Quality K-12 Distributed Learning

This message was sent out over IT Forum yesterday and I wanted to spread it to a wider audience.

I’ve recently started conducting research on quality assessment, quality management and quality standards for distributed learning courses/programs specifically aimed at grade school (primary & secondary) levels. I’ve come up with many examples for higher education, but few initiatives for this target group. I’m struggling to find North American examples. Here in British Columbia our provincial government publishes distributed learning standards that are suggested guidelines. It’s up to individual schools or teachers to decide how or if these are implemented.

I have two questions:
1) Are you aware of quality review initiatives in other contexts that target distributed learning at the grade school level?
2) How is quality assurance implemented for distributed learning programs at the grade school level? (i.e., This is the responsibility of individual programs and instructors; or this is regulated by an authorizing body or accrediting agency. )

If anyone can suggest any leads that would be most helpful.

The folks who have responded thus far have mentioned the iNACOL national standards, any others you’d suggest…

LearnNowBC eBulletin – October 2009

October 2009 In this issue: Spirit Schools 2010 - Sign up your school by October 31st and win! UN Convention on the Rights of the Child Contest – Deadline November 6th eTraffic Press eBooks - review sample Pilot™ Math 6 eBooks online BCTC AquaVan – travels around the province, teaching about marine life New Toll-Free number for LearnNowBC Academic Advising Upcoming CyberSafe Workshops with Steve Dotto Website Links that you might find interesting

Horizons 2009 – CUEBC Conference

Since I had one for my American friends earlier this morning (see Florida Public School Choice Consortium (FPSCC) – Orlando), a conference notification for my friends in Canada (or at least the left coast of Canada). This came across my radar screen from a blog entry entitled Educational Technology Conference – October 23rd, 2009 from James McConville’s ETR – Educational Technology Ramblings.

The Computer Using Educators of BC

Invite you to the largest

Educational Technology Conference of the year

Hosted in Surrey, BC at Sullivan Heights Secondary School.

Attend this year to find over 50 sessions (including a French strand), two keynotes, 2 mini-keynotes, vendor displays, Friday lunch, Thursday Wine and Cheese, networking with your colleagues, Saturday 1/2 and full day sessions and a CUEBC PSA Membership all included in the $100 conference fee.

List of Workshops

Conference Schedule

Like the other conference, I mention this because of a couple of sessions (and remember distributed learning is the catch all phrase for distance learning in British Columbia):

Friday, 23 October – 10:45am to 11:30am
Dipping into the online learning ocean one toe at a time

Friday, 23 October – 1:00pm to 2:00pm
Changing faces of Distributed Learning – Keynote

Note, they also have the following listed under a distributed learning theme:
Distributed Learning

• 21st Century Tools + Traditional Values = Blended Learning in Math Class – » more information
• CEET – an online community of professionals – » more information
• Diagnostic Online Reading and Math Assessment – » more information
• Dipping into the online learning ocean one toe at a time – » more information
• Quest Atlantis – » more information
• The Read-Write Web:  Blogs and Wikis in Education – » more information
• Why Social Networking is valuable? – » more information

LearnNowBC eBulletin – September 2009

I missed these over the summer and thought maybe my e-mail had been taken off the distribution list.

September 2009 In this issue: Elluminate Live!- Virtual meeting rooms help save you time and money DPA Tracker – Keeping up with your students’ daily physical activity CyberSafe with Steve Dotto – District-wide workshop for SD #45 (West Vancouver) LearnNowBC Links that you might find interesting 1. Elluminate Live! Elluminate Live! is an online conferencing system that lets you meet with other people in a virtual meeting room. If you are a BC educator, or other authorized user, you can login to LearnNowBC and book a single meeting for occasional use or reserve a long-term meeting room for up to one year. The long-term use meeting rooms are suitable for regular online classroom sessions and other meetings. When you book a room, you will be emailed a link to the meeting room that you can send to anyone you would like to invite to the session. All your invited guests have to do is click on the link and type in their display name to join a session. When you are logged in to LearnNowBC, click the “My Calendar” icon to view your booked meetings. If you need help setting up your LearnNowBC account or Elluminate Live! meeting room, contact our Help Centre or call toll-free 1-800-946-8332. 2. DPA Tracker – Keeping up with your student’s daily physical activity LearnNowBC is pleased to provide schools with assistance in setting up their students on the DPA Tracker module for the new school year. Getting Started with DPA 24 Hour Access to Online Tutorials and User Manuals (including the LearnNowBC Sign Up Process) Facilitate a Student Sign-Up Day at Your School (travel fees outside the Victoria area may apply) Access to LearnNowBC Help Centre (1-800-946-8332 and Email Support During Business Hours) For more information regarding the DPA Tracker, or to find out how LearnNowBC can assist your school with administering DPA, please contact Mike Morin at mike.morin@vssociety.ca or the LearnNowBC Help Centre at Support@LearnNowBC.ca. 3. CyberSafe with Steve Dotto: Upcoming workshop School District #45 – West Vancouver 2009/10 Community Forum Series: Understanding Adolescence: The Incredible Journey September 29, 2009 7-8:45 pm Kay Meek Centre – Main 1700 Mathers Avenue, West Vancouver, BC This workshop is free, but registration is required. Register online for Community Forum #1 – “Cyber Safe with Steve Dotto” Contact: Chris Kennedy, Assistant Superintendent ckennedy@sd45.bc.ca 4. Other Links you may be interested in Learning Resource Repository – a collection of reusable Learning Objects Math Jellies – Fun online resources from Pilot Math Young Learning Centre – educational fun for young learners. Try these online versions of Bailey’s Book House, Millie’s Math House, Sammy’s Science House, and Trudy’s Time and Place House. ERAC Database ToolKits – an online reference library educators can trust BCTC AquaVan Schedule – the award-winning mobile sea-life education program travels in BC and beyond

Visit LearnNowBC Contact Us

Presented by:

[CNIE-L] News from the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) – 20 July 2009

I received a message earlier today from the Canadian Network of Innovation in Education listserve that I belong to that included two items that I wanted to pass on to my readers here.  The first was…

2) Perspectives on Distance Education: Open Schools for the 21st Century
———————————————————–
The expansion of secondary education is now the world’s most pressing educational challenge. This new COL publication should inspire policy-makers and educational planners to explore how open schooling can expand secondary education cost-effectively in their jurisdictions: Open Schools for the 21st Century shows how open schooling can be adopted for a range of purposes and in different ways, using a variety of technologies and approaches. Dominque A.M.X. Abrioux and Frances Ferriera, editors.
www.col.org/PSOpenSchooling

This is essentially an e-book that looks at the use of open schools in secondary and post-secondary environment. In taking a quick look at the book, there are two chapters that I wanted to point out:

Chapter 7 National Institute of Open Schooling, India: A Case Study
Mahesh Chandra Pant ……………………………………………………………………..111

Chapter 10 Case Study: Vancouver Learning Network (Secondary), British Columbia, Canada
Cindy Gauthier ………………………………………………………………………………..173

There are the only two chapters that I could see that dealt directly with the secondary environment – and for those interested in K-12 online learning in Canada (or British Columbia) chapter 10 would be of particular interest.

The second item that caught my attention was this one…

6) Connections/EdTech News
———————————————————–
FAIRCOMMENT:
Standing by ponds
“Web-based education has polarised world society into elite and have-not groups far more than TV and radio ever did.”
http://www.col.org/news/Connections/2009jun/Pages/FairComment.aspx

An interesting read, and one that I would recommend to all of us involved in K-12 online learning as a cautious tale and something to keep in the back of our minds as we pursue these kinds of learning opportunities.

Anyway, for those interested the main website for the Commonwealth of Learning is http://www.col.org/.