EDTECH597 – Poll Entry: What Should A Canadian K-12 Online Learning Professional Organization Look Like?

As I mentioned yesterday (and this past Friday), late last week I participated in a Canadian K-12 Online Leaders’ Summit.  One of the discussions we had at the summit was an exploration of how to formalize this kind of group so that we could meet on a more regular basis.  While the nature of this group, what it may look like, and what it may do is still very much up in the air – although we have a good plan in place to figure that out over the next 12 months – I wanted to use this opportunity to poll my Canadian readers.

Remember, if you select other please use the comments below to describe what you had in mind.

EDTECH597 – Video Entry: Canadian K-12 Online Leaders’ Summit Presentation – State of the Nation: K-12 Online Learning in Canada

This past Friday and Saturday I was in Toronto to attend the Canadian K-12 Online Leaders’ Summit.  One of the items on our agenda was a presentation that I was to deliver on the annual State of the Nation: K-12 Online Learning in Canada studies.  As all of the group were familiar with the report, I decided to skip much of that discussion and we moved to the more informal events that we had planned to allow the various leaders to be able to network and learn from each other.

Throughout the course of the event, it was mentioned several times that I should have given the presentation.  So, anticipating that I had this sample video entry coming up with week as a part of my EDTECH597: Blogging in the Classroom course, on Friday night I prepared the following video presentation that I would have delivered at the event on Friday.

EDTECH597 – Audio Entry: VSM July 2012 Podcast – Two Minute Thesis Contest (Virtual Schooling Edition)

Earlier this month I posted an entry entitled Announcing the PHD 2-minute Thesis Contest! (Virtual Schooling Edition).  Essentially, PhD Comics have asked people to create a two minute video to describe their thesis or dissertation in pedestrian language.  The winning entry will get their thesis or dissertation immortalized in a PhD Comic.

In the earlier entry, I challenged my K-12 online learning colleagues who have completed a thesis or dissertation to take part in this challenge and I would post all of the results here on this blog.  As a way to throw down the gauntlet even more, I present to you my submission.

For those interested in this study, you can actually read the full dissertation at http://www.michaelbarbour.com/research/pubs/phd_2007.pdf

EDTECH597 – Poll Entry: Retake – Should States Have Online Teaching Endorsements?

In my EDTECH597 – Week 7 entry yesterday, I indicated that I would post an entry with video in it to model for my Boise State students. Over the course of this week I’ve been working with a group of my doctoral students as we plan out a book chapter on examples from teacher education of preparation for K-12 online learning, which is actually how I thought up the question I wanted to use for this example.

I thought it was actually an original question for me, but it seems I asked a version of this question the last time I did a poll (which was back in September apparently – see Poll: Should States Have Online Teaching Endorsements?), but I only received two responses.  So I wanted to try again…

Please use the comments below to explain any reasons you have for your response.

EDTECH597 – Video Entry: Does Online Learning Work?

In my EDTECH597 – Week 7 entry yesterday, I indicated that I would post an entry with video in it to model for my Boise State students. As this has kind of been a research focused week, I figured that this would be a good theme to continue throughout the week.

In doing some searching online for an appropriate video, I came across this one:

Note that the television site contains a transcript of this news article that can be read here.

For those of you that are unfamiliar, Grand Rapids have adopted a blended learning model that they described as:

GRPS is proposing a team-teaching concept in blended courses. A team of five adults, including one certified teacher who is highly qualified in the content area, would be responsible for a cohort of 90 students that would move through a three-day rotation of blended learning.

A couple of comments about the piece.  The first is that it falls into the same traps that most media pieces fall into.  It doesn’t bother to read the full US DOE report and fails to actually understand what the meta-analysis is actually saying (see MVU 2010 Symposium: Asking The Right Questions About K-12 Online Learning and Meandering Out Loud: Visible Learning And K-12 Online Learning).

The second thing that struck me was that I had never heard of their “expert.”  I’ve been involved in this field for 12 years now, and I had never heard of Dr. Susan English (and apparently she is in the same state as I am, given that she is at Aquinas College – although in my searching I think she may now work for or also work for Capella University).  In doing some searching, the only thing I can find that she has authored is a book, Toward the Virtual University: International Online Perspectives by Nicolae Nistor, Susan English, Steve Wheeler, and Mihai Jalobeanu. In that book, she was responsible for a solo authored chapter entitled “Changing to Online Learning: A Close-Up View with a Wide Angle Lens” and that’s it.  [See comment below from Steve Wheeler with regards to this section in red.].  I can’t find anything else that she has written in Google or Google Scholar.  While I don’t necessarily disagree with what she said in the piece, I question that the news outfit passed her off as an expert into K-12 online learning (and she did much the same).