On-line Learning

I spent an intellectually energizing day on Thursday at the "Michigan Online Learning Experience Symposium." The state of Michigan is the first state to include an on-line learning component as a high school graduation requirement. The requirement will be in place for this year's class of 8th graders, so local school districts need to come up with a plan NOW to determine how to best offer students opportunities that will help them be prepared for college and the global marketplace.

The state offers many choices to school districts: 1) Students can take an on-line class that can be teacher facilitated, blended (FTF and on-line), or teacherless (not recommended). 2) Students participate in a minimum of 20 hours of "on-line experiences" in grades 6-12. or 3) on-line learning integrated in all core academic areas. I have oversimplified the requirements, the full details are included in the state's 20-page guidelines document. I was happy to hear every speaker and facilitator speak about the value of the teacher in on-line learning. The most valuable learning experiences occur only with the guidance of a talented teacher.

One of the keynote speakers brought an international perspective, Susan Patrick. Susan is the CEO of the North American Council of Online Learning. She travels to other countries and stated that she is frightened for the US when she sees other countries digitizing curriculum and using Internet tools as a "regular" practice. She said that the US has beaurocratic barriers to online learning -- our educational system is set up with too many rules.

How can we add valuable on-line learning into our current high school structure? Michigan Virtual High School (MVHS) offers many on-line classes for credit with great success. There is a cost for the classes which prevents many districts from offering MVHS classes. For smaller school districts that are not able to offer a wide variety of classes (such as AP courses), these classes provide the perfect fit for the needs of students with needs that are a bit unique from the masses. The students attend their on-line classes at school, and are assigned to a seat in a computer lab for a class period. The classes are facilitated on-line by a MVHS teacher and a mentor is assigned to the students (a local teacher who encourages and supports the students in their on-line class). This set up is a way to fit the online learning into the rules of US schools - attendance, seat time, report card, etc. I would like to see changes in the rules that would allow students to attend online classes much like adults take online classes - anytime, anywhere. High school students may not be all that motivated to learn chemistry on-line at 7:15am in a computer lab.

Although there are challenges to work through in Michigan to make the new online learning requirement authentic, motivational, and worthwhile for students, I really appreciate the leadership of our state in getting the ball rolling. It took a huge amount of effort and collaboration from many people, from Governor Jennifer Granholm, Michigan Superintendent Mike Flanagan, the state Board of Education, Michigan Dept of Ed's Technology Team, our state's technology leaders (REMC Directors, MACUL, MVU, FTL, Learnport) to individual stakeholders (too many to mention).

I welcome conversations on this topic as local school districts in Michigan establish their plans to provide on-line learning experiences to the students of Michigan.