearly ahead of the curve with regard to look and feel, content and overall completeness. However, the course offerings are more limited than the courses offered at MiVHS. From a high level perspective it is important to note the distinctions, but from a parent or student perspective it seems to matter little since a student can only enroll in a virtual school in their own state. Perhaps next week's research will enlighten me on this.

The second article for this week - Management and Operations of Online Programs: Ensuring Quality and Accountability, I also found to be quite interesting. It first captured my attention by addressing the fact that online learning helps meet "the needs and expectations of the today's millenial students." It creates 21st century "learning opportunities" using Web 2.0 technologies. This is an area that is passionate to me as my Masters thesis revolves around this topic. There were several other points in the article that really hit home for me:

• The "online voice" - The quote by Jonathan Schmalzback of Apex Learning that highlights the importance of a classroom teacher who can translate experience to online content and understands how to appropriately using multimedia aspects to enhance learning spoke directly to me. That is exactly what I am being trained to do as an Educational Technology Specialist.
• From an assessment perspective, looking for meaningful substance is student contributions is spot on. I recently conducted a research study comparing effective learning in synchronous vs. asynchronous environments and our results, strongly qualitative, were measured based on meaningful participation. 
• Stakeholder satisfaction - I think the article makes an excellent point that all stakeholders must be involved in order to ensure a successful online learning experience. This includes parents, teachers, students, administrators, community members and more.
• Teachers - I did find it odd that the teacher management section did not make any mention of the certification requirements. One of the most disturbing things I have discovered this week is that teachers must be certified in the State that the virtual school resides. This certainly limits the claim that students have access to the "highest quality teachers." It should stay "the highest quality teachers in the State." Hopefully, this is something that will be resolved over time.

Finally, the Keeping Pace article also illuminated for me the wide variety of companies providing Learning Management Systems. This is interesting to me because, while at Sun Microsystems, I began working on a LMS-project called "Sun Learning eXchange" which was designed to be a YouTube-like platform for social learning.  I was already familiar with Blackboard as a platform but Desire2Learn was new to me. Content companies such as Apex, Aventa and Class.com were also mentioned. Some companies also provide both content and an LMS like Pearson. The mention of these various technologies caused me to pause and consider how they might integrate with wireless devices and software currently being used in traditional schools, like those from Wireless Generation and Mimio. Might the lines between traditional and virtual schools someday be blurred so as to become unrecognizable? It remains to be seen.

Week 1 Reflection

Blog reflection: What did you learn this week that struck you as particularly important in learning about virtual schools? Has your thinking changed as a result of what you learned this week?

An important clarification that I learned this week was the distinction between virtual schools and virtual schooling. I've had some exposure to both but never made the distinction as clearly as the articles this week explained.  In my assessment, virtual schools are full-time educational programs whereas virtual schooling means supplementing traditional classroom work with online courses.  I gained a new perspective on how virtual schools and schooling can personalize education for students.  As discussed in Disrupting Class, Chapter 2, this personalization seems to be taking us back to "Job 2" of education - "Providing something for everyone" - where students chose from several distinct tracks. In the case of online schooling, students can choose from an almost unlimited number of tracks and programs which they design themselves.  I also value the opportunity that students have to access top quality instructors and to learn regardless of time, place, path or pace, as FLVS's motto states.  Finally, online learning seems to benefit students through more project-based, authentic instruction and learning assessment based on achievement rather than comparative performance. 


I very much enjoyed reading this chapter on disruptive innovation, having come from a corporate background where being disruptive in the industry was valued.  I worked for Sun Microsystems and could definitely relate to the goal of moving from the "back plane" to the "front plane".  In my early days at Sun (late 90's to early 00's) the motto was always "Sell Big Iron."  It was Sun's core product and innovation was clearly in a sustaining mode. However, over the years, we began to introduce products like Solaris x86, open source infrastructure software, and open hardware architectures.  These were disruptive innovations and the strategy became "SEOTT" which stood for "Sell Everything On The Truck".  In other words, don't focus just on the products with a higher margin, focus on products that build footprint and help us reinvent ourselves.  It was not easy and just as the article stated, it required separate business units to succeed.  Linux and the iPhone are great examples of disruptive innovations that started out slow (Linux and it's multiple distributions and SMARTphones in general) and exploded overnight to provide applications formerly reserved for back plane innovations.  I think this chapter is a fabulous overview of the growth of education in America and the problems we face today. NCLB is not going to cut it alone. We need online learning (a separate business unit, in effect) to make it work.


Finally, I just want to comment on the speculation in Disrupting Class, Chapter 4, that discusses the "looming teacher shortage."  First of all, where is it?  While I think that a lot of this chapter was on target, this portion clearly missed the mark.  From my perspective, and that of my unemployed teacher husband, we have no teaching shortage, we have a surplus!  I also wonder, as virtual schools and schooling expands, how the roles of teachers will change.  What will my job look like 10 years from now?  Is it something that I will even still have a passion for?  Also, what will a High School degree look like then?  Are we going back to the track-based model based on needs and interests?  Will everyone have a customized diploma?  And, if so, is this the way to get America back on track, and competitive again?

Introduction, Motivation & Experience with Online Learning

Hi everyone,

My name is Robin Wilensky and I am beginning my final semester at TC! I am pursuing an MA in Educational Technology K-12 which will result in Initial Certification. I matriculated in the summer of 2008. I am a career changer, having spent 15 years working in the IT industry including companies such as Netscape and Sun Microsystems. I also have a BS in Business Administration/Marketing and an MBA in Management Information Systems. I am passionate about technology integration in the classroom and my specific interest focuses around the role that Web 2.0 technologies can play in preparing students for 21st century careers.

This course peaked my interest because I believe that distance learning can provide enrichment to a learner's course of study, and allow teachers and administrators to differentiate instruction beyond the classroom. In order to create a well-rounded education for myself, I designed my program to encompass all facets of technology in education and online learning is clearly an important area of study.

Additionally, half of my classes at TC have been online (synchronous, asynchronous and blended learning). Generally speaking my experiences were quite positive. While I believe there is often much more reading with online classes, I appreciate the self-paced nature of the courses. A big factor for me was also convenience, not having to commute into TC from Long Island all the time. It was also a great learning experience for me as a student in these classes, which would prepare me to become a teacher who utilizes these tools.

Asynchronous courses were an easy transition for me having used discussion boards, chat and other features for many years in school and corporate life. I did immediately notice the pros and cons of different platforms for discussion (Blackboard, ClassWeb, Moodle, Wikis) and assessed how these platforms might be best used for K-12 students. (You might be interested in my post on Wikis vs. Google Docs). The synchronous platform caused some trouble during my initial interaction because of the resource requirements that Adobe Connect imposes, but now works seamlessly. However, I did note that it is easy to fall into a didactic teaching style in synchronous learning environments whereas constructivist teaching styles would better leverage the platform.

Finally, I conducted a research study last semester evaluating the impact of asynchronous and synchronous learning environments on the learning effectiveness of a given topic. This class seemed to be a natural extension to my exploration of online learning.

Overall, I am a strong proponent of online classes, especially for those who are disciplined enough to embrace their own learning. I am particularly looking forward to exploring how online schools and schooling are developing alongside mainstream educational options.

-Robin Wilensky