10.5 Million PreK-12 Students Forecasted to Attend Classes Online by 2014

According to research firm Ambient Insight, more than 2 million preK-12 students currently take online courses (full and part-time) and will increase to 10.5 million by 2014. I was interested in finding out more on the research which contributed to this forecast, but you would need to pay $4,825 for the full report. The executive summary link provided in The Journal article wasn't too useful either. None the less, it's good to know that the trend for online learning will continue to grow rapidly over the next couple of years.

The Journal article link: http://thejournal.com/articles/2009/10/28/10.5-million-prek-12-students-will-attend-classes-online-by-2014.aspx

FETC Fall '09 Virtual Conference

I attended the FETC Fall ’09 Virtual Conference last week Thursday and was impressed with the set up and logistics, given that I was participating in a virtual conference. It reminded me of Second Life, but with much easier navigation tools. You couldn’t fly, but you also couldn’t get lost. :) I especially liked how I could go to different areas as a participant to join a session, visit the presentation booths or go to an area to view archived presentations and download session handouts. Everyone attended synchronously and I could tell there was a lot of interaction going on. The best marketing tie in was that the more you participated virtually, the more points you received and chances to win for prize drawings. It was a good strategy to hook in people to participate actively in a virtual environment.

If you have a chance to view the archives, I would recommend viewing Chris Dede’s presentation on “Three Types of Immersive Interfaces: Implications for Learning and Teaching.” At Harvard University, they have received a lot of grants to exploring new technologies for educational purposes. He mentioned towards the beginning of his presentation that he had purchased a $400,000 3-D virtual technology in the 80s, which is now much cheaper. However, indicated that he knew it would be a trend in the future once the technology became affordable. In today's technology, it looks like Second Life is providing that type of 3-D virtual environment in an affordable way. One new technology he showcased involved using cell phones having an overlay (similar to playing a virtual game when you visit a particular location). He also shared some GPS mapping projects that they had worked on campus a couple years ago.

Sign up to view archived presentations: http://virtual.fetc.org/microsites/fetc-virtual/event-home.aspx

21st Century Skills: What Do They Look Like?

I attended a Webinar last week on this topic and thought I'd share with you a couple of highlights. Brad Flickinger, the presenter, provided real life applications in the classroom tied directly to 21st century skills. A good presentation to view, especially those of us working on development of A'o Kumu, Ke Kumu: 21st Century Technologies and Culture-based Learning.

Brad provided a good summary of 21st century skills for both students and teachers.

• Students: creativity & innovation, research & information fluency, communication & collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, digital citizenship, technology operations and concepts
• Teaches: facilitate & inspire student learning and creativity, design & develop digital-age learning experiences & assessments, promote & model digital citizenship & responsibility, engage in professional growth & leadership, model digital-age work & learning

This is something we should definitely look at incorporating into our course development process (maybe in the intro area or minimally a checklist sheet for teachers to incorporate in their electronic portfolio to showcase they have learned these skills?)

One statement that stuck with me and something I totally agree on was when Brad mentioned that the intent for us to focus on 21st century skills is really about students learning skills required of them in the new global economy vs. focusing on learning a specific technology, for example MS Word 2007. Although we would integrate and have students learn MS Word 2007 in the curriculum now, the focus should be on providing them skills to be able to navigate and utilize a word processing software 10,20 years from now, whatever form the technology takes at that time.

He also provided Atomic Learning resources that I felt would be useful for our team to look at. If you haven't checked out Atomic Learning lately, you may want to take a look. There is much more than software tutorials now.

1. 21st century skills projects from Atomic Learning
   http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/21st_cs_tutorials/
2. Technology integration projects: lesson accelerators from Atomic Learning
   http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/21st_cs_tutorials/

Archived presentation: http://www.media.qualitytech.com/client/new_bay/2009_1008/160453/launch.htm

iNACOL Publishes Standards for K-12 Online Programs

Another milestone for K-12 online learning. This 3rd version of publication on national standards for K-12 online programs incorporates a set of standards program leaders need to assure quality online programs. What a great resource to validate that it takes a lot of effort to offer quality programs, especially as it involves alignment to organizational goals, focused strategic planning, continual program improvement and ongoing professional development of personnel to ensure quality online programs.

The Journal article link: http://thejournal.com/articles/2009/10/06/inacol-publishes-standards-for-k12-online-programs.aspx

Direct link to standards document: http://www.inacol.org/research/nationalstandards/NACOL%20Standards%20Quality%20Online%20Programs.pdf

I think we should integrate the self evaluation form (end of document) into our program planning process and review annually. What do you think? :)