The latest trend in education may be to shift teaching and learning from the classroom to the internet. We are seeing more and more states tuning to this as an answer to their education woes. Colleges have been transitioning in that direction for years. Online course have exploded over the years. I served on a committee for the New York State United Teachers examining those online possibilities for the secondary level back in the turn of the century, about the year 2000.
My personal experience with online learning, beyond the theoretical, came with my daughter as an eighth grader participating in an online-writing program sponsored by Johns Hopkins University. This occurred in 2007. I have two daughters and they have grown up in a technology-rich home environment. We are most fortunate and are thankful every day for what we have. The experience of my kids however, is probably not typical for every kid in America. That experience is what my daughter brought to the table as her preparation for this writing program.
Two things impressed me about this program. First, I was intrigued with the approach and methodology of the teacher .It was not assignments and worksheets, but rather explorations and feedback. Second, I witnessed how effective it was in engaging and advancing my daughter in writing. Of course the obvious, to be stated, is that if it were not for the first, the second would never have resulted. It was obvious that the educator on the other side of the computer screen was trained and experienced in delivering more than material and worksheets to spark more than just involvement on my daughter’s part. She was participating with interest. As a “classroom teacher”, I was most impressed. As a father, I was very proud of my daughter’s accomplishments. As an educator, I began to think, is this the way to go?
Stepping back into the “Wayback Machine” and returning to today, I need to ask many more questions. There are many who see this as a silver bullet for education. It addresses the concerns of politicians and business people. Online learning can be cheaper and more cost-effective than classroom teaching. They foresee one educator reaching larger numbers of students than could be done with conventional teaching methods. Less overhead, more profit, lower taxes. With the Kahn Academy and the popularity of the TED Talk Lectures how can online learning miss the mark? It is the one stop answer many have been looking for. That would be the many who are not educators, but seem to direct the reform discussions.
If we are to travel the path to online learning, we need people to lead the way. Most colleges are preparing teachers for classroom teaching. Technology itself has found it difficult to break into the teacher preparation mindset. The idea that a teacher can teach solely over the internet, or even for part of the day, has not yet been accepted by many of those who teach teachers. The blended classroom may be happening, but it is through pioneering and not engineering. We need more than a workshop to train teachers to teach over the internet.
The idea of the blended class on the secondary level, which is far less a goal than complete immersion into online learning, cannot depend on happening with just students coming from colleges as new teachers. With over 7 million teachers in the United States we can’t expect that all of them have the ability or inclination to self-teach themselves the skills necessary to support an online teaching initiative.
The other big obstacle to this online learning is the same thing that is an obstacle to conventional education that we continue to ignore, poverty. There are families that are not financially capable of supporting that which is necessary for online learning. They do not have the bandwidth metaphorically or literally to do this.
I also question the ability of the students to be prepared for such a change. Being educated in an environment that at best has mixed feelings about technology in education, are our students properly versed in, not only the skills needed, but the mindset required for online learning? We have schools that still ban the internet. We have teachers who will not give up the chalk board. We still budget for overhead projectors and textbooks. These are not bad things. They are however indicators that we may not yet be prepared for immersion into online education. As always, the use of technology for the sake of using technology in an education setting is doomed for failure.
As an adult, I am all for online learning. Adults however, learn differently than children. As an educator I support the use of technology as a tool for learning. I would use it anywhere that it fits into what I teach and how I teach it. I believe we need to teach our students for the lives they will be living, which is not the same as the lives led by us, their teachers. I believe we must move forward to stay relevant. None of this can be successful however without the proper preparation.
The agenda for online learning may be misguided by people whose motivations are guided less by quality education and more by cutting costs and taxes, or, in the case of private schooling, to increase profits. Online learning, to be done properly, will require educating the educators, and providing the poor with that which they must have to participate in education. Students will also have to be provided the skills to participate in the process. Colleges will need to prepare teachers differently. Oh, and here is the elephant in the room. Who stays home with the kids as they are receiving their online education?
If we are going to go in the direction of online learning, than we must prepare for it. I think if we do so, it may change not only the way we teach, but it will affect the way everyone learns. It cannot be done on the cheap. Professional development in our system is, and continues to be the weak link of education. We cannot again add-on something else without training and supporting those who must use it, and then blaming them when it ultimately fails. There are so many unanswered questions. Even as we answer the questions however, we must keep in mind, that there is no single answer. There is no silver bullet.
My Island View 
My love of communications, computers and the I’net all converge on 3D Immersive Learning Environments and virtual worlds. More sources of information, with better user interfaces are becoming available daily. It mandatory for engaging and maintaining the attention of this generation of digital natives.
I applaude those states embracing the obvious. The logical next step is educating the district IT departments that are still afraid of anything/everything outside of their own network. The day of the intimidating, iron fisted network Nazi admin needs to end. They, like the majority of tenured educators, need network and I’net Professional Development beyond Micro$oft. Industry Standard Best Practices need to be introduced and implemented within these homegrown Draconian empires.
I typically have 50 to 60 students enrolled in online courses during each semester, mainly because my small high school offers only core academic courses and not electives. This means I see firsthand that not all students are ready for online learning environments. More than several of our students struggle and even fail an online course during a semester because they lack the initiative or motivation to maintain the often abundant work load. Still, I think there is success in their failures. Sometimes the best way to learn what not to do is to do it and fail, and many of our students experience that. Online learning is as you say, “Not a silver bullet.” I would add that it is not for every student, especially those not yet mature enough for it. I do think we need to be open to it as an option. I also think teachers of all stripes, and administrators, would do well to learn how to engage students in this environment. Great, thought-provoking post.
I agree with your view that online courses should be seen more as an option and an enhancement to the school environment, rather than an inevitable replacement. Online learning places even more responsibility on the home environment to make sure students take the initiative and without the anchor of traditional classrooms, this might challenge the achievement gap even further.
What I see is that too many people with differing views all want to do “what’s best for the child.” The more we pull an educator away from the daily needs of the student the more we will lose students down the cracks. Some students will really excel with online learning and some, who have great support systems, will do well. What becomes of the others?
The only answer, that I can wrap my brain around, is a blended learning environment. The close proximity of a teacher can catch students as they are falling through those “cracks” and can bring them back on the proper track.
Yes we need to embrace distance learning for several reasons but, at the same time, we need to have teachers who are even more skilled at identifying where there are misconceptions or gaps in fundamentals than we require presently. We will need to establish teacher training programs that look much more differently than what we have today.
Enjoyed this thought-provoking post and I hope you have a wonderful holidays.
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What I like best about this is that you recognize that even online learning needs to be facilitated and delivered by a teacher, not a computer. The computer is simply the medium, not the practitioner. I find many teachers and administrators want to use technology *instead* of a teacher rather than allowing a teacher to use technology.
I practice in a flipped classroom. Recently, I’ve been catching a lot of flack because of teachers “blending” by turning on a Khan Academy video and walking away. My principal has been supportive by mostly ignoring what I’m doing, but has began to ask questions because of reports of teachers sitting back and relaxing all day. A useful tool is being tarnished because of the action (inaction?) of a few people using it poorly.
Technology is much the same. We don’t hear wonderful stories of teachers revolutionizing their classrooms nearly as often as teachers being caught in relationship scandals or for writing foolish commentary on the web. The action of the few are more harmful in some ways than the work of the many. Technology isn’t THE solution…there is no one way to teach. But it sure is a tool that can help us find a better way to work with kids.
I agree whole-heartedly that proper implementation & PD are key. . . they always have been. And, they’ve always been the place we’ve fallen down. I find myself in awe of the knowledge, ideas, true grit, and pure heart expressed by teachers online daily. I don’t have a doubt in the world that the passionate expertise needed to plan and deliver such professional development surrounds us in every corner of the world. What an exciting time of change!
Brian Bennett, for me, you’ve done a great job of showing the practical side of what Tom’s thinking may look like in a school. Unless these potential issues are addressed, what could be real advancement and innovation in learning will materialize as yet another “bandwagon”. What a loss that would be.
Josain Zsun, you’ve raised an issue that has frustrated me for the past few years. I was working as a technology learning coordinator and faced road-block after road-block from our network administrators who feared losing their “control”. Because I don’t have their expertise, I can’t judge whether the fears are well-founded or not. I only know how much it prevented forward momentum and many teachers simply gave up. This year, I have returned to a classroom. I have more edutech ideas now than I did as a classroom teacher four years ago, and given the scenario you presented, I’m finding it extremely hard to find my groove again under the restrictions. You can’t unknow what you know. Many teachers who engage in self-directed PD through online PLNs must face similar frustrations.
Among all the issues, three stand out for me. I’d love to read some possible solutions from those with much broader knowledge than mine…. good fodder for holiday pondering…. (in no particular order):
(1) What are some creative ways effective implementation & PD could be funded?
(2) What could online learning look like for the very young (those in need of tremendous teacher support and socialization)? Would it be akin to the “gradual release of responsibility” we use in teaching — only on a larger & more complex scale?
(3) And, what are some ideas on how we should address Tom’s elephant in the room? Who does look after the kids while they are receiving their online learning?
Great post, Tom! Grappling with the details has to come now, not later.
Though I’ve moved back into the regular classroom voluntarily, my eight years in distance ed. has led me to the following conclusions:
1. The creation and delivery of good online courses (esp. those that are fully online and asynchronous) cost almost as much as those in regular “brick and mortar” schools. Politicians and educators who think they can save money with online education will either be sorely disappointed or stuck with very poor online schools.
2. Asynchronous courses, where students work at their own pace, are very inefficient. This is not surprising, since student and teacher work one-on-one, rather than one-on-thirty in a regular classroom. One-on-one is a wonderful way to learn (and teach), but let’s not delude ourselves into thinking it’s efficient. And when you add the problem of marking, where teachers rarely mark the same assignment more than once at the same time, you begin to realize what a “boutique service” distance ed. can be. So, if an online school has pupil-teacher ratios equal to or greater than a regular school, I wouldn’t want my own children going there.
2. All other things being equal, completion rates in asynchronous distance schools are always going to be lower. Sorry, there’s no way to avoid it. If the rates are comparable to regular schools, the standards have probably been lowered to an outrageous degree.
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Appreciate your thinking around this. Some thoughts…
The elephant…
For younger students, schools can/should serve as safe learning centers. For teens, they should know, or be taught, to care for themselves and also have access to safe learning centers.
The poor…
Like those who receive food stamps and free lunch, school must use part of their budgets to subsidize home internet access.
The teachers…
Need to let go of the past and update their practices or find other careers. There is all sorts of professional development just waiting for them…for free.
The admins…
Must lead by example and give teachers time to learn, grown, develop these skills.
The colleges…
Should be held accountable for ensuring their students are prepared to teach online or be shutdown.
Everyone…
Needs to accept the bigger elephant in the room and recognize that may students are learning, and learning deeply and effectively online without the help of a traditional teacher. What new and valuable roles, might teachers take on?
Apologies for typo…
“many” not “may” in the second to last sentence.
While I’m here, I’ll add one more nugget.
For an example of many of suggestions above, read this article:
http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2011/11/moms-story-when-school-left-my-child.html
Tom,
This is a good an insightful article. Blended learning is not a silver bullet, but it may be doorway that education can enter. I have been teaching in a cyber and blended environment for the past seven years. We use Moodle as our portal to deliver instruction. Open source platforms are excellent because they can be developed by every one in a true spirit of collaboration.
I think that blended learning is a doorway to what I like to call a-la-carte education. In Moodle students are empowered to take individual courses or projects from different schools similar to your daughter’s experience at John Hopkins. ultimately, the power of choice behind the charter school movement must be extended more fully to the student at the course and not just the school level.
Pat Parris
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