To curb cyberbullies, this district will monitor students’ social media

Student messages on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook are now being monitored by the Orange County (Fla.) school district as part of a new program to curb cyberbullying, crime on campus and suicide.
Central Florida’s largest school district announced that it had acquired new software that would allow it to grab and then analyze social media messages posted from its campuses, whether from students or staff.
The software also would allow the district to search the thousands of messages posted on various sites for key words that might indicate trouble
The new program is one of several aimed at “prevention and early intervention” put in place by the district since the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, said Michael Eugene, the district’s chief operations officer.
Orange officials acknowledged the online snooping might raise questions.
But Orange County School Board member Linda Kobert said that, although she worried about student privacy, as a parent of high school students she had also heard about “terrible” cases of cyberbullying.
“I think this is another way to prevent that or prevent harm,” she said, adding the district was taking advantage of “new tools to protect our children.
The messages — whether from Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or other sites — are “open-source information” publicly available to anyone with the right tools, said Doug Tripp, senior director of safety and security.
The district’s security staff will be looking for messages that relate to bullying, suicide and criminal activities, Tripp added.
Worrisome posts would be referred to school administrators or police, as appropriate, officials said.
Neither Lake nor Seminole county school district uses similar technology. But Seminole administrators have had discussions with Snaptrends, the Texas company Orange licensed the software from, and likely will talk more with the company during the summer, said Michael Lawrence, the district’s spokesman.
Before signing on, the district likely would try to gauge whether parents thought the “positives” from such a program outweigh what some might view as “Big Brother watching you,” he said.
“Would we step over boundaries? That would be an issue that would have to be navigated,” he added.
The Orange district began using the Snaptrends software several weeks ago and already found a student threatening “self-harm,” Eugene said. District staff contacted police, who helped the family get needed services, he added.
Snaptrends bills itself as “a pioneer in location-based social-media discovery,” with software that helps schools and colleges “gain insights into potential problems.”
The company declined to say how many school systems now use its program. But Eugene said other districts employ the system, as do Central Florida law-enforcement agencies.
Orange administrators announced the effort in an email to parents and staff sent late Wednesday and then in a news release early Thursday. They hoped the announcement would help head off end-of-the-year pranks and spark discussion during the summer between parents and students about appropriate social-media use, Eugene said.
The software, which costs about $14,000 a year, is in a “rollout phase” now and will be fully running at the start of the 2015-16 school year, Tripp added.
In an era of heightened concern about campus safety, Snaptrends’ tool allows the district to look at public information and “recognize content that appears to pose a concern to the safety and well being of students, teachers and staff,” said Jeff Croson, Snaptrends senior vice president, in a statement.
“Snaptrends is simply one more tool in the array of safety measures districts are taking to safeguard schools,” he added.

Read more

Filed Under: Social Media on Wednesday, December 9, 2015 No Comments

New law helps fight tech-based bullying

As cyberbullying increases, new laws and measures are helping combat tech-based bullying

The face of a bully and the definition of bullying have changed over the years.
Technology has come to replace the glaring student who pushes others down on the playground or the mean girl who uses word-of-mouth to spread her gossip.
Smartphones and social media have opened an entirely new door for classroom bullies, who are no longer limited to the classroom.
“A lot of these social media issues are occurring when students are not at school,” said Southeastern School District (Pa.) Superintendent Rona Kaufmann. “And often times what happens through social media comes into the school in one way, shape or form, just because of the sheer amount of people who have access to it.”
Taking action: Pennsylvania’s Northern York School District recently implemented rules for online behavior–for students, athletes and staff–to combat cyberbullying.
Superintendent Eric Eshbach echoed Kaufmann’s concerns about cyberbullying.
“It is a daily effort because a large majority of it doesn’t go on in the school building; it goes on after school hours,” he said. “We are definitely having conversations and encouraging students to report on any issues.”
Those reports could end up being a criminal matter under a new state law, Act 26, which Gov. Tom Wolf signed on July 10 and which takes effect in September.
Cyber-harassment, as defined by Act 26, is making malicious statements about a child’s physical characteristics, sexuality, sexual activity or mental or physical health. Cyber-harassment could be made electronically, either directly to the child or through a social media site.
The law makes cyber-harassment of a child a third-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to $2,500 in fines and possible jail time.
Prevention: More than half of the country’s young people have reported that they have been cyberbullied, and among those who reported incidents, one-third said their bullies issued online threats, according to 2014 bullying statistics published by the anti-bullying website nobullying.com.
“It’s a real problem that presents a real challenge,” Kaufmann said of cyberbullying. “I think the real key to prevention is early education.”
Kaufmann said Southeastern heavily focuses on lower-level students with its anti-bullying initiative.
“They have cell phones in elementary school now, and the earlier we can reach them, the better,” she said.
School officials have incorporated anti-bullying lessons into curriculum, including in high school communications and computer classes and some English classes in the lower grades.
There’s particular focus on intermediate students, because they all have laptops, “and we want them to be able to handle them responsibly,” she said.
The district has an incentive program that rewards moral behavior, “basically this fake money that they can use at the school store to get themselves prizes and things.”
Parents: School leaders in Northern enforce anti-bullying rules on a case-by-case basis, Eshbach said.
“The word ‘bullying’ is way too general for me,” he said. “I hear people claim their children are being bullied, so I ask them to tell me the specifics. What kind of harassment are you feeling? Is there a need to involve law enforcement? Should there be harsh penalties or is this something we can handle with classroom consequences?”
He said it’s best to be specific about what type of bullying is occurring and “then take each of those incidents and give it the appropriate amount of credibility and treat it appropriately.”
Eshbach said parents are key in preventing bullying.
Kaufmann agreed.
“Especially with anything online, parents need to keep an eye out,” she said. “It’s difficult to be constantly policing, but so many times parents are completely unaware of what their children are doing on the computer.”
It’s all about teamwork, Eshbach said.
“We need to come together and really keep an eye on what students are doing online,” he said.

Read more

Filed Under: Social Media on No Comments

Survey reveals why teachers aren’t embracing social media

Survey reveals that the majority of classroom educators shy away from social media integration

A new survey finds that just 13 percent of participating educators have used social media as part of their classroom learning.
The University of Phoenix College of Education survey of 1,002 U.S. K-12 teachers found that 87 percent of those surveyed said they have not embraced social media platforms. Sixty-two percent of those surveyed said they are reluctant to use social media in the classroom, compared to 55 percent of participating educators in a 2013 survey.
Fewer than half of teachers surveyed (44 percent) said they believe social media can enhance a student’s educational experiences.
“We are living in a rapidly evolving world of digital and social media, and many students are totally immersed and well-versed in these platforms,” said Kathy Cook, dean of educational technology for University of Phoenix College of Education and former K-12 educator. “For teachers to stay current, keep students engaged and promote learning, it is important for teachers to acknowledge the influence of social media and understand how to use it to the benefit of their students.”
Lack of training could be to blame. Although 95 percent of surveyed educators said they have had training related to classroom technology integration, 62 percent said they had either minimal or no training around how to interact with students and parents through social media.
Forty-eight perent of those surveyed said they would like to learn more about classroom technology integration.
K-12 teachers raise many concerns, with 82 percent of those surveyed reporting that they worry about conflicts that can occur from using social media with their students and/or parents.
More than half (59 percent) said the use of personal tech devices outside the classroom makes it more difficult for students to pay attention in a group setting in the classroom.
Twenty percent have also felt intimidated by students’ knowledge/use of technology devices.
“Social media is here to stay, so it is critical to invest in our educators through expanded training,” said Cook.
Training extends beyond providing educators tools to integrate social media into the classroom, she added. In addition to being prepared to use social media as a learning tool, teachers also need to be able to teach students to be responsible with their online behavior.
“Despite challenges, tremendous opportunities exist for teachers to play a leadership role in students’ digital lives, helping them learn how to use social media and understand its impact both in and outside the classroom,” Cook said. “It is essential to train teachers in digital citizenship so that they can educate students about preserving their online integrity.”
Cook offered tips to help K-12 teachers integrate social media into their classrooms:

• Create student social media guidelines. If your school or district has guidelines for social media use, make sure you and your students understand them completely and are following the guidelines. If your school or district does not currently have guidelines for social media use, consider developing some.
• Try “closed” social media sites. Edmodo, TodaysMeet and other sites allow safe and secure social media experiences in a smaller school environment. You can also create private blogs or use sites such as Kidblogs or Edublogs, which limit access and comment abilities.
• Connect with other classrooms around the world. Projects such as Global Read Aloud and Skype in the Classroom allow you to connect students in your classroom with other students worldwide.
• Connect with experts worldwide. Social media tools can help you bring a variety of experts into your classroom so students can learn directly from people in the field they are studying. You can search and connect with experts on Twitter, Skype and other social media networks. Many authors and content experts may be willing to conduct a live tweet session with your students during which they can ask questions and get immediate responses.
• Involve your class in a social service project. Explore projects online that your students can get involved in to help make the world a better place. Choose2Matter is one global movement that may spark imagination about how social media can be used to help others.
• Learn more about social media use in the classroom. Join Twitter or use other social media tools to connect with other teachers and learn about their creative uses of social media. You can also take a class to hone your own social media skills.

The survey was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of University of Phoenix College of Education between April 14 and April 27, 2015, among 1,002 U.S. teachers aged 18 and older who work full time in education teaching grades K-12.

Read more

Filed Under: Social Media on No Comments

In Wisconsin, poorly performing virtual charters won’t affect their districts

Provision would exclude virtual schools’ scores in certain cases

A little-known provision slipped into the Wisconsin budget signed by Gov. Scott Walker would keep low-performing virtual charter schools from dragging down the report cards of districts that host them.
The new law excludes the achievement scores of virtual charter schools from districts’ annual state report cards if more than half the students enrolled in the virtual school reside outside the district.
The provision was sought by the leaders of the only two virtual schools in the state to receive failing grades on their most recent school report cards: eAchieve Academy, hosted by the Waukesha School District, and iForward Academy, hosted by the Grantsburg School District. Both districts still met or exceeded the state’s expectations on their annual report cards.

But State Superintendent Tony Evers is critical of the change, saying it’s inconsistent with the idea of bringing all publicly funded schools into the same school accountability system. He sought unsuccessfully for Walker to veto the item.
Proponents say virtual charters should be treated differently because they’re serving many children not living in the district, who often have not been successful in other school settings and are coming to a virtual charter as a last resort — often bringing low achievement scores with them.
Rick Nettesheim, principal of Waukesha’s eAchieve Academy, said district report cards are meant to track the progress of students from elementary school through high school, and virtual school students often come from outside their resident district, which wouldn’t accurately reflect the achievement of the district.
“The truth is that virtual schools draw in by their very nature a fairly diverse population of students,” Nettesheim said. “Some of that diversity is a large group who are not successful in their resident school, and they look to virtual school as a last hope.”
Because they are online programs that allow teachers and students to work from home, virtual schools can enroll children all over the state through the state’s open enrollment program.
The Department of Public Instruction lists 32 virtual charter schools for the 2014-’15 school year, with three more proposed for the upcoming school year.
In 2013-’14, the most recent year report cards were issued, 27 of the 31 virtual schools that received state report cards “met expectations.” Two “exceeded expectations,” and two “failed to meet expectations.”
No schools or districts will receive report cards for the 2014-’15 school year. Separate legislation signed by Walker in May paused the system for a year while a new state test was implemented.
Report cards assess performance
In recent years, Wisconsin created a new system to judge public school and district performance. Annual report cards distributed to the public now rank schools and districts in one of five categories, from “significantly exceeds expectations” to “fails to meet expectations.”
The new state budget calls for those descriptions to be replaced with a five-star rating system.
The report card scores are based on measures such as achievement on the state test and academic growth over time, as well as school attendance and achievement gaps. Schools started receiving report cards in 2011-’12; districts started receiving them a year later.
The whole system went into place as part of a federally approved waiver from increasingly strict mandates of the No Child Left Behind law. Congress is in the process of rewriting that law.
Nettesheim said the report cards treat students as if they have been enrolled in the school year after year, which is often not the case for virtual schools, where kids from around the state may enroll and drop out more frequently.
He added that virtual schools are still being held accountable because each virtual charter school still will receive an individual school report card. Their scores would simply be excluded from the districtwide report card.
But many brick-and-mortar schools also see high student turnover, and their school scores still contribute to the districtwide report card.
For example, many Milwaukee city schools that serve vulnerable populations see up to a third of students turn over during the school year. Yet their scores still contribute to the Milwaukee Public Schools districtwide report card.
Request drove change
State Sen. Luther Olsen (R-Ripon) added the provision to the budget at the behest of Nettesheim and Joni Burgin, superintendent of the Grantsburg school district. Olsen said the provision will help encourage school districts to continue supporting virtual programs.
“The district is doing mission work (taking on virtual schools),” Olsen said. “I don’t think the system is reflected badly on the district; we don’t want these districts to not do this anymore because it’s bringing down the grade for the district.”
Olsen said the provision encourages more districts to host virtual schools because of the reduced risk.
Evers, the state superintendent, disagrees.
In a veto letter to Walker, Evers said the accountability data for all students attending a virtual school — not just the students who attended via open enrollment — would not be reflected on any district report card.
Still, Blake Peuse, superintendent of the Northern Ozaukee School District, said virtual school performance doesn’t accurately reflect the performance of the district.
“Virtual schools, for the most part, are a completely different entity,” Peuse said. “Having it directly equated to the sponsoring district does not always tell the whole story.”
Northern Ozaukee’s virtual school, Wisconsin Virtual Learning, received a “meets expectations” on the latest round of school report cards.
The district received the same marks.

Read more

Filed Under: Online Learning on No Comments

Can online tutors make anytime, anywhere learning a reality?

Supporting off hours learning is a problem you might not even know you have

Recently, I began dubbing the current generation of students the “Netflix Generation.” They learn when they want, and expect learning resources to be available when and where they need them.
This is similar to the way they consume media through streaming services such as Netflix (for movies and television series) and Spotify (for music); they binge watch TV series multiple episodes in a row, and they expect a wide range of music to be available when and where they want. If they listen to a song in the car, they expect to be able to pick it back up in the house or while waking down the street. Increasingly, they expect learning resources to be available in the same fashion.
Smart educational organizations have built rich online courses filled with learning resources to support this type of learning. The old paradigm where learning occurs only in a classroom or lecture hall during school hours is gone. But in off hours, when teachers are at home, what will take their place?
After a few years of building online courses with rich learning resources, my school now sees significant student use outside the traditional school hours.

Graph 1 (click for full size) – This graph shows the percentage of the Year 7 to 12 population that accessed the online learning environment. The graph showing the school day is an average figure derived from two weeks of data. The Sunday and outside school hours data is derived from recent individual days.
Anytime, anywhere teaching
However, this now produces other pressures. Learning outside of traditional school hours does not remove the need for teachers. If all that students needed in order to learn was information, schools would have closed once Google and high-speed broadband arrived on the scene. Students continue to need support, a human explanation, encouragement to work through a problem, and insight to take them through a mental barrier to get to the next stage of problem solving.
Yet if significant learning is happening outside traditional school hours, who is available to support it? Do we expect our teachers to be online and available at all hours of the day or night? Or do we expect our students to continue independently, even when they encounter difficulties? The ad hoc network of peers that some students have may not be able to provide the rapid, deep, expert insights that are needed.

Graph 2 (click for full size) – Student logons to the OLE after school. (Classes finish at 3.15pm). This is a snapshot of the number of students logging in to the system at a particular time. It is not the total number of students using the OLE at that time.

My organization has provided a solution to this problem. We have provided access to online tutors — accessible via a link in every course in our OLE (online learning environment).
This is an external service where students can get the support that they need; our teachers do not need to be available all night. There is no need to navigate to a separate web site, or to remember yet another user name and password. The external service has the student’s name, year level and the course they navigated from passed to them as part of the single sign on process (via LTI integration). It couldn’t be easier. (My school, which is in Australia, uses yourtutor, a local company that works with both secondary and higher education institutions. There are similar services for schools stateside, such as Tutor.com, although I personally cannot vouch for them).

The front page of the external support service showing the hours when it is available. This screen shot was taken on a Saturday afternoon; the service is open during the hours when many students study, rather than being available 24/7.
Usage of the system is consistent, has been growing in the past year, and has received good feedback from students.
Some comments from students include:

• “[xxxxx] was a great tutor and was very helpful. Described what he meant and made sure I understood.”
• “My tutor was very helpful and wasn’t hesitant to give examples.”
• “Patient with me and helped me find some information on what I was stuck with.”

The online tutors do not simply answer a question; they instead act as teachers to guide students to an answer. Students can now gain the help they need, when they need it, teachers can have the out-of-hours break that they need, and the school can be confident that they are supporting both their students and their staff.
Peter West is Director of eLearning at Saint Stephen’s College in Australia. He has over 15 years’ experience leading K12 schools in technology enhanced education, particularly blended learning using online learning environments. He can be contacted at

Read more

Filed Under: Online Learning on No Comments

Rural district turns to online speech therapy

Economically disadvantaged district, facing recruiting difficulties, found online therapy resources

Although districts are required to provide students in need with special education and related services such as speech therapy, many face obstacles in doing so.
One such school district, Lone Pine Unified (LPUSD), an economically disadvantaged district near the California-Nevada border, found it hard to recruit and retain speech-language pathologists (SLPs) because of its location.
To overcome this challenge, LPUSD chose to use online speech therapy through PresenceLearning and is seeing great success.

“Research shows that socioeconomic status is the number one statistic in predicting overall student and school district underachievement, and approximately 70 percent of our students are socioeconomically disadvantaged,” said Dr. Sean A. Cianfarano, Superintendent of LPUSD. “However, with PresenceLearning and our pre-academic early intervention efforts spearheaded by our excellent educators and support staff, we are now beating the odds at LPUSD.”
After the 2013-2014 school year, LPUSD was one of 10 districts to receive PresenceLearning’s Award of Excellence. Of the nearly 1,000 schools PresenceLearning served that school year, the award was given to those districts with the highest percentage of students who improved one level or more in spoken language production and spoken language comprehension on the Functional Communication Measures (FCMs) scales during the school year.
Although he was skeptical of its effectiveness when he first moved to the school district in fall 2014, Superintendent Cianfarano was personally won over as he saw how PresenceLearning positively impacted his son Rocco.
While enrolled in Pre-K at his previous district, Rocco’s teacher told his family that he was leaving off the first letter and sound of his words, thus indicating that he may need speech therapy. Once enrolled in kindergarten at LPUSD, Rocco started with PresenceLearning and his family found he flourished both in therapy and in the classroom.
“I would not choose a service option for our school district that we, as a family, would not choose for our own child,” said Dr. Cianfarano. “Early literacy is so important for young learners, but if the student cannot speak, it is really hard for them to be literate because it is all tied together. PresenceLearning empowers students to speak, but it’s more than that. It empowers students to be successful.”
Material from a press release was used in this report.

Read more

Filed Under: Online Learning on No Comments

Some high school students access college courses for free

Students attending an online private school are eligible for college credit

The for-profit DeVry University has partnered with Connections Education to offer college courses at no cost to high school students attending International Connections Academy (iNaCA), an accredited, online private school serving students in grades K-12 worldwide.
Through DeVry University’s Passport2College program, juniors and seniors attending iNaCA can earn college credit while still attending high school. Students can enroll in such courses as Computer Applications for Business with Lab, Introduction to Business and Psychology.
“Passport2College is a wonderful opportunity for high school students to learn first-hand the college learning experience,” said Donna Loraine, chief academic officer and provost of DeVry University. “iNaCA students will be able to participate in the same academic learning environment that all DeVry University undergraduates encounter and obtain knowledge of how they can transition from high school to the collegiate level.”
Hannah Rinehart, director of school for iNaCA, commented, “More and more students are interested in taking college courses in high school.” In fact, the numbers topped 1.3 million students in the 2010-11 school year according to the most recent survey on the subject by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). “We are excited to bring opportunities like this to our students.”
Passport2College will launch for iNaCA students in the 2015-2016 school year.

Read more

Filed Under: Online Learning on No Comments

How online learning is changing credit recovery

As learning becomes more accessible, credit recovery programs are evolving

Online learning is playing an increasingly important part in credit recovery for students with a variety of academic needs, according to a new report from the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL).
Credit recovery solutions often lower the bar for student performance as a result of pressure on school administrators and policymakers to “fix” graduation rates, authors Allison Powell, Verena Roberts, and Susan Patrick note.
Many online credit recovery solutions tout low costs but require only low levels of teacher involvement and often don’t use much rigor when asking students to demonstrate proficiency, according to the report.
Here’s where competency-based education comes in. Strong CBE programs will help students focus on their skill gaps, catch up, and stay on track for graduation. This intervention occurs before a student has failed an entire course.
New Hampshire has what the authors call one of the boldest CBE efforts. The Virtual Learning Academy Charter School is a charter school that also serves as the state’s virtual school. Its supplemental online classes include 62 “competency recovery” courses let students take an entire course or allow them to focus just on the competencies they did not pass. Students work with their parents and teacher to determine their individual learning pace.
“Competency-based learning gives students the opportunity to complete lessons that demonstrate their mastery of content as well as the support they need if they are having difficulty with specific content,” the authors wrote. “A true competency-based approach requires the students to advance upon demonstrated mastery—often through a ‘performance’ of demonstrating
the competencies and creating evidence of the deeper knowledge, skills and dispositions acquired.”
“Research shows that more than 75 percent of school districts use blended and online learning for expanded course offerings and credit recovery,” said Allison Powell, iNACOL Vice President for New Learning Models. “The case studies in this paper provide guidance to educators in helping over-age, under-credited students to catch up and get back on track to graduate.”
Susan Patrick, President and CEO of iNACOL, said, “Millions of students are still not completing high school, causing them to face increasing challenges throughout life. When students have struggled, online learning is a tool that can open up new pathways to success—students can find alternative ways to learn and to graduate, while also developing new skills for success in life.”
To read the report in its entirety and for more details about the state of online learning for credit recovery, click here.

Read more

Filed Under: Online Learning on No Comments

Full-time online school launches in Georgia using FuelEd (Aventa)

FuelEd, Vidalia City Board of Education open full-time online school for Georgia students

The Vidalia City Board of Education (Ga.) has partnered with personalized learning provider Fuel Education (formerly Aventa Learning) to launch a new full-time online learning program for K-12.
The public, full-time online school, Vidalia Academy, offers students across the state of Georgia the opportunity to learn in a flexible educational model that is tailored to each student’s needs.
Accepting enrollments for the 2015-2016 school year through the end of this month, Vidalia Academy will be able to provide thousands of students with personalized learning through an extensive catalog of standards-based online curriculum, instructional services from highly qualified, state-certified online teachers, powerful course customization and other technology tools, and a host of support resources, all provided by FuelEd.
“Vidalia City Schools selected Fuel Education because of their proven ability to partner with schools to help them effectively launch, grow, manage, teach, and support successful online learning programs,” said Randy Rodgers, Director of Virtual Education for Vidalia Academy. “As a public school leveraging an innovative model, we believe that together with FuelEd the Vidalia Academy can offer more students across Georgia with the best education possible.”
For middle school and high school, Vidalia Academy will use FuelEd’s PEAK personalized learning platform, an open technology platform that provides a single, unified view of online and blended learning activities across multiple solutions for administrators, teachers, and students.
PEAK provides intelligent reporting and analytics to help districts reduce system complexity and simplify administration as they adopt more digital and online learning solutions. To differentiate instruction, teachers can use the PEAK Library to customize courses using FuelEd content, teacher-created content, open education resources, or other third-party content.
Fuel Ed’s full-time school solution also includes benchmark and formative assessments; an anti-plagiarism tool; a web-based counseling system; and a variety of live and online student and parent resources available through the Strong Start program. To learn more, watch this video or read this case study about FuelEd’s partnership with Miami-Dade Public Schools.
Gregg Levin, Fuel Education’s General Manager, said, “We are very excited to partner with the Vidalia City Board of Education as they make a new, innovative education option available to students across Georgia. With the experienced staff at Vidalia Academy, and Fuel Education’s experience providing online learning solutions to thousands of school districts, we look forward to helping Vidalia Academy personalize learning and improve outcomes for more students.”
Parents and students who live in Georgia and are interested in the new school can visit the Vidalia Academy website for more information. The school will be accepting enrollment applications through September 28, 2015.
In addition to full-time schools, FuelEd supports districts with a variety of online and blended programs, ranging from catalog expansion for low-enrollment or hard-to-staff courses, to hospital/homebound education, full-time school programs, language exposure and learning, alternative education, remediation and kindergarten readiness, among others.

Read more

Filed Under: Online Learning on No Comments

Research examines blended learning, student achievement

New white paper explores effective instructional models and course customization benefits

A new research report from Arizona State University (ASU) focuses on various evidence-based instructional models and strategies integrated within courses from an online curriculum provider in order to determine if they lead to increased student achievement and engagement.
Research conducted by ASU’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College and Technology Based Learning and Research division examines whether the instructional strategies put into practice within Odysseyware courses consistently demonstrate the largest effect of success as a supplemental instructional strategy, especially when implemented within a blended learning model.
Odysseyware aims to provide a learning solution for schools seeking the flexibility and customization of online courses, as well as for those looking to offer students a virtual learning environment. On average, students taking partial or entire courses online outperform students taking the same course solely through face-to-face instruction.
Titled, “A Research Report: Odysseyware Instructional Design & Strategies,” this research report provides an overview of research conducted in these areas:
• Transforming the learning landscape with pedagogical flexible models
• Standards-based, personalized learning using customization
• Systems of assessment, instruction, intervention, and monitoring tools
• Use of frequent, meaningful interactions and embedded feedback
• Interactive content including visualizations, virtual labs, and simulations
“By 2016 a projected 5 million students will be enrolled in online courses. Many schools have a difficult time finding a standards-based, effective online solution that is easily customizable and adaptable to learning models such as blended learning,” said Odysseyware President Beth Te Grotenhuis. “We are extremely proud of the content we create and take great care in doing so. This research shows that with careful implementation planning, professional development, and adequate resource planning, student engagement and success with increase.”
Material from a press release was used in this report.

Read more

Filed Under: Online Learning on No Comments

10 districts that have seen big blended learning success

Edgenuity highlights schools, districts implementing blended learning

As schools and districts try to better meet the needs of students with different learning styles, blended learning programs are becoming increasingly popular.
Because blended learning combines face-to-face instruction with personalized online learning, students have some degree of control over their learning pace and how their content is delivered and consumed.
Online and blended learning provider Edgenuity works with more than 16,000 schools, and from that base, the company identified 10 schools and districts that are taking blended learning to the next level through student-centered, personalized instructional models that create new ways to address instructional goals and deliver better student outcomes.
“There is no doubt that blended learning is a proven solution for transforming the educational experience for students,” said Sari Factor, CEO of Edgenuity. “What is less understood is the level of thought, planning, and change management required by schools to implement these new models. We’re glad to recognize these schools and districts for effectively executing on a vision of using technology to empower students and teachers, and we look forward to sharing what these schools have learned to help more and more students across the country.”
“Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools has a commitment to ensuring success for every student. One of the ways we do this is by providing a personalized learning environment that caters to individual student needs. Technology allows us to accomplish this goal. Edgenuity has been an important partner, enabling us to provide rigorous, aligned content in online and blended formats. It is exciting that Edgenuity recognized CMS as a top district for innovative approaches and commitment to students,” said Hope Kohl, Director of Virtual Learning and Media Services at CMS.
The schools and district’s on Edgenuity’s list are:
Carpe Diem Schools
• Tuition-free virtual school with campuses across the US serving grades 6-12 that provides students the freedom to complete coursework when and where they like.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, N.C.
• The 2nd largest school district in North Carolina, the district is comprised of 168 schools and serves more than 147,000 students in grades K-12.
Clark County School District, Nev.
• Serves over 316,000 students across 377 schools with a student teacher ratio of approximately 22-to-1.
Derby Public Schools, Conn.
• Serves approximately 1,600 students in grades K-12 across 4 schools.
Henry County Schools, Ga.
• The 7th largest district in Georgia, serves 40,000 students in grades K-12 across 14 schools.
Jefferson Chamber Foundation Academy, La.
• Students are provided with the opportunity to work at their own pace to earn their diploma.
Rio Rancho Public Schools, N.M.
• In 2005 the district founded Rio Rancho Cyber Academy, the accredited, diploma-granting school for nearly 170 students in grades 6-12.
East Pennsboro Area School District, Pa.
• A growing, progressive school district with a total population of approximately 2,700 students in grades K-12.
Tift County Schools, Ga.
• Serves approximately 7,650 students in grades K-12 across 12 schools, including one alternative school.
Village Green Virtual Charter School, R.I.
• Opened in 2013 for students grades 9-12, the school has a state-wide enrollment policy and any student entering the 9th or 10th grade and who lives in the state is eligible to attend.
“As technology has grown to become more mainstream in education, we’ve seen too many schools focus on the hardware itself rather than on the proper implementation of that technology,” said Stacy Hawthorne, Blended Learning Strategist at Edgenuity. “It is critical that schools first take a hard look at what they want to accomplish with a blended learning program, which students they are hoping to serve, and how the program will fit into the district’s broader goals before moving forward. This requires strong leadership, which the schools named today should be applauded for.”

Read more

Filed Under: Online Learning on No Comments

10 things all great online educators do

Best practices for any educator organizing online courses

It’s no secret that virtual education has become more and more widespread, with new online schools popping up regularly and brick-and-mortar institutions adding a blended component. With that in mind, certain strategies, tips, and guidelines have been proven to help instructors begin what can seem like an overwhelming task—teaching a course without ever even needing to physically see her students. Throughout my years of experience, I’ve compiled a list of ten best practices and tips that I believe can help save instructors a lot of time when teaching or developing online courses.
Develop a strong classroom presence. Whether it’s multiple times a week or every day, using communication tools such as discussion boards or announcements will help keep students from feeling isolated. Taking part in class discussions by consistently asking leading questions, extending student thinking, and contributing relevant, instructive subject matter expertise will build a strong foundation for collaboration and engagement. Discussion boards encourage critical and creative thinking and supports students in their own reflections and inquiries. Boards also allow students to get to know each other personally and intellectually.
Encourage substantive feedback from students, to students. Don’t let students get used to the notion of “one post” as an acceptable standard. If they don’t receive feedback from the teacher saying otherwise, or if they receive one short “good job” post to a comment, they tend to start thinking of their contributions as individual notes to the teacher, instead of as contributions to a whole-classroom discussion. Equally important is to encourage students to respond to each other’s comments or to ask questions about what they have posted.
Check for questions frequently and provide timely feedback on progress. Teachers should access their courses and monitor discussions daily and respond as quickly as possible to students’ questions, requests for review, submitted work, and other posts, even if it’s to just acknowledge receiving it, with an answer coming later.
Be mindful of tone, modeling respectful behavior for students. Teachers should phrase comments and responses carefully and be noticeably helpful and supportive; comments can be misinterpreted when students can’t see facial expressions. Teachers should address students by name and sign all posts. This models what we’d like students to do.
Help students develop time management and organizational skills. Virtual students often choose to take an online course because they assume it will provide more flexibility for their busy schedules. They will need to know what is expected of them so that they can organize their time to meet course requirements. This increased time management responsibility for the learner also means that there is an increased organization responsibility on the teacher. Prepare syllabus and assignment due dates carefully and well in advance so that students know what to expect and when. In my district, all of our online courses follow a consistent format, with weekly checklists and rubrics that the teachers monitor.
Don’t overload your students with material. Many online courses aren’t broken down into manageable pieces. If you deliver too much content in one sitting you have to work very hard to get the learner to be willing to accept your attempts to reinforce the material. By breaking up your course into smaller, separate modules you make it easier for students to retain knowledge and pay better attention to your lesson.
Establish good course practices. A good course might have a “capstone project” that all the course activities build toward. Instead of just reading and writing weekly assignments from a book, students read and write in service of completing a larger project. A good course teacher provides annotations to all the websites she or he asks the student to visit. This provides an advanced organizer to students — a preview of what’s to come — so they know why they’ve been sent to each site, and what some of the pitfalls might be when they get there. Make sure students can move easily between navigation and instruction. Clear, precise distinctions should be made in all instructions. Before students leave a document, they need know where to go next after completing the work you have just assigned.
Present material in different ways. Understand how to engage learners of different styles, presenting material in multiple ways. Considering using both synchronous and asynchronous activities, which helps provide a good balance of activities. Engage learners in more collaborative and reflective activities; those that include real-time interactive brainstorming and sharing are often just as effective as those that require students to think, plan, write, and summarize.
While the day-to-day instruction is just one facet of online learning programs, administrators should consider these points when offering virtual programs:
Online programs should be multifaceted for greater student voice and choice. Insist that your online program offer many unique elective offerings and a vast array of AP courses (and don’t overlook credit recovery options, either!) This gives a student a way to “personalize” their education and allows them to discover and choose what most interests them.
Make sure teachers have the best training available. In our case, we collaborate with The Virtual High School, who we consider an online learning pioneer. VHS requires each teacher to graduate from a six-week, rigorous graduate level training program. During this program our teachers were immersed in the online world and learn as their future online students will learn. This philosophy and approach is the heart and soul of our program and the teachers often tell us what they’ve learned in their online teaching and training helps inform their own local, face-to-face instruction.

Read more

Filed Under: Online Learning on No Comments

Do online charter schools measure up?

A three-part research study indicates that online charter school performance may be underwhelming

New research offers evidence that online charter schools post weaker academic performance and struggle more to maintain student engagement than their conventional brick-and-mortar peers.
The National Study of Online Charter Schools, released Oct. 27, analyzed online charter school operations, policy environments, and their impacts on student achievements.
The three-volume study, conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington, and the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University, describes the achievement effects of online charter schools.
Volume 1 analyzed the 200 online charter schools in operation in the U.S. and the 200,000 K-12 students in attendance. It examines the instructional programs of online charter schools; methods used to engage students and parents, along with expectations of parental involvement; the teachers and principals of online charter schools; and the schools’ management and governance.
That analysis found:
• Student–driven, independent study is the dominant mode of learning in online charter schools, with 33 percent of online charter schools offering only self-paced instruction
• Online charter schools typically provide students with less live teacher contact time in a week than students in conventional schools have in a day
•Maintaining student engagement in this environment of limited student-teacher interaction is considered the greatest challenge by far, identified by online charter school principals nearly three times as often as any other challenge
• Online charter schools place significant expectations on parents, perhaps to compensate for
limited student-teacher interaction, with 43, 56, and 78 percent of online charters at the high school, middle, and elementary grade levels, respectively, expecting parents to actively participate in student instruction
“Challenges in maintaining student engagement are inherent in online instruction, and they are exacerbated by high student-teacher ratios and minimal student-teacher contact time, which the data reveal are typical of online charter schools nationwide. These findings suggest reason for concern about whether the sector is likely to be effective in promoting student achievement,” said Brian Gill, a Mathematica senior fellow and lead author of the report.
In Volume II, the Center on Reinventing Public Education examined how state policy impacts the online charter school landscape. Researchers found that online charter schools exist in a number of different policy environments due to variation in state charter law and administrative regulation.
Most of the existing regulation is reactive to controversy (restrictions on growth and autonomy), rather than proactive policies to guide the unique opportunities and challenges of online charters.
The authors found several drawbacks to forcing online schools into the charter context, including:
• Open admission requirements that prevent schools from screening for students who are most
likely to be successful in an online school.
• Authorizing and accountability provisions that are not well suited to the unique challenges of
regulating online schools.
• Funding mechanisms that preclude outcomes-based funding
CRPE director Robin Lake, who co-authored the study, said, “We need policies that address legitimate
concerns without needlessly restricting growth.” The report recommends that policymakers consider
moving online schools out of the charter context, or craft unique provisions specific to online charters.”
Volume III, from the CREDO at Stanford University, examines impacts of online charter enrollment on the academic progress of students.
While findings vary for each student, the results in CREDO’s report show that the majority of online charter students had far weaker academic growth in both math and reading compared to their traditional public school peers.
To conceptualize this shortfall, it would equate to a student losing 72 days of learning in reading and 180 days of learning in math, based on a 180-day school year. This pattern of weaker growth remained consistent across racial-ethnic subpopulations and students in poverty.
“While the overall findings of our analysis are somber, we do believe the information will serve as the foundation for constructive discussions on the role of online schools in the K-12 sector. We see an
opportunity for the providers to do a better job of documenting the benefits they provide to their
students and to connect with and learn from operators who are doing well,” said Dr. James Woodworth, Senior Quantitative Research Analyst for CREDO at Stanford University.
This mixed-method analysis included data from 158 online schools across 17 states and the District of
Columbia. The data set for online school students is restricted to those students attending public, full-time online charter schools.
Material from a press release was used in this report.

Read more

Filed Under: Online Learning on No Comments

Rice U. offering free AP Physics online prep course

MOOC uses new AP Physics curriculum, could aid both students and teachers

A free online course from Rice University uses attention-grabbing videos, interactive lab activities, dramatic physics demonstrations, engaging instructors and a free online textbook to help high school students prepare for the Advanced Placement (AP) Physics 1 Exam.
Rice officials said the new four-part course, Preparing for the AP Physics 1 Exam, is like no other massive open online course (MOOC) the university has offered because it features high production values, dozens of visual demonstrations, Hollywood-style introductory videos for key concept areas and access to a free textbook from Rice University-based publisher OpenStax College.
“Our approach with this MOOC is to provide university-style concept lectures with problem-solving strategies from expert AP physics teachers,” said award-winning Rice physicist Jason Hafner, who co-teaches the course with veteran high school AP physics teachers Gigi Nevils and Matt Wilson. “I think it will be a great experience for current AP physics students, or anyone who wants to learn physics without a background in calculus.”
Part 1 of the course, which centers on linear motion, debuted in September on the edX platform and will be offered again Nov. 10. It includes the College Board’s science practices and aligns with the board’s new AP curriculum framework. It covers how to use kinematics to describe translational motion; ways to apply the concepts of motion, force, mechanical energy and momentum; and new strategies for solving motion problems.
Professor Hafner and his ‘accomplices’ really try to make physics fun. They were accessible and (it) didn’t feel like they were thousands of kilometers away.”
Parts 2 and 3 of the course will be offered in 2016 and will cover rotational motion, gravity, oscillations, electricity, circuits and sound. Part 4 will offer a comprehensive exam prep.
Students who pay for an ID-verified certificate can take the enhanced AP Physics 1 Exam Prep +5, which includes extra problems and solutions, an online review game, more critical-thinking practice and, in Part 4, feedback from an AP teacher on a writing sample from the student.
Caroline Levander, Rice’s vice president of strategic initiatives and digital education, said the provisions for the course’s teaching, tutoring, books, homework and review services are well worth the investment for Rice.
“The effective application of technology has enormous significance for the future of higher education, and it is important for Rice to push the boundaries of what is possible with a MOOC,” Levander said. “This isn’t a typical MOOC. It is designed to draw students into rigorous material with humor, engaging lessons and great visuals.”
The course’s dynamism is partly a response to the College Board’s revised AP physics curriculum, which places more emphasis on key foundational principles of physics and less on memorization. The College Board revamped the curriculum in 2013 based on recommendations from the National Research Council and others. The changes, which are designed to better prepare students for college academics, included splitting the old AP Physics B course into two new courses, AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2, which are now covered under separate exams that were first administered in May.
More than 2 million students take AP exams each year because most four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. recognize AP in their admissions process and grant students credit, placement or both on the basis of successful AP exam scores.
“Rice began offering MOOCs for AP courses last year because the courses help level the playing field in college readiness,” said Cylette Willis, Rice’s online education program director. “Students who come to college with credits already accrued have a leg up in getting their degrees quickly, and they often have a higher success rate once they arrive on campus.”
Willis said even veteran AP physics teachers are still adjusting to the revised curriculum, so if they enroll in the MOOC, they can contact Rice to be included in a special Teacher Community cohort where they can communicate by email with other AP classroom teachers and home educators to share and apply the online course resources to supplement their own curriculum.
Looking forward, Willis noted, “As our educator community develops, we believe the new collaborations between course instructors and teachers will further enrich the course and increase its impact on student learning and AP exam prep. The possibilities are really unlimited, and these future directions are most exciting.”
The Rice course features lively concept lectures, AP-style multiple choice and free response questions, problem tutorials on how to formulate answers and lab experiences that build essential skills in physics.
Course participants have access to the OpenStax College Physics AP Edition, as well as to a full spectrum of supplementary materials. “Students and teachers are clamoring for technology-based resources for this challenging AP course, which is only in its second year,” Nevils said.
“By the end of the course, students who have followed the concept lectures, read the free text and worked the exercises and labs should be well-prepared to take the College Board’s AP Physics 1 Exam,” said Hafner, who has taught freshman and sophomore physics at Rice for nine years as well as a previous edX course on introductory physics. “And if they get stuck, help is just a click away on the discussion forum.”
Nevils, a former AP physics teacher with both the Houston and Spring Branch independent school districts, previously served as assistant director of Rice’s Office of STEM Engagement and leader of the Rice Excellence in Secondary Science Teaching program.
Wilson has taught AP physics for 11 years and currently teaches AP Physics 1 and 2 and AP Physics C at Stephen F. Austin High School in the Fort Bend Independent School District near Houston.
To enroll or learn more about Preparing for the AP Physics 1 Exam, visit
http://online.rice.edu/mooc/course/preparing-ap-physics-1-exam-part1-linear-motion/.

Read more

Filed Under: Online Learning on No Comments

HMH partners with Osmo platform for math learning

HMH becomes Osmo’s first education partner, providing teachers and students with a new way to experience HMH’s math programs

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) has announced a new partnership with Osmo, creators of an iPad-based learning platform.
This partnership, the first of its kind for Osmo, will bring HMH’s math programs, learning content, and manipulatives to the new Osmo Numbers game, which utilizes Osmo’s Reflective Artificial Intelligence technology to create a collaborative and interactive physical and digital environment for children learning math. Osmo Numbers, which just launched, can be used with dedicated HMH manipulatives that are part of HMH core math programs Go Math! and Math Expressions.
Osmo and HMH Learning Architects worked together to ensure strong alignment between the Osmo Numbers game and the learning progressions in Go Math! and Math Expressions.
HMH will provide Osmo activity guides as a resource for educators using these programs in conjunction with the Osmo platform. These guides offer suggested games and activities that integrate existing program manipulative kits with Osmo Numbers, building student proficiency with fun games that help them problem-solve, build fluency, and practice basic skills in counting, addition, subtraction, and multiplication.
“We see strong educational value in Osmo’s inventive system,” said Mary Cullinane, Chief Content Officer, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. “Its unique combination of on screen and off screen activity enables users to connect with math in an exciting new way and demonstrates the power of technology to make learning more engaging. Together, HMH and Osmo are bringing a new educational experience to math learners, fusing physical play in a digital environment and strengthening the connection between home and school learning.”
The HMH manipulative kits will allow educators, students, and parents who use Go Math! and Math Expressions to complement their curriculum with dedicated Osmo Numbers games that are aligned with the relevant program. HMH is also offering suggested guides and lesson plans for educators that include creative activities using Osmo Numbers that align with HMH’s curriculum and grade-level course work.
“We’re thrilled to be collaborating with such a prestigious and well-established company as HMH,” said Pramod Sharma, CEO and Co-founder of Osmo. “The launch of our new Numbers game combined with HMH’s best-in-class content creates a comprehensive package for math learners at schools and at home.”

Read more

Filed Under: Mobile on No Comments

BYOD helps boost rural school’s performance

Last video in Smarter Schools series features rural principal’s BYOD program that took school from “F” to “A”

A new video released by the Smarter Schools Project highlights the ways one rural school is driving up attendance, motivating students, and bringing new opportunities through a BYOD program.
In the video, former St. Paul Schools Principal Daisy Dyer Duerr says that because of tech, her school has “everything we need to be just as great as any school in America.”
She said that tech has allowed her students to stay connected and access resources they wouldn’t otherwise have. “I do believe that wi-fi and connectivity is very much like the power lines used to be to us… I think it’s so important for students to have that connection, especially in such a rural area, because our students aren’t going to get that connection at home.”
In recent years, Dyer Duerr’s school went from a state grade of “F” to “A.” At the same time, they implemented a new BYOD program. Rather than confiscating cell phones and punishing students for using them, she helped her teachers and students find ways to use them to further their education.
Despite more than 80 percent of her students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, many of them had cell phones and Dyer Duerr wrote grants to help provide additional devices for those who didn’t.
The BYOD video is the last in a four-week series featuring some of the nation’s leading tech-savvy educators highlighting the ways they are using and thinking about education technology.
Other videos in the series feature a teacher from urban Washington, D.C. and suburban Massachusetts. In addition, the first video in the series, featured USA Today’s Greg Toppo and highlights from a Smarter Schools Project event on Capitol Hill.
To learn more about the Smarter Schools Project, visit smarterschoolsproject.com.

Read more

Filed Under: Mobile on No Comments

6 reasons why Chromebooks are the device of the moment

What makes Chromebooks popular, and will they outlast their buzz?

As the familiar refrain goes, “It’s not about the device,” but even so schools need to choose one to advance their digital instruction goals. And by all accounts, Chromebooks are the device of the moment, with 2.5 million shipped to schools in the first half of this year alone. There’s no doubt they’re trendy, but is there any deeper reasons for the sales surge beyond appearance and affordability? Recently, I joined host Larry Jacobs and Google Certified Innovator and trainer Chris Scott for an episode of Education Talk Radio in which we talked through these issues at length and came up with a handful of reasons for the Chromebook’s trendsetting status. Here’s the CliffsNotes of that discussion, but be sure to check out the full conversation embedded above and available online.
Google’s name has staying power. We’ve been Googling for more than a decade by this point, and with the near ubiquity of Google Apps for Education in the nation’s classrooms, educators and students feel comfortable with the Google ecosystem. Branding helps, but at the end of the day, educators do realize that Google is just the conduit for students to advance their learning, not the first and last steps.
Chromebooks have some surface-level advantages. First, they’re cheap, with models often starting around $200. And while the cheaper cost can mean lower quality, it also means cheap replacement parts, too. IT management is simple — and there are few horror stories equaling what schools went through with iPads. They’re easy to share among students, and at a time when online high-stakes testing is still very much a part of the conversation, Chromebooks have the all-important built-in keyboard. None of these things necessarily makes the Chromebook the ideal or superior device for education, but they certainly don’t hurt.
It works. Many educators can still recall a time when technology was as liable to fail as it was to work properly. One of Google’s most noticeable innovations — besides eliminating spam from email — is its consistency.  Sparse of features as Google Apps and Chromebooks may be, they’re simple to use and even simpler to collaborate with.
Chromebooks are the safe choice. As a Google trainer, Chris Scott goes into a lot of schools and frequently sees teachers who are unprepared for using devices in the classrooms. They haven’t yet given much thought to how devices will lead to a redesigned classroom experience and, at least at first, are looking for quick tips and lesson ideas they can start using immediately. For them, Chromebooks are easy to use and, being that they’re based on Google, familiar and easy to learn on the fly.
There’s a support network to tap into. Google provides ample training on its devices and a large network of certified trainers and innovators, who aim to be more visible and approachable than Apple or Microsoft certified educators — to reach out to for help or getting started. Google also offers a number of workshops and summits for training and professional development.
They last. Scott’s four-year-old Chromebook is still going strong and, to him at least, doesn’t feel outdated. Whereas some devices get bogged down and begin to crawl after years of downloading and heavy use (and others feel less useful thanks to planned obsolescence), Chromebooks are capable of lasting for years without much noticeable change.

Read more

Filed Under: Mobile on No Comments

W.Va. leaders advocate statewide one-to-one computing

Superintendent says one-to-one computing initiatives could decrease inequities among students

Two of West Virginia’s top K-12 education leaders on Nov. 2 advocated spreading one-to-one computing across the state.
In a short speech to state and local education officials, business leaders and others at the third annual West Virginia Education Summit, state Schools Superintendent Michael Martirano said one-to-one computing initiatives, which have led to controversy in other states over issues including cost and computers’ perceived added learning distractions, could help decrease educational inequities among students.
The state superintendent, who has set a goal of getting a one-to-one computer to student ratio in grades 3-12 in all Mountain State schools by 2020, said he wants pupils to have devices with all their classes on them to use at school and take home. He also wants devices available for younger kids, but not to take them home.
“Equity and access allows for opportunities to push young people higher, so they can solve the problems necessary through the process of innovation,” Martirano said to the audience at Charleston’s Embassy Suites hotel.
Mike Green, the president of the state Board of Education, who also said Monday that Wi-Fi Internet access could be added to school buses at under $200 per bus per year, asked for the business community’s help in expanding technology access for kids.
“Doesn’t it bother you that a lot of kids don’t have the infrastructure at home?” Green asked. “They don’t have a computer, they don’t have a tablet.”
The event, which touched on several education innovation ideas, was organized by The Education Alliance, a nonprofit that Emily Pratt, its communications director, said aims to convene businesses, community organizations and educators. Pratt said there were more than 200 attendees.
Green said 18 out of 55 West Virginia counties have one-to-one computing programs of some sort; some may not have them county-wide. Martirano said Kanawha and Wirt counties are the two main drivers of one-to-one computing in the state. Kanawha County, the state’s largest school system, distributed more than 14,000 iPad tablet computers to every middle and high school student in the county last school year through the roughly $14 million Learning 20/20 initiative, said Leah Sparks, Kanawha’s technology director.
Education Week has reported on problems with one-to-one computing initiatives in large school systems in other states, like California’s Los Angeles Unified School District, where students hacked the devices to bypass security systems. A report released last month by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, an international group of 34 partner countries, also raised questions about the effectiveness of technology implementation in schools in general.
“Where computers are used in the classroom, their impact on student performance is mixed at best,” states the report, which analyzed different countries’ performance on its Programme for International Student Assessment. “Students who use computers moderately at school tend to have somewhat better learning outcomes than students who use computers rarely. But students who use computers very frequently at school do a lot worse in most learning outcomes, even after accounting for social background and student demographics.”
When asked what research and evidence he believes shows one-to-one computing will work in West Virginia, Martirano reiterated that an Internet-accessing digital device doesn’t have the same limits on content that “static” and “finite” textbooks do. He said the costs of implementing one-to-one computing could be offset by the possible elimination of textbooks.
“Why would we invest all of our money into a textbook that is gonna be obsolete, that has to be replaced in future years, as opposed to looking at an online delivery model, a device, a tablet, whatever it is, that constantly has the latest information at the fingertips of our teachers and children?” he said.
Martirano said there wouldn’t be an “infusion of state dollars” for one-to-one computing at this time, so he wants county superintendents to get support from the business community to bring more devices into schools. He expects counties will see the benefit of one-to-one computing, but said the expansion is currently just a goal, not a mandate.
“I’ve seen no research that goes into great detail on the negative side of having good technology, good infrastructure,” Green said. He said there needs to be technical support for teachers and students to make the devices a good tool, and stressed they will never replace good teachers.
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin also spoke at the conference Monday, reiterating his contention that all West Virginia students should have 180 instructional days and touting educational programs launched during his tenure as governor, such as the truancy diversion initiative.
In an interview after his speech, Tomblin told the Gazette-Mail he had no specifics to share on his education agenda for the upcoming legislative session. He said he’s yet to finalize what that agenda will be.
When asked if he would sign possible legislation repealing or changing the state’s Common Core-based math and English/language arts standards — some legislators have pledged to continue trying to dump the standards after failing to do so in the last session — the governor said he wants to stick by the standards and the new, statewide standardized test based on them.
“We have gone from test to test to test over the last several years, and it’s kind of hard to compare, you know, have we gained or have we gone backwards in our education system because of the changes in the test,” Tomblin said. “I would prefer to leave the Common Core in place for a few years — like most of the states are doing — and be able to compare.”
The state Department of Education released last week county- and school-level results on the state’s Common Core-based standardized test, which, aside from a field test in the 2013-14 school year, students in grades 3-11 took for the first time in the spring.
Proficiency rates in math across the state are significantly lower on the new test than on the Westest it replaced, though state education officials have stressed the two tests aren’t directly comparable.
“Let’s look at it for a few years before we throw that baby out and get a new baby to start testing with,” Tomblin said.
The governor also said he’s not opposed to charter schools, which are supported by the state Chamber of Commerce, though he said he doubts they’d work successfully in a rural state like West Virginia. Charters, which currently aren’t allowed in the state, are publicly funded schools that are given more autonomy from their districts than normal public schools in the hopes of spurring innovation, but they’re unpopular with local teacher unions because they can effectively make educators at-will employees.
“In West Virginia, to get enough students to form a good charter school it’s going to take pulling from a large area of our state,” Tomblin said. “And basically that would also take money away from our public education, and many of our public education systems in our state need all the help they can get right now.”

Read more

Filed Under: Mobile on No Comments

13 Bloom’s Taxonomy apps for showing true thinking skills

Bloom’s Taxonomy apps to enhance thinking skills in creative new ways

Mobile devices have long held promise in that they allow students to tackle problems in almost as many ways as there are apps — that is to say a nearly infinite number. But whereas that flexibility is a boon to students, it can make it hard for educators tasked with the best apps to students to help them realize that potential.
The quest to help students enhance thinking skills and move up Bloom’s Taxonomy exemplifies the point. “It is obvious that the iPad and apps holds tremendous potential,” writes educator Diane Darrow on the website Appitic.com, “but the freedom they afford also requires that educators be able to determine their role in developing our students’ capability to analyze, evaluate, design, and produce content.”
APPitic.com, an app resource site with more than 6,000 apps in more than 300 subcategories, offers a number of apps pertaining to Bloom’s Taxonomy. Here, we’ve gathered a handful of those apps, arranged by Bloom’s levels, and you can access more on the APPitic site. All of these apps were originally curated by Apple Distinguished Educators via APPitic.

Creation

Apps that fit into the “creating” stage provide opportunities for students generate ideas, design plans, and produce products.
1. Storyrobe
Storyrobe is a mobile digital storytelling application. Create a digital story in three simple steps: Choose images and video, record the audio of the story, and then share with others. $1.
2. Explain Everything
With this beloved screencasting app, students can annotate, animate, and narrate explanations and presentations. $3
3. Puppet Pals HD
Create your own unique puppet shows with animation and audio. Simply pick out your actors and backdrops, drag them on to the stage, and tap record. Your movements and audio will be recorded in real time for playback later. Free.

Evaluation

Apps that fit into the “evaluating” stage improve the user’s ability to judge material or methods based on criteria set by themselves or external sources.
4. Blogsy
It’s been called one of the best blogging tools on the iPad, as the app allows users to take advantage of what the iPad does best: Adding your photos and videos is as easy as dragging them from the media sidebar and dropping them into your blog post. It’s designed to make  writing blog posts as easy as possible, saving the hassle of jumping from app to app to manually copy/paste embed codes or links. $5
5. Fuze
This free app lets users run their own online conferences and meetings, using audio/video and chat for collaboration across the miles. Keynote, PowerPoint, and other documents can be shared right in the app. Free.

Analysis

Apps that fit into the “analyzing” stage improve the user’s ability to differentiate between the relevant and irrelevant, determine relationships, and recognize the organization of content.
6. Ideament (formerly Idea Sketch)
This app lets you easily draw a diagram — mind map, concept map, or flow chart — and convert it to a text outline, and vice versa. You can use Idea Sketch for anything, such as brainstorming new ideas, illustrating concepts, making lists and outlines, planning presentations, creating organizational charts, etc. Free.
7. Easy Chart
Creates a variety of charts from inputted data (think bar/line/pie/sidebar charts), and works even without an internet connection. Basic, but helpful. Free.

Knowledge

Apps that fit into the applying stage provide opportunities for students to demonstrate their ability to implement learned procedures and methods.
8. WolframAlpha
The app of the popular knowledge-based search engine, students can use data, computation, and sophisticated algorithms to answer their questions. $3

9. Outline+
The full-featured counterpart to Microsoft OneNote that complements the use of that app and lets users open their notebooks anywhere and sync them via DropBox. $3

Comprehension

Apps that fit into this “understanding” stage provide opportunities for students to explain ideas or concepts.
10. Essay Starter
This split screen app shows references alongside the blank essay area, so students can pull up whatever they’re working on while writing. $1
11. Screen Chomp
Create screencast-like videos by recording touch actions, adding photos, and audio and doodling, and then share those videos out to others on a variety of platforms. Free

Application

12. Doceri
Combining screencasting, desktop control, and an interactive whiteboard in one app. Control your presentations live with Airplay or through a computer.
13. iDesign
An app for vector and technical drawings, designs, and illustrations that can be made on the move using just your fingers. $8

Read more

Filed Under: Mobile on No Comments

11 tech integration tips to share with your school

Share these innovative tech integration tips with your team

Embarking on a technology integration plan or beginning a technology pilot can be daunting. However, mapping out a clear path, being flexible, and communicating the stakeholders can help that plan be successful.
Jeff Downing, an elementary school computer specialist in California’s Fremont Unified School District, offered technology integration tips for administrators and teachers based on his experiences in his own school during a webinar for edWeb’s Digital Citizenship community.
Three years ago, Downing developed basic goals for his school, including providing every classroom with a high-quality projector, finding ways to give every student access to some type of technology each day, and increasing internet access.
At the start of the school year, every classroom in the school began with a high-quality widescreen projector, 62 iPads and 62 Chromebooks are onsite, every teacher will have a laptop, the school’s computer labs will offer 32 updated desktops, and internet access will have tripled.
“Now I feel that we can delve into using the tools and really incorporating digital citizenship into everything that we do,” he said.

Tips for ed-tech leaders
Barriers to integrating technology successfully include reluctant or resistant teachers, lack of resources, lack of time to learn technology, lack of trust in students and/or staff, outdated policies and procedures, and problems with infrastructure, Downing said.
Start with a purposeful plan, and create goals. Administrators should define where they want their school to go. Securing stakeholder buy-in from leadership, business, parents, and community groups is key, as is communication and consistent review and revision of the plan as needed. “Once you have a plan, you have to establish goals,” Downing said.
Expect and embrace failure. “If I’m not failing, I already knew it, so I’m not learning anything,” he said.
Don’t expect everyone to be at the same level when it comes to integration. Teachers will become comfortable with incorporating technology into their instructional practices at different speeds.
Lower the barriers to use. Students may benefit from training prior to using their technology in the classroom. Providing opportunities for immediate teacher and student success.
Set the example by using the tools you are encouraging others to use. Show educators how to achieve success by using the programs that your school or district has adopted.
Communicate, communicate, communicate. Everyone in the school and district should be on the same page when it comes to the technology integration plan and goals. Consistent communications allows the school community to feel connected, and it makes fundraising and awareness efforts that much easier.
Top tips for teachers

Teachers count lack of personal competence with technology, lack of time, fear of the unknown or fear of technology’s impact on teaching, lack of trust in students and self, and no time for troubleshooting among the top barriers to technology integration.
Try and use technology. Start small, with small groups, basic research, supplemental learning activities, and quizzes to check for understanding.
Treat the use of technology as you would planning any lesson. Teachers should teach explicitly and provide parameters for the technology’s use.
Teach digital citizenship by setting the example. Students will model the behavior their teacher displays, like checking a phone in class.
Unplug your lessons sometimes. Create a balance between the use of technology and turning the technology off. Unplugged lessons can be incredibly powerful. Downing often uses an unplugged lesson to teach his students about digital citizenship, and then follows it up the next day with a tech-focused lesson to reinforce the concept.
Give yourself “risk-free” opportunities. Have a growth mindset and don’t be afraid to fail. Tell students they are going to pilot a new lesson that day, and students will be enthusiastic while the teacher is able to try something new and gauge how the lesson works.
To view the archived webinar, visit the edWeb Digital Citizenship community.

Read more

Filed Under: Mobile on No Comments

8 free iPad apps to encourage creativity in young learners

Enhance creativity in young learners with these educator-selected apps

Encouraging expression and creativity has never been easier, in an age where mobile devices let us combine music, art, and learning with the touch (or is that a tap?) of a button.
There are concerns, though, from fears that young children cannot distinguish what they are seeing from reality to eye strain and over stimulation, writes educator and mobile learning trainer Jonathan Nalder on the website Appitic.com. “But as new interactive screens in the form of iPads have entered many homes, the conventional wisdom around some of these has begun to change,” he continues, with new research diving into their positive benefits as well.
APPitic.com, an app resource site with more than 6,000 apps in more than 300 subcategories, offers a number of apps for young learners that differ from passive watching and dive into content creation and exploration.
Here, we’ve gathered a handful of those apps and you can access more on the APPitic site. All of these apps were originally curated by Apple Distinguished Educators.
1. Kids Musician
Kids Musician allows young children to play different instruments while learning more about music. Kids Musician is so easy to use and
features real instrument sounds, including pan flute, piano, and drums.
2. paintone
This app lets kids draw a picture and add a short sound clip to it for playback. Photos can be layered into creations as well.

3. RokLienz
Direct a music video featuring outer space aliens and a variety of songs in this free-to-play app that lets kids choose characters, settings, and accessories.
4. Color Me !!
A coloring booklet for children at the age of 2-6 years. Diverse pictures and color palette will trigger the development of a child’s imagination and shape his/her senses.
5. PBS KIDS Photo Factory
Put students in a photo with a favorite PBS Kids character in three simple steps, and share it with others.
6. Pic Collage
Combine photos, videos, fun fonts, stickers, and cute cutouts and arrange them by frames to create custom collages.
7. Thumpies Zero
Thumpies is a rhythm based music game for players of all ages. By correctly matching the beat of bouncing Thumpies, the player progresses through a song. If the player hits the targets in time, their Thump’o’meter slowly rises, but if the player misses or hits out of time, the meter falls.
8. Singing Fingers
Singing Fingers lets you fingerpaint with sound. Just touch the screen while you make a sound, and colorful paint appears. Touch the paint to play back the sound again.

Read more

Filed Under: Mobile on No Comments

9 handy apps every teacher should try

Try these offerings for assignment grading, classroom management, and more, which every teacher will love.

Many teachers love their mobile devices as much as their students — maybe more. And as our lives increasingly migrate to the digital world, it only makes sense that classroom organization will start going paperless to keep pace.
Some apps, naturally, are must-have for busy educators. APPitic.com, an app resource site with more than 6,000 apps in more than 300 subcategories, offers lots of apps for educators, from planners to helpful classroom tools and media creation.
Here, we’ve gathered a handful of those apps and you can access more on the APPitic site. All of these apps were originally curated by Apple Distinguished Educators.
Apps Gone Free
Find free apps using this aggregator that keeps track of new releases and purposely excludes paid offerings. Free
SlideShark
Show PowerPoint presentations right on the iPad — which can of course be ported to projectors with the right dongle — while preserving the same text, animations, and graphics. Free
storganeyes
Use this app to recall the contents of stacked boxes or bins and where they’re placed. A search function enables users to type in the name of the objects they are looking for and find their location. $1

SkipCount
A reminder app that works in the background. Countdown to any event and the app will remind you when it arrives, or give you an up-to-the-second countdown. Free
SlideShark
Show PowerPoint presentations right on the iPad — which can of course be ported to projectors with the right dongle — while preserving the same text, animations, and graphics. Free
Silent Light
Silent Light shows the decibel level in your learning space with an easy to understand traffic light system, which you can share on your projector or TV. Set optimum sound level goals to help students manage their own learning. $4
Socrative
A smart clicker and student response app that captures student results in real-time. Interact with the data to further student understanding in the moment, and review the reports to prepare for future classes. It will even aggregate and grade your pre-made activities. Free
GradeBook Pro
Record scores, attendance, behavior, and student performance in this app, which was designed with professional educators in mind. There are plenty of bells and whistles, like exporting options and data analysis. $20
Essay Grader
Designed to help standardize the essay grading process, this app lets teachers organize papers and select from lists of pre-written comments (or add their own) and guides them through each part of the essay, from thesis to conclusion. $6

Read more

Filed Under: Mobile on No Comments