Okay, we are on the second and final day for the Virtual School Symposium and I am continuing to use the VSS Overlay’s Live Presentations feature to sit in on some of the sessions so I can blog about them. The first one today is the morning keynote, which was delivered by Terry Moe on his book, Liberating Learning: Technology, Politics, and the Future of American Education.
I should admit up front that I haven’t had a chance to read this book yet. I purchased it, or maybe someone sent it to me (as I have gotten several books that have been addressed to Michael K. Barbour / Virtual High School Meanderings / Blogger, Educator, Teacher – which I’ve always found interesting), but I didn’t get around to reading it. Based on reading what folks I respect in the blogsphere had to say about the book, it seemed like another book written by a non-educator that those pushing a certain agenda of school choice and the dismantling of the current public education system would love – but those of us involved in education would find so many holes in it that you could drive a mac truck through them (somewhat like the issues I had with Disrupting Class). Anyway, so I haven’t read the book.
In terms of the actual session, we missed the first half of the keynote – as there were audio problems with the Elluminate feed. Another issue with the Elluminate feed
As best I can tell, he spent the first 15 minutes or so looking at the benefits of K-12 online learning and why the field has seen exponential growth over the past decade. He then began to discuss the state-wide program models, focusing specifically on the State of Florida and the Florida Virtual School. Then moved to the full-time programs operated under the auspices of cyber charter schools, focusing on the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School which when it opened expected 50 students, enrolled 500 students, and not have 8000 students. Finally, he discussed hybrid schools – schools that students physically attend, but much of the curriculum is offered online. He used a charter school in San Jose called Rocketship as an example. He called this the bright side of the story.
He then transitioned to the dark side of the story, and took the typical conservative viewpoint that public education, teachers, unions, etc. have vested political and economic interests in maintaining the status quo. The first one that is took a swing at was the teachers’ unions – which again is a favourite target of the conservative movement. And like any good conservative, he goes back to the flawed and inflammatory A Nation at Risk and talked about the reformers and the school choice movement (all of the “good guys”). If you weren’t in Austin or didn’t join in to the live feed, you didn’t miss anything. From what I can tell the first bit of the keynote was providing examples of what everyone in the room knew, and then spent about half of the time bashing all of the favourite right-wing targets.
In terms of looking ahead, Moe saw technology and online learning as having potential to actually make reforms to the system because:
- decreases the number of teachers needed, which means fewer members in the teachers’ unions
- not geographic dependent, which makes it more difficult for the unions to organize
- the growth of cyber charters, most of which aren’t unionized (again meaning fewer members)
- the collection of student data in online learning, which allows for an easy comparison of how these schools perform compared to underperforming brick-and-mortar schools
Interesting how the potential for online learning in society is directly tied to the decrease in the power of the unions. What an American-centric view!!! I wonder if he’s ever bothered to look at other jurisdictions where K-12 online learning is growing and thriving, and it is being done in conjunction with the teachers’ unions (hint, try looking north)??? Doesn’t this keynote sum up the main problem with American education? People are more interested in politicizing education into issues of right and left, and trying to position the left as the problem and the right as the solution.
