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Debate Over Online Education Spurs Action
July 31, 2008 08:53 AM
Faced with an increasingly wired student population, a movement of educators and innovators is testing the boundaries and possibilities of online education.
30-Second Summary
Emerging from a lengthy debate about the effectiveness of learning online, schools and individual classrooms have become laboratories for a variety of digital education experiments.
While some districts have embraced the idea of learning online to varying degrees, including schools launching entire Internet-based curriculum or virtual classrooms, many others have resisted incorporating technology into the educational setting.
Faced with critics who insist that online learning, in any capacity, is no match for personal intellectual contact and development, some schools have sought to balance the digital with the real world.
Further, opponents of online learning have cited the lack of an official method of measuring both the environment’s effectiveness and digital literacy.
Though the Educational Testing Service has begun administering the iSkills exam to gauge the latter, a lack of universal access to online material for lower income students has made the results unreliable in the eyes of some.
Much more prevalent at a university level, online learning has seen its use increase over the past years, with entire degree plans available through long-distance programs.
However, online learning programs at the K–12 level have encountered the greatest number of obstacles.
Meanwhile, a bustling economy has emerged to accommodate the online needs of everyone from individual teachers to state education department.
While some districts have embraced the idea of learning online to varying degrees, including schools launching entire Internet-based curriculum or virtual classrooms, many others have resisted incorporating technology into the educational setting.
Faced with critics who insist that online learning, in any capacity, is no match for personal intellectual contact and development, some schools have sought to balance the digital with the real world.
Further, opponents of online learning have cited the lack of an official method of measuring both the environment’s effectiveness and digital literacy.
Though the Educational Testing Service has begun administering the iSkills exam to gauge the latter, a lack of universal access to online material for lower income students has made the results unreliable in the eyes of some.
Much more prevalent at a university level, online learning has seen its use increase over the past years, with entire degree plans available through long-distance programs.
However, online learning programs at the K–12 level have encountered the greatest number of obstacles.
Meanwhile, a bustling economy has emerged to accommodate the online needs of everyone from individual teachers to state education department.
Headline Links: The state of online learning
One school that has embraced the online learning environment wholeheartedly is the Virtual Opportunities Inside a School Environment, or VOISE, Academy. Part of a wider effort by the city of Chicago to create a series of charter schools by 2010, the VOISE school provides online access to every student, both in the classroom and at home, and backs it up with a slew of online content and virtual lessons.
Source: Edutopia
A number of virtual schools and classrooms have received support and funding from the U.S. Department of Education, though critics have decried the financial help offered to untraditional schools.
Source: U.S. Department of Education
Representing a possible setback for online learning environments, the Wisconsin Virtual Academy lost state funding at the last minute after a unanimous, three judge vote, ruled that because students were mainly participating from home, the school violated regulations. The school’s principal warned that the ruling could affect all online learning efforts in the states.
Source: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Background: ‘Cost and Content Are Driving Educators Online’
As a result of both necessity and cost, schools have increasingly turned to online learning alternatives to reach an increasingly wired student body. This shift has led to a tense debate about the effectiveness of online learning and how educators can assess a student’s progress in this digital education environment.
Source: findingDulcinea
Reactions: Education technology
A slew of companies have arisen over the past decade to accommodate the needs of educators hoping to reach their students in a digital environment. Services such as the open source Moodle, Blackboard and Backpack, have sought to create virtual classrooms, allowing teachers to interact and assign work to students as well as keep parents up to date.
Source: Moodle
In reaction to an increasingly tech-savvy student body and a more competitive global marketplace, four of the nation’s largest education advocacy groups joined up to push educational technology as a pivotal issue in this year’s presidential election. The campaign, called One Giant Leap for Kids, aims to pressure both candidates to put EdTech at the fore of their educational platforms.
Source: 21 Century Connections
Opinion & Analysis: Assessing the effectiveness of online learning
Dr. Ruth Reynard suggests that the more online and distance education tools are used, the more obvious it becomes that traditional teaching methods and modes of delivery have become dated and beyond use. Reynard proposes a “blended” approach to education that uses online tools not to replace, but rather support and improve existing methods.
Source: The Journal
While the National Education Association provides basic guidelines for educators about how to assess online resources and classes, there is no official program that adequately measures the effectiveness and impact of an online course.
Source: The National Education Association
One attempt at measuring digital literacy—a vital component to assessing how effective an online education can be and how to formulate teaching methods—was created by the Educational Testing Service. The organization, which hosts the GRE and SAT among other general exams, introduced the iSkills test; however critics have warned about wide use of the test, citing an uneven level of access to the Internet based on a student’s economic standing.
Source: Education Testing Service
Related Topic: Universities online
While they have become a lighting rod for debate on the K–12 level, online learning programs have been far more well received on the university level, with most U.S. institutions of higher learning offering some sort of digital education options, including entire classes and supplementary material. This surge in interest has forced universities to work harder to catch up with their increasingly wired students.
Source: The Palm Beach Post
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