An Education Revolution Part 3: Online Learning Is Here to Stay

Although the Education Revolution post was initially intended as a 2 part post, seen here and here, respectively, I recently attended a phenomenal webinar hosted by Aventa Learning (@aventalearning) that just blew the doors off of what I wrote and opened the discussion back up to some incredible facts and points that are rising in the education and edtech world.  Now, this post isn't necessarily an endorsement for Aventa Learning specifically, but credit must be given where credit is due from an information standpoint, and I will speak more so from the perspective that online learning is here to stay, and it's companies like Aventa that are blazing the trail.  What's more, Forbes can serve as a well-spoken appetizer to the topic at hand, "Education as we know it is finished."

In a study by Aventa Learning, a survey was conducted to 500 public school students and 326 Aventa students in late May 2010 on teens and online learning.  The implications from the the study will make any edtech revolutionaries so excited they'll dance in their seats like a 3rd grader who's got to hit the can:  Not only is online learning for secondary education here to stay, it's here to grow tremendously. 

Whether brick and mortar environment or online, students must still experience a challenge or will feel disconnected.  So why change from the brick and mortar environment?  Because:

-42% of students experience boredom
-55% of students say bullying is a problem
-48% of students are distracted by other kids
-88% of students want more electives, online classes and flexible schedules
-18% (that's it?) of students get help and attention they need from teachers
-50% of students prefer to engage and learn with their senses - to 'see' and 'do' rather than just listen.
-Furthermore, in a poll conducted on a few hundred attendees in the webinar, 54% of teachers say they see boredom in their classrooms everyday.

In the past you had to listen to your instructor.  They were, after all, one of the only credible sources of information you could depend on.  Now--as Aventa noted--being the digital natives they are, students are very discriminatory on where they spend their time and attention.  Information is acquired through multiple avenues, and the instructors who realize this the quickest will be the first to gain their students' attention back, else the students will be "at best asleep and at worst disruptive."

As explained by webinar hosts Gregg Levin, VP Schools and Solutions at Aventa, and Dr. Cathy Mincberg, Chief Academic Officer at KC Distance Learning, "Today students don't tolerate not being in control.  We don't meet students where they are, hence the increase in dropouts.  Students want to be in control."  How can  they do that?  Introducing an online setting, fully functional and credit transferable for the student looking to get ahead or to catch up.  Let's look at the presented facts:


-72% of online students spend three or more hours on homework per week vs. 56% of students in traditional schools.
-78% of online students have more interest in attending a 4-year college after graduation vs. 67% of students in traditional schools.
-58% of students feel they get the help they need in online classrooms vs 40% of students in traditional schools (Without the need of feeling embarrassed because of asking for help)
-Allows a 1:1 relationship between teachers and students instead of a 30:1 relationship in traditional schools.
-Teachers can track student success easier, record data, and tweak their performance if they know what areas they need to help their student(s) improve upon.
-A school's funding may see a lift in its burden.  After all, if a school doesn't have enough students to pay a new teacher for an AP class, maybe they simply need a proctor or a teacher that would allow them to take the online course during a brick and mortar course of the school's (aka 'hybrid course').  The school can even offer courses that provide an extension for students who need more review to catch up, or allow students to advance on their own if they are gifted.

Finally, No Child Left Behind could actually be satisfied with something as exciting as this last note.  As the main portion of the bell curve is attended to through normal classes, the outliers can be assisted with a program catered to their needs and desired attention.  After all, online learning is anything but dangerously anti-social and nonproductive.  A student in fact cannot 'blend' in, but can instead be catered to and interacted with on a more intimate level.  This allows for teachers to be more strategic at talking to students and their parents about homework and/or grade issues without marginalizing anyone in class.

As Levin and Mincberg noted, "Online learning has emerged because of the need for something different in the world of education."  The evidence is becoming clearer: It's time to give online learning a very serious look.  For more information, white papers are available at www.aventalearning.com.

Thank you Aventa Learning for the information and image!

The Future of Reading: Text 2.0

Had to share this.  This article simply astonished me -- half in giddy delight, the other half in an anxious, scared-of-Big Brother way that I usually feel when technology makes significant advances.  Considering the concern that folks had about e-commerce back in 1999, I realized my anxiety was normal and would eventually subside to the inner child that loves to play with new gadgets.

Imagine if you are doing a report for a school paper and simply skimming through an online document fairly quickly to search for keywords, when all of a sudden the computer does the work for you, fading away unimportant filler and bolding the key terms that you need.  Or imagine that you are learning a different language and that as you read your assignment that is posted in Spanish, you become stuck at trying to decipher a certain word.  The computer notices this and, in a little popup window, offers a quick translated word for you to see before you move on to the rest of the sentence.  This is just the beginning.  This is Text 2.0.

Illustrations, definitions, sounds: this brings it all to the table.  Elementary school and learning to read may never be the same.  Special education could be helped tremendously with this aid.  College Literature and Herman Melville's allegories will be missed no more with automatic footnotes that it provides as you cross over a difficult pronoun or location.  As it follows your eyes with the computer's camera, it even knows when you look away and welcomes you back with a bookmark of where you were.

This is in its early stages still, but apparently, according to the article large companies such as Apple are showing interest in the technology.  That type of funding could make this concept become a household name in the next ten years.

The video in the article is rather interesting, showing a few instances of Text 2.0 in action.  Be sure to take a view and begin imagining how this could help you with your classroom!

You are About to Witness an Education Revolution: Part 2

Welcome back.  It is becoming more and more common to find multiple articles daily from credible news sources that stress the important of "e-learning" or "m-learning" for the "i-generation."  I'd like to share a few of them in this post and the previous as a follow up to our Ten Things a Teacher Should Know In the 20-Teens article to point #3: Explore How  to Teach, Not Just What to Teach.

After discussing reteaching the way teachers teach in the first part of this post, the natural question I want to ask after such a thing is accomplished is: "Then what?"  That's when we can start having fun with technology.  Our young students are immersed in technology everyday, what with YouTube, smart phones, video games, web browsing, Twitter, etc.  Since the emergence of these (and especially since the iPad launch), there has been a rather noteworthy increase on articles that involve educational video games, so much so that this could be a precursor to a rather major movement to the educational industry.  But don't take my word for it; Browse the news articles when you have a moment and you'll quickly discover it as well.  Even companies that make products for the classroom are beginning to be encouraged and pushed towards creating more tech-based products (i.e. programs for cell-phones).  I'll be happy to point you to a few within this article to get you started.  As I come across more I'll be sure to update the list.

Social Sciences

-Too many students do not retain vital information from social sciences.  Here's an interesting title that includes minigames such as “Do I Have A Right”: iCivics

Elementary

- Martha Speaks has made its way to the iPhone as an App.  This is just the start of applications with educational purposes to keep your child busy in the checkout line at the supermarket.

Foreign Langauges

-Facebook Apps are now beginning to crop up with educational value.  Teacher's Discovery, a leader in foreign language education just launched a Digital Flash Card Challenge for beginning learners of a few languages.
-Hello-Hello has launched a new app for the iPad for learning numbers in different foreign languages for children.

Math

-Math and logic are sometimes are a bit of a challenge to have fun with, but True Thought LLC has developed a rather interesting game to liven it up.  Square Logic is Sudoku-meets-Inspector Parker with math thrown in the mix.  Frankly, it's almost too much fun while doing math.

Role Playing / Training

-Corporations may take this virtual world into their consideration when training customer service reps

-One of the more seasoned and fascinating video games used for role playing in a virtual setting is Second Life

Here's a great post from a fellow blogger talking about educational games.

Some educators may look to this video game surge as disheartening, but other educators look at this as revolutionary and exhilarating.  Just as when the emergence of writing birthed civilization and allowed the world to learn at an incredibly quickened pace, technology has just birthed globalization, allowing humans to access their environment from a top-down perspective, understanding the bigger picture of how the world works.  Look at how fast a toddler learns to use an iPad.  As we recall with the Learning Pyramid, instead of just watching Sesame Street, a toddler can now interact and heighten their understanding of a math problem or vocabulary word almost instantly.

This is a fascinating time to be in the education world.  Teachers: get ready for the revolution.

You are About to Witness an Education Revolution: Part 1

Yes indeed, the time as come.  Experts, marketers, bloggers and administrators are all marching to the same beat: We are on the brink of a massive education revolution.  It is becoming more and more common to find multiple articles daily from credible news sources that stress the important of "e-learning" or "m-learning" for the "i-generation."  I'd like to share a few of them in this post and the next as a follow up to our Ten Things a Teacher Should Know In the 20-Teens article to point #3: Explore How  to Teach, Not Just What to Teach.

As our digital natives enter the education world, some are light years ahead of their instructor in networking, online etiquette, accessibility to information and adaptability to newer technologies.  Since we cannot change the way the students are learning, it only makes sense that we must change the way our teachers are teaching.  Such a call to action would have to be answered by not only the universities and colleges that train our next generation of teachers but also the education supply companies, the parents, but most of all, the teachers themselves.


But what exactly needs to be changed?  
-The content?  Not necessarily.  Although certain standards may have been tweaked to accompany some of the growing technologies, they have mostly remained the same and students still need to learn to read a map.

-The time of day that school takes place?  Although there have been about 120 schools across the country that have shifted to a 4-day schoolweek and have claimed improvements in student test scores, there isn't sufficient evidence to support this wholeheartedly.  This could be a maybe.
-The delivery of the content?  Now we're on to something.  So says former President of both the California Charter Schools Association and the Los Angeles Unified School District, “data shows that more than half of the students say that the easiest way for students to learn something new is by practicing and watching, which is one of several critical reasons why we need to re-wire our educational approach.”

In other words?  Teachers must become students again... sometimes to their own students.  In an Associated Press article that asks how we should teach future teachers, "Hemant Mehta's formal training was useless when it came to keeping order in the classroom and getting students to pay attention." The article continues, explaining "the 27-year-old needed help from Twitter, math blogs on the Internet, TV sitcoms and experienced teachers down the hall."


Suzanne Wilson, chair of teacher education at Michigan State University from the same article adds to the mix by bringing up a daunting point. "It's complicated in the United States because we don't as a country agree that teachers need much preparation.  We're deeply divided on this as a country."


But what are the challenges to changing the attitude of educators towards such a momentous shift?  In a survey reported here, teachers cited the following factors as barriers to using information and communication technology in their classrooms:


    * Extent of the curriculum that needs to be covered during the year (81.4%)
    * Time constraints (71.7%)
    * Time required for preparing information and communication technology-based activities (60.4%)
    * Availability of infrastructure (53.5%)
    * Amount of quality content (50.7 %)
    * Lack of in-classroom teacher support (50.2%)
    * Lack of participation of teachers in decision making (43.4%)
    * Need for professional development (37%).

At first glance, it appears that we just revealed a project that's a bit bigger than anticipated.  Considering the leading challenge, not only do teachers have a large amount of content to cover, they also have No Child Left Behind Axe looming over their sweating brows.  This, in fact could arguably be a direct or indirect cause to many of the remaining factors.  Such a rationale is a fair explanation used from the critics to this movement.  From a new-age perspective however, there exists an argument that is just as powerful: the use of information and communication technology will assist students in learning quicker, thus moving through the extent of content quicker and allowing the rest to fall into place.

Platforms are beginning to crop up like ConnectYard that would allow instructors to communicate with their students through social media.  They may also start a second Facebook Profile that is only for school-purposes, an online blog, a wiki and much more.  Possibilities are growing every day for teachers to reach their students in a method that will maximize the learning potential.  Some teachers have even allowed students to text them.  We are about to witness an education revolution.  Will you be a part of it?

Educators: Your Personal Life May No Longer Be Personal

In lieu of all of the newest Facebook changes, here's a quick follow up post to our Ten Things Educators Should Know in the 20-Teens article and come back to #4: Your Personal Life May No Longer be Personal.

After the most recent changes that included user to "Like" content outside of Facebook (Thus allowing information to leak out of the site), there were a few negative responses from the community urging Facebook to reconsider it's breach of the privacy threshold.

As educators, this is simply an alarming reminder to stay wary of what to post online in our profiles and other content.  With camera phones only being a recent innovation, a veteran educator may not sense the threat of unprofessional images cropping up in their supervisor's inbox of something they did in the past.  However, an interesting new article points to the fact that the younger crowd are beginning to learn rather quickly.

Posted at eSchoolNews, studies have shown that youth are more apt to watch their privacy settings than the previous generations.  It is becoming more common for a student entering the working world to hack and slash their profile to skin and bones, eliminating tags to unprofessional photos and cleaning up their "interests" and "hobbies."

"I have to present a public face that doesn't have the potential to hurt my image," says Marlene McManus from the article as she "scours" her profile of photos from college exploits.  This is so key, and portrayed very nicely through @edtechsteve and his video on digital footprints.

But it's not just students who are trying to enter the working world.  Educators must also be wary from the opposite end of the spectrum.  If a teacher has a Facebook account, it may be harsh to simply ignore friend requests from students.  A simple solution some educators are taking is creating a second account, starting afresh without the danger of sharing content that was not meant to be seen.

Critics seem to be running out of arguments.  After once claiming that "[online] relationships could cause bias when the instructor gives his or her students a grade," we are beginning to see that a social media account is as expected as having a cell phone in today's era.  From the same article, "Proponents of using online social networks to reach students say it makes sense to go where students are already spending much of their time online."  By separating the professional from the personal, educators may find a handy tool to assist in conducting an engaging classroom.