K-12 Online Learning And Educational Reform

I’ve had a couple of items that have come across my electronic desk in the past day or two that have all kind of come together for me in a mishmash of ideas.  The first was this item that scrolled through my Twitter stream:

Click on the image or visit http://weblogg-ed.com/2011/online-learning-isnt-learning-online/

Essentially, Will Richardson is responding to an article that was posting in the Huffington Post by Tom Vander Ark entitled “Utah Poised to Lead in Online Learning.”  If I could be so bold, I believe Will’s main criticism of what Tom has written is that everything Tom points to that is good about the program in Utah has nothing to do with the fact that the program is online.  Will even creates the following list from Tom’s article:

1. I can work ahead if I’m able to
2. I get nearly instant responses from my teachers
3. I get personalized support when I need it
4. My teachers are just as excited about online learning as I am
5. I can do all my math for the week on one day if I want to
6. I know how I’m doing, my grades are right on the screen
7. My parents can see my work and grades
8. My courses are more challenging
9. I can keep up with my work when my family travels
10. I can work around a busy schedule

All Will is exactly right about this.  These gains or improvements have nothing to do with the fact that the school is online.  They have nothing to do with the fact the school is a charter school.  Both of these are things Tom thinks are the answer to all of our educational woes.  But the bottom line is that what this Utah program has done is simply focus on changes to the teaching and learning environment – essentially how education is designed, delivered and supported.  To put it more bluntly, as I did this past summer in News: Study Finds No Clear Edge for Charter Schools,  to paraphrase a former Democratic political operative, “It’s about the pedagogy, stupid!”

The educational reform movement should not be about how education is funded, how it is governed, or how it is administered.  These are the things that those pushing the McDonaldization of public education want to focus on because they think school’s should be run like businesses.  The cherrypick and misuse research to push their own politically motivated agendas, and at the end of the day produce the same results as the current public school system.  I bring this around to educational reform because Will Richardson is one of those folks actually making sense on the issue.  He is someone interested not in who can profit from public education, but how we can improve the system for all students.  A couple of other posts that he made at Weblogg-ed also caught my attention:

• The Urgency for Change
• When’s Our Egypt Moment?
• The Big Questions: Now What?

I particularly like the second one, as it reminds me of my own entry Where Are Our 95 Theses???

Finally, this item came through my inbox as a part of the eSchool News Today.

Top Stories of the Day

Viewpoint: Why education is not like business Much of the recent political chatter has claimed that government is inefficient, inept, and wasteful, and the oft-cited remedy for such failures is to make government–including public education–act more like business. After all, isn’t it… [ Read More ]

More food for thought…