Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

12.7.11 | The Nation had an important piece that got some attention in education circles last week about lobbying efforts by educational technology companies to pass state legislation to expand virtual school programs and requirements for online courses.

In “How Online Learning Companies Bought America’s Schools,” Lee Fang reports that more than a dozen states have expanded these programs this year alone. A new Florida law authorizes public funds for new for-profit virtual schools and requires that high school students take at least one course online before graduation. (Idaho leads in this area, requiring two online courses for graduation.) These virtual schools receive public charters and operate totally online, without traditional teachers or brick and mortar classrooms.

Fang chronicles objections of teachers’ unions that see these as part of larger efforts to privatize public education.

The article draws a distinction between online programs that offer unique services or value where resources or qualified teachers are in short supply (such as offering online advanced placement courses in rural communities), and large amounts of public dollars put to expanding virtual charter schools in states like Florida or Arizona.

Fang reports that the jury is still out on how effective these online courses are for learning in K-12 classrooms. Many of these companies, he writes, have “poor or nonexistent track records.”

[B]y and large, there is no evidence that these technological innovations merit the public resources flowing their way. Indeed, many such programs appear to be failing the students they serve.

A recent study of virtual schools in Pennsylvania conducted by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University revealed that students in online schools performed significantly worse than their traditional counterparts. Another study, from the University of Colorado in December 2010, found that only 30 percent of virtual schools run by for-profit organizations met the minimum progress standards outlined by No Child Left Behind, compared with 54.9 percent of brick-and-mortar schools. For White Hat Management, the politically connected Ohio for-profit operating both traditional and virtual charter schools, the success rate under NCLB was a mere 2 percent, while for schools run by K12 Inc., it was 25 percent. A major review by the Education Department found that policy reforms embracing online courses “lack scientific evidence” of their effectiveness.

And such schools are big business. Estimated revenues from the K-12 online learning industry will grow to as much as $24.4 billion by 2015, Fang reports.

Advocates worry that the fiscal crisis and austerity budgets will cause schools to move to online courses for the wrong reasons. See this New York Times story from earlier this year about how school districts in Florida are responding to unfunded mandates to reduce class size by placing more students in virtual “e-learning” labs where they learn core subjects on computers, without a teacher.

We’ve covered some of the benefits of online coursework on Spotlight, particularly in the university and community college systems and how some respected universities are attaching themselves to online high school programs, but we’ve also written a great deal about the crucial role of adults in supporting kids’ use of technology in order to realize it’s benefits.

Many career educators we’ve interviewed feel the value in online learning comes from its ability to allow young people to experience new worlds or build complex thinking skills through deep engagement or game-based learning. (See our coverage of Quest Atlantis or how students at Quest to Learn are studying game design with Gamestar Mechanic.) None of this can happen without support and leadership from seasoned educators, who, most say, need to be in the classroom with students at least some of the time.

The New York Times this week highlights the work of Salman Khan, whose math and science lessons have made the rounds on YouTube. Khan is offering what may be a more balanced model to school districts – one that tries to weigh teacher-led lessons with computer-based lessons and exercises.

The work of Nichole Pinkard, who founded Chicago’s Digital Youth Network, shows that guidance from adult mentors and peers is often necessary for students to engage in exciting self-directed learning online that truly takes advantage of what the technology has to offer.

“When students’ use of computers as learning aids has been scaffolded,” Pinkard wrote recently at Spotlight, “students have been shown to use technology to extend their knowledge, create media products that demonstrate understanding of academic content, and engage in real-time chats and collaborative projects with peers in the same room or halfway around the world.”

Read the article at the Nation. We’ll continue to cover this fight over how and in what form online learning should be introduced into our nation’s classrooms.