There is so much to share and so many sessions I've attended, but I'll try to summarize my highlights for the conference.
Day 1 started off with Susan Kirkpatrick, iNACOL President & CEO welcoming us with a student panel sharing their thoughts on hybrid or online courses they enrolled in. It was great hearing that none of them were "bored" with their courses, which seems to be a common answer when students are asked how they feel about their traditional school experience. Main take-away from this in regards to communicating with them, which I also heard from several presenters (including Florida Virtual), was that 21st century students preferred texting and IMing with their teachers. Several of them also mentioned their favorite way to communicate with their instructors was also via synchronous live lessons. A question that came to my mind included whether or not our own DL programs should also look at integrating text messaging as a communications strategy, in particular for those students who regularly don't return emails and phone calls.- Keynote Dr. Tommy Bice, Deputy State Superintendent of Ed, Alabama DOE: I enjoyed his speech. His view of a 21st century school included 1) A place where learning is the constant and time the variable, 2) A place where student progress is measured by proficiency, 3) A place where schedules are varied based on individual students needs, 4) A place where demography doesn't determine a child's destiny. His memorable acronym for me included CAVE=Citizens Against Virtually Everything ;)
- Interactive Virtual Environments, by Edison Learning: I was mainly interested in attending this session to see the cutting-edge technologies providing new ways for students to interact and learn. Sorry. I forgot to take a photo, but the virtual environment this company has created is a bit different from others I have seen in the past. I was surprised that it looked more like a 2-D vs. 3-D environment, but the speakers did explain that they had contemplated this and there were many challenges with a 3-D environment including specialized player downloads, etc. The interesting thoughts I noted down included: 1) everything is tracked for student safety, 2) reward systems are built in where students can't enter arcade (fun place with games) unless they're in good standing, 3) students can participate in educational games related to curriculum for bonus points linked up to their ongoing courses, 4) artwork gallery where students can post work with instructor approval, 5) learning lab with whiteboard where students can collaborate together, 6) help desk area where students can receive immediate help and can also be manned by students themselves.
- Mobile Learning, Challenges and Opportunities in K-12 US Education by Phyllis Hillwig: I had high hopes for this session, but didn't get as many useful apps as I had hoped for. The presenter did integrate a YouTube video I enjoyed viewing, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhkxDIr0y2U.
- Day 1 Lunch panel w/ experts on online and blended learning: All of the hybrid and online models that were shared focused on students needs and schedules vs. the other way around, resulting in varied schedules.
- Faster, Farther, Longer - The Evolution of Three Outstanding Virtual Schools panel: interesting to hear what these schools are doing to maintain quality programs. Lots of things were mentioned. I pulled out what I thought was relevant for our situation: 1) teacher pay for performance model was important to maintain quality. I'm interested in future discussions with my team in seeing how we will move toward this as we move towards everyone being integrated into the KaPi'ina initiative, 2) expectations of PT instructors are the same for FT teachers, 3) collaborating with others to leverage limited funding sources is important, 4) having a repository of online master courses for use by all online instructors is important, 5) prediction that concurrent enrollment of courses for college credit will explode
- Day 2 Keynote by Governor Bob Wise: He mentioned three looming crises with the messaging that change needs to happen today vs. the future: 1) declining state revenues, 2) mounting teacher shortages, 3) increased global demands for skilled workers. His closing quote was, "Be boldly innovative, or badly irrelevant." I looked up his paper online. Here is the link: http://www.all4ed.org/files/OnlineLearning.pdf
- Spread the Wealth, Extend Online Learning Options in Creative Ways by Florida Virtual School: They shared quite a bit of information, but what I found most interesting was that they have regional staff who focus specifically on outreach in various regions/districts in Florida. They've also set up quite a bit of community learning centers to support student success. Those they've partnered with for physical learning sites in various communities included Boys & Girls Clubs, libraries, churches, Barnes & Nobles, Starbucks and Chamber groups. They currently provide netbook with headsets at these sites, in particular libraries because they have found there are time limitations in libraries which has been a challenge.
- iNACOL programs & services: I mainly attended so I could touch bases with Bruce Friend, who will be assisting us with our SNAP online needs assessment. Interesting to find out they also provide services for online course review in alignment to iNACOL standards. There is also a new book titled Lessons Learned from Virtual Schools: Experiences and Recommendations from the Field that will be released shortly.
- Birds of Feather Lunch Session: I picked the table on professional learning communities and enjoyed a great conversation with a VP of Curriculum and Instruction at Connections Academy. They currently set-up virtual teams (run appx. 3-4 months) focused on challenges their online teachers have across the US. Main things I think will be useful for our own PLN include: 1) ensure that at the end of the process, there is someone who will advocate to address the work the team has worked on to address challenges (in our case, routing through CEC and high school leadership), 2) providing work time for teachers to participate in virtual teams is essential, and 3) topic relevant to teachers is essential. I don't think we would have the luxury of flexibility in teacher schedules at this point in time, but it doesn't mean that its never impossible ;)
- The Status of PD and Unique Needs of K-12 Online Teachers, by Boise State Univ. Lisa Dawley & Kerry Rice: Some key findings of their survey that I found interesting included: 1) Teachers prefer fully online, facilitated, workshop format training (e.g. series of Webinar or short modules), 2) 52% received training in use of social networks and would like more, 3) Teachers with 1-5 years of online teaching would like more training in the are of design, including instructional design principles (46%), 4) Teachers with 6+ years of online teaching experience would like more training on psychology of online learning (41%).
- Digital Differentiated Instruction, Developing Teachers Who Develop Content for Millenial Students by CSK12: I was hoping to get inspired with additional ideas we could integrate with our DL programs. Unfortunately, not much inspiration besides some samples of teachers using digital curriculum in their course releasing more time for them to work on differentiated strategies in their hybrid environment. On the positive side, I was able to squeeze in more time to finish this blog. :)
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the conference and meeting various individuals throughout the conference. I wish more KS staff were here with me so I could network and share back with others in between sessions to debrief and bounce ideas. I feel energized and refreshed to continue advocating and moving forward with DL at KS. Lots of exciting trends happening nationally in the hybrid/online realm. My thoughts for improvement include: 1) inconsistency in network access given that this was a technology conference and 2) shifting from a 2 to 3 day conference and shortening the day with more break time for networking so there is less attrition in attendance towards the end of the day.
Whew... I think I've summed everything up. Looking forward to sharing more with my team in person. Now ready for some quality family time before heading back to Honolulu. Signing out from Arizona!
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