K-12 Online Learning: Some Recent Readings (for Jan 9, 2012)

 

Wonder what it is like to be in an etec doctoral program?  In an effort at transparency and accountability via public audience, I am going to keep my reading journal in this blog this semester-- I won't be offended if no one reads but my mom.  ;)

Saul, S. (2011, December 12). Online Schools Score Better on Wall Street Than in Classrooms - NYTimes.com. Retrieved January 15, 2012, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/education/online-schools-score-better-on-wall-street-than-in-classrooms.html?_r=1

 This article is a critique of the big business model that is emerging in online education.  It points out that bad-teaching and failing methods are (shocker) ineffective regardless of whether they are on-line or face-to-face. 

What we’re talking about here is the financialization of public education,” said Alex Molnar, a research professor at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education who is affiliated with the education policy center. “These folks are fundamentally trying to do to public education what the banks did with home mortgages.

This is the kind of thing that will make people wince when they think about increasing online learning in K-12 environments.  Seems like we should be able to find financially sustainable models that are based on what works well for students.  And, can I just say, the fact that the publicly traded company K12 Inc has a name that can almost be mistaken for the field "K-12 Education" seems icky.  I'll figure out how to explain that better soon, I hope.

Richtel, M. (2012, January 3). Idaho Teachers Fight a Reliance on Computers - NYTimes.com. Retrieved January 15, 2012, from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/04/technology/idaho-teachers-fight-a-reliance-on-computers.html

This article explored a reality in the state of Idaho (although not likely unique to Idaho) in which there is significant push of technology integration in a really heavy handed top down way.  Online classes are now required for graduation and technology use in the classrooms is mandated. Teachers are pissed, as there is at least the perception that these initiatives are being funded at the expense of their (or their colleagues') salaries.  Morale is the main issue here, not economics and the most compelling quotation of the piece (for me) is this:

Teachers don’t object to the use of technology,” said Sabrina Laine, vice president of the American Institutes for Research, which has studied the views of the nation’s teachers using grants from organizations like the Gates and Ford Foundations. “They object to being given a resource with strings attached, and without the needed support to use it effectively to improve student learning.

I find this article a little divisive.  It pits those excited about technology against those wary about it.  Instead, we should be linking those people together.  And if those people are both teachers, even better.  Having administrators, particularly distant faceless ones tell a teacher the must do something is not likely to result in good outcomes for students. 

Barbour, M. (2012, December 28). Critiquing K-12 Online Learning « Virtual School Meanderings. Retrieved January 15, 2012, from http://virtualschooling.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/critiquing-k-12-online-learning/

This is a blog post by a well-know academic in online learning.  In it he explored the public perception and presentation of the realities of online learning in the US and points out some distinctions and assertations that help describe (in the way a newspaper couldn't) how much of the online learning is run by conservative corporations, not educators. 

[…] we shouldn’t judge all K-12 online learning based on the actions of the for-profit segment of the field.  […] The problem is that those representing K-12 online learning at a national level either already come from the neo-liberal/neo-conservative perspective, or these individuals and organizations have been co-opted or overrun by these neo-liberal/neo-conservative proponents.

The take away lesson from this post is less about online learning and more about how to be better researchers.

But I think that as a research community we could be more careful with how we describe things.  As researchers, I think that we look at everything with a bit of a skeptical eye because we want to see evidence that things work before we begin to make wholesale changes to an education system that may end up doing more harm than help.  The problem is that the other side have become quite good at the public relations game.  This means that those of us who have questions, those of us that have concerns, need to be more careful in how we describe things.

This is salient for me as I begin to think of myself as a researcher and proponent of a certain flavor of online learning-- a flavor that is clearly not represented by the broad strokes that we read about in national media.