Making the Move to K-12 Online Teaching

Yes – it’s finally here! After two years in the making, my text Making the Move to K-12 Online Teaching: Research Based Practices and Strategies was published in November 2011 and made its debut at the iNACOL Virtual School Symposium in Indianapolis. Alas, this is the first chance I’ve had to announce it on any of my networks. The associated website for the book is located here: https://sites.google.com/site/bestonlineteacher/ and includes supplemental materials and updated links to resources included in the book. Take a look and let me know what you think. I look forward to your comments and feedback.

Making the Move to K-12 Online Teaching: Research Based Strategies and Practices

Making the Move to K-12 Online Teaching: Research Based Strategies and Practices

Back in the Saddle Again….

It’s been a busy summer with some some changes to report. I moved on from my role as Associate Chair and am currently acting Interim Chair in the department while Lisa is on sabbatical. I hit the ground running in July and haven’t stopped for a breath since. I’m busy learning all about budgets and such and not missing the AC duties at all.

Also, I’m absolutely thrilled to be back in the classroom again! I never thought I would miss it so much and didn’t really realize I missed it at all until I opened my class up this week. Since taking on the position of Associate Chair last year and Chair this year, my teaching load must naturally be reduced so I am only required to teach one class each Fall. I just hope that’s enough to keep me happy!

My last post in June (sorry) mentioned the legislative approval of the Idaho K-12 Online Endorsement. I just wanted to share that the last stamp of approval came this August from the Idaho State Board of Education. The Department of Educational Technology is now, officially, a state approved program for the endorsement. We’re busy strategizing and planning for implementation and are very excited about the flexibility in the language that allows for a competency-based assessment process – something very new to all of us in Idaho.

In addition to the endorsement, the department was also given the green light for an online doctoral program in Educational Technology! We have worked many long years on this initiative and the stars finally aligned. Since we were just given the go-ahead, we are working very hard now on planning for a start in Fall 2012. Contact Dr. Ross Perkins (RossPerkins@boisestate.edu) for more info.

I participated in 3D Game Lab Summer Camp – 3D Game Lab is a gaming environment for learning developed by Lisa Dawley and Chris Haskell. 3D Game Lab Summer Camp hosted about 200 educators and others in technology related fields in August. I have to say, I was absolutely addicted from the first quest.  The feelings, the behaviors, and the actions are very game-like. I found myself constantly focused on trying to level up and receive badges, awards and achievements – and all the time I was learning!! It was really quite incredible and very hard to describe. If you have the opportunity you have got to try it! I predict this will be the next new wave learning environment!!

On a more personal note… I’m happy to report that both of my children and their respective spouses are now located much closer to home. My son and his wife have been stationed at Bangor, WA and now live in Poulsbo – a lovely, quaint town in the perfect location. You can read about all of their adventures in the A Day in the Life blog that Kristin maintains. Thanks Kristin!! My daughter and her husband have also relocated from Cheyenne, WY to Vancouver, WA. I am just so thrilled to have my family close to me again!

Idaho’s K-12 Online Teaching Endorsement

Yes – the endorsement in Idaho is a done deal. The whole process encompassed over three years of very hard work by a collaborative team of stakeholders around the state. I was recently invited by Christina Linder, Director, Professional Standards and Certification at Idaho State Department of Education to help share our process at the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification (NASDTEC) 83rd Annual Conference. To facilitate the sharing, I created a wiki containing all pertinent documentation from beginning to end so thought I would share it here as well: Idaho’s Online Endorsement.

Catching up….

It’s been a while – but hey I’ve been really busy. I just returned from the ASCD Conference in San Francisco. I have been invited to present at this conference for the last couple of years with my colleague Barbara Frey, who was the founding principle of Colorado Connections Academy. It’s an interesting venue in that it is fairly mainstream and traditional, and does not have a focus in K-12 online. Our sessions have been very well attended, so much so that in the last two years they have had to turn people away. Perhaps it is because we bring a perspective to teaching and learning that is outside the norm. However, what I noticed this year and last, and this always happens at the very beginning of the session, is a real need for clarification about what K-12 online is all about. There is a general lack of knowledge about online instruction in mainstream education – what it is, what it looks like, how students can attend school without entering a physical building – what I would consider the most basic information. This tells me is that we still have a long way to go in educating the public about quality online learning environments. We should never forget that the vast majority of the public has literally no background experience to draw upon when it comes to online learning. I don’t find this particularly disturbing, it’s just a fact of life.

The remainder of the conference was interesting as well. I spent some time talking with Karen Parker, Program Manager for the newish Google App Inventor utility. We are offering a workshop this summer and a full graduate course this fall in Mobile App Design using this tool and will be extending our conversation later this month. They had the best booth at the conference and had free google pens with strobe-lit globes in some of the great google colors

I missed visiting with one of the attendees in my session, Alex Morrison, from Discovery Education. We’ll be talking later this month as well. As I admitted to Alex, I’m somewhat embarrassed by my lack of knowledge about all of the great and wonderful products they have to offer educators  so I’m quite interested in speaking with him. My only excuse is that I can’t know everything. Right?

I will be presenting next at the Midwestern Regional Robert NOYCE Conference on April 8. For a change, I will conduct a hands-on workshop titled PBL in a Digital Age. The goal is to model project planning and development using the Buck Institute for Education PBL model. Of course, the workshop centers on technology supports. I hope to demonstrate the power of Wikis and the collaborative aspects of Google Docs. I’ll throw in some collaborative brainstorming with Bubbl.us and reflection activities using voicethread as well. I only have an hour so we’ll see how much I can actually get done!

Going Virtual! 2010

Lisa Dawley and I are revisiting the first two phases of the Going Virtual! research series with an updated survey for 2010. If you are a K-12 online teacher please visit:

http://edtech.boisestate.edu/goingvirtual/callforparticipation.htm

Feel free to share this link with your colleagues

Attention K-12 Online Teachers

I would like to invite K-12 online teachers – whether you teach in a full-time or blended environment – to participate in an educational book project.  The title of the publication is tentatively “Strategies for K-12 Online Teachers” and publication is scheduled for next year with Pearson Education. Included with this invitation is a link to a short form that asks a variety of questions about online teaching in K-12 virtual schools. I am asking you to look over the questions and respond to any or all of them. If you choose to participate, your responses may be included in the text as vignettes representing “voices from teachers in the field.”  It is important to include your name (for proper credit, an email address where you can be contacted and the name of the school where you teach if you think it is appropriate.

Form Link: http://tinyurl.com/k12onlinestrategies

If you have any questions about this request, please feel free to contact me. Also, please feel free to pass this invitation on to others who might be interested in participating.

Thank you in advance for your time and for agreeing to participate in this exciting opportunity!

Kerry Rice, Ed. D.
Boise State University
Department of Educational Technology
krice@boisestate.edu

Online Course Requirement for Graduation

Requiring an online experience for students in secondary public schools is a topic that has recently come to the forefront of my work over the last two weeks so I thought I would share just some of the arguments for why this just might make sense…

Online learning is emerging as an essential part of K-12 education with two states (Michigan and Alabama) and many districts finding value in requiring their students to participate in an online experience. There is national support for this movement, particularly in the latest U.S. Department of Education National Educational Technology Plan. Reasons for these initiatives include:

• Today’s learners need a unique set of 21^st century skills to succeed in a global economy. The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills advocates for models of learning that emphasize creative problem-solving, synthesizing, use of networks and workgroups, cultural and global awareness, and the ability to communicate effectively in multiple media. Online learning supports acquisition of these skills by focusing on learner needs, essential skills and building community relationships.

• Online learning often results in increased learning time, which has clearly been shown to improve student outcomes.  In addition, research consistently suggests there is no significant difference in student outcomes in online environments compared to face-to-face instruction. A comprehensive study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, suggested that students performed better in online environments, particularly in blended environments (those with both face-to-face and online components) and the primary reason for this was attributed to increased learning time.

• Online course offerings have been a staple in higher education for some time now.  One-in-four college students report taking an online course and it is expected that this number will continue to increase dramatically in the near future. Providing this experience early-on gets learners one step closer to college-preparedness.

• If you allow learners to fulfill the requirement with courses outside your district, the potential expansion of course offerings can enrich their educational experience by providing them with courses that might not be available locally and by providing opportunities to join other culturally diverse learners from across the country and the globe.

• Online learning offers an approach that allows more flexible and individualized learning. The teachers that we come in contact with often express the belief that their face-to-face teaching practices are literally transformed as a result of taking and teaching online courses. Teachers find that lecture-based instruction simply does not work online. The online environment requires thoughtful consideration and planning, a natural movement from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side”, and attention to the needs of individual learners.

Here is a short list of the most pertinent reports that will be helpful for anybody considering this option:

• The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) is the premier organization in the field. You will find a plethora of resources on their site, including research reports, parent guides, and K-12 online standards and guidelines: http://www.inacol.org/
• John Watson and the Evergreen Education Group prepare a “national snapshot”  report every year called Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning:  An Annual Review of State Level Policy and Practice. It is an excellent resource for keeping up with current initiatives in K-12 online learning: http://www.kpk12.com/download.html
• Evaluation of Evidenced-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies is the report by the U.S. Department of Education mentioned above: http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf
• The National Educational Technology Plan: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/os/technology/plan/2004/site/edlite-default.html
• This Sloan-C report, Learning on Demand: Online Education in the United States, 2009, provides the most up-to-date information on the number of students learning online: http://sloanconsortium.org/publications/survey/pdf/learningondemand.pdf

Associate Chair, Poland (again), and Speaking Engagements

For me, summer is usually a time of relaxed contemplation and completion of all those things that I just wasn’t able to get to during the hectic fall and spring semesters. Not so this year. It’s been a whirlwind of activity, excitement, and downright exhaustion since classes ended in May.

The following are my excuses for the lackluster contributions to this blog in the past month or so

In May, I submitted 5 chapters for my upcoming book to Pearson for review. The title of the book is still percolating in my brain, but the focus is on K-12 online teaching strategies with a short introduction to the landscape of K-12 online education. My deadline for final submission is in August… so with any luck, I’ll have a published book by next year.

In May, I accepted a new position as Associate Chair while our current AC is on sabbatical. This alone has been enough to keep my fingers flying furiously over the keyboard as I answer questions, schedule classes and hire adjuncts along with various other distractions. I’m definitely learning more about the administrative side of university life than I ever thought possible.

Nicolaus Copernicus University

I was invited to speak as part of an international contingent at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland in June where I continue to nurture a budding relationship that I hope will result in a mutually beneficial partnership down the road. Since I was headed over there anyway, I decided to spend some extra time exploring both Poland and Germany by train. Although the preparations for the trip consumed more time than I had, it was well worth it in the end. I’ll never understand the complete disinterest in an efficient rail system (or lack thereof) in the U.S.

Finally, I graciously accepted two speaking invitations – one as keynote for the IDLA summer conference and the other to present the latest trends in K-12 online to the Idaho Charter School Network, including my work in the development of the now approved Idaho K-12 Online Teaching Standards. My presentations as well as the standards can be found on slideshare at: http://www.slideshare.net/krice100

Despite all of this activity, or perhaps because of it, I find that I am beginning to develop a very clear sense of purpose in my teaching and in my message. Good teaching is good teaching, regardless of the medium used to deliver instruction. However, we are beginning to realize that teaching online may be the catalyst that propels us to a new level of teaching excellence. First, it forces us to consider the needs of the learner as an individual – not as one of many that must meet a certain standard or objective in a specified period of time. Second, it forces us to think about and prepare our instruction in ways we have never encountered in the face-to-face classroom. Learner autonomy, community building, active participation, engagement, and authenticism all become critically important in online environments. Third, because it allows flexibility in how and when learning occurs, the boundaries and barriers of traditional educational systems seem meaningless. Grade levels, seat time, ticking clocks, bus schedules, lunch periods, fire drills, detention rooms – all of those artificial distractions and structures that we associate with school, really have no relevance in learning. So the focus can be on LEARNING (and the learner). And yes, technology is the medium, but it is the method that matters most. Technology affords us the opportunity to implement methods that challenge, connect, design, remix, reflect, review, evaluate and allow all learners to be successful learning in ways that work for them – which is our ultimate goal in education, isn’t it?

Newsworthy

Newsworthy e-Learning and social media articles and a link for a free book:

Mashable: The Social Media Guide: Why banning social media often backfires…

Link: http://mashable.com/2010/04/13/social-media-ban-backfire/

Edweek.org: Virtual Ed. Enrollment Caps Face Greater Scrutiny

Link: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/04/28/30edtech_onlinereach.h29.html

Technofirst Online: E-Learning: Learn it the e-way

Link: http://technofirstonline.com/?p=1441

Get a Complimentary Copy of Cyberschools: An Education Renaissance

First published in 1996, Cyberschools explained how the fusion of technology and education would transform the way we learn. Jones anticipated the global boom in distance learning and the mainstreaming of online education. The new edition examines the implications of the latest technology trends and makes a compelling case for increased investment, creative collaboration and entrepreneurship.

Link: http://www.cyberschools.com/content/about-cyberschools#digital_edition?=2