IT6230 – Virtual Schooling in Michigan

As I mentioned a few weeks ago in IT6230 – Internet In The Classroom, I will be using this blog as a way to provide discussion prompts for students in my IT6230 course (Internet in the Classroom).

After completing the readings for this week, how do you feel about the way virtual schooling or K-12 online learning has developed here in Michigan?

With traditional programs (e.g., the Michigan Virtual School) and new programs (e.g., Westwood Cyber High School and St. Clair County RESA’s Virtual Learning Academy), along with the role that GenNet Online Learning has begun to play throughout the state and the fact that two new cyber charter schools are in their third year of offering online learning to students from kindergarten through grade twelve, where do you see K-12 online learning going in Michigan? What will the landscape look like five years from now?

You should post your response as an entry to your own blog by the end of the day on Friday, 22 March 20102 In addition to the entry that you post on your own blog this week, make sure that you comment on at least THREE other students’ blogs by the end of the day on Monday, 25 March.

If you are not a student in my IT6230 course but would like to participate in this discussion, please leave a comment below. In case you are wondering, the readings for this week are:

Clark, T. (2000). Virtual high schools: State of the states – A study of virtual high school planning and preparation in the United States. Center for the Application of Information Technologies, Western Illinois University. Retrieved from http://www.imsa.edu/programs/ivhs/pdfs/stateofstates.pdf

Skim through this document for references to the Michigan Virtual High School.

Clark, T. (2001). Virtual schools: Trends and issues – A study of virtual schools in the United States. San Francisco, CA: Western Regional Educational Laboratories. Retrieved from http://www.wested.org/online_pubs/virtualschools.pdf

Skim through this document for references to the Michigan Virtual High School

Watson, J. F., Winograd, K., & Kalmon, S. (2004). Keeping pace with K-12 online learning: A snapshot of state-level policy and practice. Naperville, IL: North Regional Central Educational Laboratory. Retrieved from http://www.kpk12.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/KeepingPace_2004.pdf

Read pages 43-47.

Watson, J. F., & Kalmon, S. (2005). Keeping pace with K-12 online learning: A review of state-level policy and practice. Naperville, IL: Learning Point Associates. Retrieved from http://www.kpk12.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/KeepingPace_2005.pdf

Read pages 43-44.

Watson, J., & Ryan, J. (2006). Keeping pace with K-12 online learning: A review of state-level policy and practice. Evergreen CO: Evergreen Education Consulting. Retrieved from http://www.kpk12.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/KeepingPace_2006.pdf

Read pages 87-89.

Watson, J. & Ryan, J. (2007). Keeping pace with k-12 online learning: A review of state-level policy and practice. Vienna, VA: North American Council for Online Learning. Retrieved from http://www.kpk12.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/KeepingPace_2007.pdf

Read pages 103-104.

Watson, J. F., Gemin, B., & Ryan, J. (2008). Keeping pace with k-12 online learning: A review of state-level policy and practice. Evergreen CO: Evergreen Education Consulting. Retrieved from http://www.kpk12.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/KeepingPace_2008.pdf

Read pages 109-110.

Watson, J. F., Gemin, B., Ryan, J., & Wicks, M. (2009). Keeping pace with K-12 online learning: A review of state-level policy and practice. Evergreen CO: Evergreen Education Consulting. Retrieved from http://www.kpk12.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/KeepingPace09-fullreport.pdf

Read pages 31-32 and 100-101.

Watson, J. F., Murin, A., Vashaw, L., Gemin, B., & Rapp, C. (2010). Keeping pace with K-12 online learning: A review of state-level policy and practice. Evergreen, CO: Evergreen Education Group. Retrieved from http://www.kpk12.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/KeepingPaceK12_2010.pdf

Read pages 19 and 96-97.

Watson, J. F., Murin, A., Vashaw, L., Gemin, B., & Rapp, C. (2011). Keeping pace with K-12 online learning: A review of state-level policy and practice. Evergreen, CO: Evergreen Education Group. Retrieved from http://kpk12.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/KeepingPace2011.pdf

Read pages 17, 39 and 109-111.

Watson, J. F., Murin, A., Vashaw, L., Gemin, B., & Rapp, C. (2012). Keeping pace with K-12 online learning: A review of state-level policy and practice. Evergreen, CO: Evergreen Education Group. Retrieved from http://kpk12.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/KeepingPace2012.pdf

Read pages 12-16 and 110-112.

IT6230 – Beginning To Look At Virtual Schooling

As I mentioned a few weeks ago in IT6230 – Internet In The Classroom, I will be using this blog as a way to provide discussion prompts for students in my IT6230 course (Internet in the Classroom).

Your discussion entry this week is a two part task. The first part MUST be done by the end of the day before you do the reading for this week (i.e., Tuesday, 05 Tuesday).

For part one, I want you to write an entry TO YOUR OWN BLOG by the end of today (Tuesday, 06 March) that describes what you currently know about K-12 online learning, virtual schooling, or cyber schooling (all three are the same thing, it is just called different things). Here are some questions which can guide you (although note that you do not have to address each of these questions, they are just to get the juices flowing so to speak). What does it look like? How is it done? Where it is done? What kind of students take it? What kind of courses are offered?

For part two, you will post a second blog entry TO YOUR OWN BLOG by the end of the day on Friday, 08 March. After you complete the readings for this week, visit and read the Top 10 Myths about Virtual Schools. Based upon the readings and this website, what did you learn that surprised you? Where there things you posted in part one that were false (were any of them listed in the top 10 myths)? Where there things you posted in part one that were accurate?

In addition to the two entries that you post on your own blog this week, make sure that you comment on at least THREE other students’ blogs by the end of the day on Monday, 11 March. Note that you can comment on either the part one or part two entries of your colleagues.

If you are not a student in my IT6230 course but would like to participate in this discussion, please leave a comment below. In case you are wondering, the readings for this week are:

Clark, T. (2007). Virtual and distance education in North American schools. In M. G. Moore (Ed.), Handbook of Distance Education (473-490). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

IT6230 – Internet In The Classroom

For the past couple of years now I have used this blog as a part of my IT6230 – Internet In The Classroom course that I teach (usually each Winter and Summer semesters). Well, the Winter semester is upon us again and, in fact, today is the first day of the second week of classes. This semester – like past semesters – the course is being offered online.

The official description of the course reads:

Students will use a variety of tools from the read/write web and explore their potential in K-12 education. Students will also examine the use of online learning in the K-12 classroom.

The course objectives are:

Upon completion of this course learners will be able to:

1. evaluate emerging technologies for use in the classroom.
2. develop an Internet-based instructional module.
3. design web-based resources for use in the classroom.
4. examine methods of online course delivery and instruction

One of the activities that the students will be doing from the very beginning of the class is contributing to their blogs based upon a weekly prompt that I post. For the first half of the class, I will be posting those prompts to a class blog. However, in about four or five weeks when we switch to the K-12 online learning I will begin to post those prompts to this blog. If there are other people who wish to participate and respond to these prompts I would encourage you to do so (and send a trackback to the prompt entry if you do).

Nominations Due Monday (Nov 26) for the Annual Edublog Awards!

All caught up now, so things will slow down a bit.  Anyway, I mentioned this a day or two ago, now from the folks at Classroom 2.0…

BTW, I’m open to being nominated as well (for the record, I figure I fall into the “Best ed tech / resource sharing blog” category)!   :)

It is that time of year again! The 2012 Edublog Awards are a go, and I’m pleased for Classroom 2.0 and my Web 2.0 Labs to be co-sponsors again of this very fun annual event. I’ll also be co-hosting the awards event live in December. I’ve been preoccupied with the Global Education Conference, so I’m tardy in helping to promote the event–so notice the due date for nominations coming up this Monday!

The Edublog Awards is a community-based initiative started in 2004 in response to community concerns relating to how schools, districts and educational institutions were blocking access of learner and teacher blog sites for educational purposes.  The purpose of the Edublog awards is promote and demonstrate the educational values of these social media.

You are most welcome (and encouraged!) to nominate any of the Classroom 2.0 activities or resources this year:  this network itself, our weekly Classroom 2.0 LIVE! Show, the Social Learning Summit (held with Discovery Education), SocialEdCon/EduBloggerCon at ISTE, or the virtual Learning 2.0 Conference (held as part of Connected Educator Month).

This is a fun event!  Hope to see you online!

Steve

Steve Hargadon
http://www.stevehargadon.com

How Does It Work? There are 3 parts to the awards:

• Nominations – NOW through November 26th
• Voting – TBA
• The Live Awards Ceremony – TBA

How To Nominate. To nominate your favorites, you:

• Write a post with your nominations for the different categories on your own blog (or a website – anywhere public)
• Send the link to your nomination post via the form at the bottom of the Nominations Page

Here are the 2012 Categories. Nominations are open until Monday, November 26th, so (quickly) nominate your favorite blogs, twitterers, community sites, videos, podcasts and more…

• Best individual blog
• Best group blog
• Best new blog
• Best class blog
• Best student blog
• Best ed tech / resource sharing blog
• Best teacher blog
• Best library / librarian blog
• Best administrator blog
• Most influential blog post
• Best individual tweeter
• Best twitter hashtag
• Best free web tool
• Best educational use of audio / video / visual / podcast
• Best educational wiki
• Best open PD / unconference / webinar series
• Best educational use of a social network
• Best mobile app
• Lifetime achievement

How To Nominate. 

• Write a post with your nominations on your blog, link to them and link to this site
• Use the form at the bottom of the Nominations Page to send a link to your nominations

If you have any questions, you can put a comment on the announcement page or let them know using the contact form.

Visit Classroom 2.0 at: http://www.classroom20.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

Nominations Open for the 2012 Edublog Awards!

Another item from Tuesday’s inbox…

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The 2012 Edublog Awards! Each year we seek out the top bloggers, tweeters, mobile apps, and more to celebrate the best of the web in education. And we need you to help us grow the list by nominating your favorites now! Nominating is easy! There are 19 categories this year and you can nominate one entry for each. Step 1: Write a blog post on your blog sharing who you are nominating and why Step 2: Send us a link to your post using this form here Nominations are open until 8am EST on Tuesday, November 27th. *Note that self-nominations will not be processed. More to come… Next week, we will release the finalists for each category, with open voting after that. We will have a live awards ceremony where we announce the winners the second week of December. Stay tuned for more specifics and remember to nominate your favorites!

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