Education Week - November 6, 2013 - 9

DIGITAL DIRECTIONS > Tracking news and ideas in educational technology
www.digitaldirections.org
District Setbacks Shape Virtual-Ed. Discussion
Blended learning is
focus at tech event
By Sean Cavanagh
Orlando, Fla.
Backers of blended and online
learning arrived here to exchange
ideas and learn about practices they
can take back to their districts and
offices-even as major problems
playing out in school districts that
have launched outsized technology
projects offered reminders of potential
consequences when the most
ambitious plans go awry.
The annual symposium of the International
Association for K-12 Online
Learning bills itself as the premier
gathering of supporters of blended and
online models, and it drew administrators
and teachers from school systems
large and small. Their needs vary
enormously, depending on the technological
mix of computer-based and inperson
instruction they envision.
The meeting had an estimated 2,400
registered attendees, who also included
company officials, philanthropists, researchers,
and others-many of whom
emphasized that their plans to implement
or expand online or blended
learning are playing out at a much
smaller scale than the ambitious 1-to-1
computing efforts attempted by the
Guilford County, N.C., and Los Angeles
school systems, where major problems
have been reported. But those
gathered also spoke of what they see
as flaws in approaches used in Los Angeles
and other districts, and said they
are confident that with enough planning,
they can avoid similar mishaps.
"There is just that sense of 'Wow,
how do we make sure that doesn't happen
to our kids?'" said Don Andrews,
the assistant superintendent for secondary
instruction in the Lee's Summit
R-7 school district, an 18,000-student
system in Missouri.
Challenges for Districts
While Mr. Andrews said his school
district doesn't have a true blendedlearning
model, it is steadily increasing
its online instruction. One of its
major goals for the next few years is to
increase the "density" of its online connectivity,
so that students have reliable
connections in every classroom, even
while the demand increases as students
and teachers are using myriad
mobile devices at the same time. The
district is gradually shifting toward a
"bring-your-own-device" approach to
technology, he said.
Meeting those goals will mean increasing
the number of wireless access
points throughout the district, Mr. Andrews
said. "Kids don't care how many
access points you have," he said. "They
care about having [wireless technology]
that works just as well as it does
at the local McDonald's."
The 664,000-student Los Angeles
school district's rollout of an effort to
provide iPads to every student over
several years, at a cost that could
reach $500 million, has been dogged
by a series of problems. There have
been questions about the exact
cost of individual devices, students'
demonstrated ability to circumvent
security filters on the tools-and, as
reported recently by Education Week,
questions about the readiness of curriculum
developed by Pearson that
is designed to be embedded in the
devices. (See Education Week, Oct.
30, 2013.)
Meanwhile, technical troubles with
1-to-1 computing initiatives have
emerged in smaller districts. In the
73,000-student Guilford County,
N.C., school system, which is plan-
"
tional technology for the Naperville,
Ill., Community Unit School District
203. "We like to use [those incidents]
as teachable moments."
Mr. Son's 17,000-student district
is partnering with nearby school
systems in trying to improve its
technology. It is also expanding its
wireless access, considering options
for moving ahead with a bring-yourown
device model, and trying to integrate
technology with improved
teaching practices, he said.
"We have to know there are going to
be bumps along the way," Mr. Son said.
Beyond the Devices
This is not about 1-to-1
and giving kids tablets
and all that. ... It should
be about, what is the
educational goal you
want to reach, what
is the instructional
practice, and what
is the content"
districts need.
SUSAN D. PATRICK
iNACOL
ning a 1-to-1 effort, district officials
suspended the deployment of tablets
and other equipment provided by
the company Amplify after reports
of equipment problems. And in Fort
Bend, Texas, district officials abandoned
a plan that had been in the
works for a year and a half to provide
science curriculum with iPads, after a
consultant cited a litany of problems
with the project's standards, management,
and integration with the
district's existing curriculum. (See
Education Week, Oct. 16, 2013.)
While a number of school administrators
at the conference cautioned
against drawing broad conclusions
from those districts' experiences, they
also said the high-profile troubles are
instructive in some ways-though not
in the ways one might expect.
A number of conference attend-
ees, for instance, said they thought
the concerns about Los Angeles
students' security breaches, and the
district's response to it, were overblown.
Overly restrictive policies risk
thwarting students' creativity, and
don't offer schools the opportunity to
reinforce lessons on responsible technology
use, they argued.
Simply taking devices away or putting
overly aggressive restrictions on
them risk "punishing the masses for
the mistakes of the few," said John
David Son, the director of instruc-
Many district officials at the conference
said while they hoped to glean
some cautionary lessons from the
experiences of Los Angeles, Guilford
County, and other districts, they also
noted their district technology plans
are typically smaller scale, and have
much different goals-a view echoed
by Susan D. Patrick, the president and
CEO of the online learning association,
known as iNACOL, hosting the event.
A core message Ms. Patrick said was
being driven home at the event is that
districts need to focus first on their
instructional needs, and how they can
personalize learning to meet the specific
needs of students of different ability
levels-and only then seek technology
to help them get there. "This is not
about 1-to-1 and giving kids tablets
and all that-that's been said a hundred
times here," Ms. Patrick said.
Questions about buying this or
that technology "should be the last
thing you ask," she said. "It should
be about, what is the educational
goal you want to reach, what is the
instructional practice, and what is
the content" you need?
Finding the right content is particularly
difficult for districts, because
that content needs to match their edu-
cational demands, Ms. Patrick added.
Districts also need to be focused on
how they're going to collect data that
offers precise, transparent information
on student learning, and ensure "multiple
pathways for learning."
"That's a very different conversation
than, 'What are the apps on my
tablet?'" she said. Ms. Patrick said districts
have much more information on
how to use blended and online learning
than they did a few years ago, in
terms of making sure technology is
aligned with academic goals and individual
student needs.
One resource meant to provide districts
with direction was released at
the conference, "Keeping Pace With
K-12 Online and Blended Learning,"
an annual report about virtual education
produced by the Evergreen Education
Group. The document includes
a section on "planning for quality,"
meant to help guide district leaders
through various challenges while moving
into blended learning, from training
teachers to choosing technology to
setting realistic deadlines.
While disheartening, the technology
difficulties in Los Angeles and other
districts should prod school leaders to
set clear objectives for what they want
to accomplish educationally, and how
technology can help, said John Watson,
the founder of Evergreen, a consulting
organization based in Colorado.
The temptation in districts is to
"layer on technology, buy a bunch of
devices," Mr. Watson said. "That story
is happening in countless districts
around the country." The difference in
Los Angeles, he said, "is the order of
magnitude."
Coverage of the education industry and
K-12 innovation is supported in part
by a grant from the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation. Education Week
retains sole editorial control over the
content of this coverage.
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EDUCATION WEEK | November 6, 2013 | www.edweek.org | 9
K-12's BLENDED
AND ONLINE LEARNING
LANDSCAPE
The market is changing
and growing:
310,000 students
are enrolled in fully online schools
serving students from multiple
districts, an increase of over 13
percent from last year.
740,000 students
are enrolled in state virtual schools
in 26 states.
Enrollment
grew in some state virtual schools
(such as Alabama, Georgia, and
Montana) by at least 17 percent,
and fell by at least 13 percent
in others (including Colorado
Connecticut, and Iowa).
Eight states
explicitly allow private and
home-schooled students to take
part in state-backed, supplemental
online courses; 21 states do not
offer that option; the remaining ones
typically have options for private or
home-schooled students to pay for
online courses, through mechanisms
based on specific schools or
programs, not state policy.
SOURCE: Evergreen Education Group
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Education Week - November 6, 2013

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