edtc_6329 Project Conclusions
Wow! This has been a tremendous experience. I met some truly delightful, memorable people and gained many insights about the different ways online education can be approached and handled for students in a wide variety of circumstances. My interview with Stanford Online High School's Kathlyn Gray set the bar very high for any other school. I think in many respects they are the ideal--most of their instructors hold PhDs and work from central offices at Stanford University. They have high expectations for their students to complete substantive work on their own time and then come to synchronized classes to discuss and get to know one another. The students are high achievers in the classroom and in fulfilling their own personal missions--whether in athletics, music, science, acting, or global change. They are clearly movers and shakers who will end up at the nation's most elite universities. However, the price tag for those classes is high and not all will qualify for scholarships. Those who make it in are expected to be self-motivated and self-directed. The students I interviewed from this school were amazing--they all volunteered for a phone interview with no hesitation and were extremely thoughtful and eloquent in responding to the questions.
Dr. Craig Wilson of University of Miami Global Academy provided another example of how best practices for online education can be harnessed to provide students an elite, private education that prepares them for Ivy league schools. Unfortunately, I was not able to interview any students from that school.
My conversation with Dr. Peterson at the North Dakota Center for Distance was extremely rewarding and thought provoking. He is so clearly a committed educator who cares deeply about meeting the needs of students on the other side of the spectrum from Stanford's set--his mission is to reach students who simply haven't had the same access and opportunity as those who wind up at Stanford. These are kids in extremely rural areas or kids on reservations. Their school has fewer requirements and offers students more flexibly in arranging their classes and getting their degree. They rely heavily on public funds, so Dr. Peterson has a great understanding of the public school system and has a long range plan for improving the school and the statistics of several underserved populations.
ndCDE does not just serve the underserved. They welcome students from all backgrounds and with all abilities. He is still relatively new with the organization. I hope he will be able to make some changes that resolve some of the concerns painted by one of the students I interviewed. That student painted a picture of a school that meet his needs at the time, but that had frustrating inefficiencies and issues that plague the online learning industry. I fear that some of his negativity may have resulted from my inability to really bond with him during the interview. There were other activities occurring around me at the time and I was not as focused as I should have been. The second student I interviewed gave more glowing reviews, but it took a very long time for me to get those two students, so I suspect there may be some growing pains and issues at ndCDE. Dr. Peterson is truly a unique educator with a noble goal and I believe the intelligence and character to build that school into something truly great.
I also had rewarding visits with Kristi Smalley at the University of Missouri Online High School and Amy Michalowski at VHS. These are thoughtful, intelligent, caring educators who have invested great thought and attention into developing quality online programs that can really make a difference in the lives of students. These schools are really solid alternatives for public schools. I believe students will not just get their degrees from these schools, but they will also develop important personal and critical thinking skills.
My interview with Ms. Tonks at Mountain View Academy was very interesting. Ms. Tonks is intense and directed, and her materials are all very polished and well presented. I received all of the student interviews as a forward from Ms. Tonks in one evening. She seems to have close relationships with the students and the students appear to be very responsive to requests. It was from Ms. Tonks that I really understood the tremendous value present in online learning for harnessing statistics to personalize and monitor student progress. With a good LMS, teachers can really hone in to what students are viewing and skipping and how much time they are spending on lessons, topics, and pages. Her teachers have found the statistics to be a surprisingly powerful tool for really getting to know students and get some clues as to what, why, and where they struggle the most.
By far the most unique experience I had during this research project was my communication with Max Bertola of Park City Independent/Alexandria International School. What a bright, interesting, and compelling educator he is! I wrote him on a Sunday and he eagerly agreed to visit with me at midnight his time in Alexandria, Egypt! He said the streets were full of noisy revelers anyway because it was ramadan and much of the activity in the city occurred during the late hours. We talked for some time, with his sharing his missions visions with me. He's clearly a go-getter who follows his ideas and his heart. He's a talented educator with many skills and ambitions. I look forward to seeing what happens with his brand new school in Egypt. I suspect that given the uncertain political climate, more students may be looking for an online education. I never really considered the value of online education for unsafe, war-torn, or violence ridden areas. Mr. Bertola got me thinking!
Some schools, like Apex, were unwilling to speak with me. I noticed that a representative from their school looked at my linked in page, which identifies me as working at the University of Texas Online High School, so that may have caused them to be skeptical of the veracity of my motivations. The fact is that this project has been purely for educational reasons. The Director at UTOHS would not allow me to interview anyone from our school or any of our closest competitors schools. UTOHS is going through a great deal of change and I do not think she has had the bandwidth to review any of these materials.
Finding schools and students who would speak with me was a challenge. However, as I mentioned above, those who did speak with me spoke honestly and thoughtfully. This has truly been an extremely rewarding and inspiring project for me. I believe I will be able to apply many of the tips and strategies I learned from these amazing educators, and I hope others who view these materials will benefit as well.
Banner image: Screen shot obtained from https://www.facebook.com/EDTConline 8/28/13.
Dr. Craig Wilson of University of Miami Global Academy provided another example of how best practices for online education can be harnessed to provide students an elite, private education that prepares them for Ivy league schools. Unfortunately, I was not able to interview any students from that school.
My conversation with Dr. Peterson at the North Dakota Center for Distance was extremely rewarding and thought provoking. He is so clearly a committed educator who cares deeply about meeting the needs of students on the other side of the spectrum from Stanford's set--his mission is to reach students who simply haven't had the same access and opportunity as those who wind up at Stanford. These are kids in extremely rural areas or kids on reservations. Their school has fewer requirements and offers students more flexibly in arranging their classes and getting their degree. They rely heavily on public funds, so Dr. Peterson has a great understanding of the public school system and has a long range plan for improving the school and the statistics of several underserved populations.
ndCDE does not just serve the underserved. They welcome students from all backgrounds and with all abilities. He is still relatively new with the organization. I hope he will be able to make some changes that resolve some of the concerns painted by one of the students I interviewed. That student painted a picture of a school that meet his needs at the time, but that had frustrating inefficiencies and issues that plague the online learning industry. I fear that some of his negativity may have resulted from my inability to really bond with him during the interview. There were other activities occurring around me at the time and I was not as focused as I should have been. The second student I interviewed gave more glowing reviews, but it took a very long time for me to get those two students, so I suspect there may be some growing pains and issues at ndCDE. Dr. Peterson is truly a unique educator with a noble goal and I believe the intelligence and character to build that school into something truly great.
I also had rewarding visits with Kristi Smalley at the University of Missouri Online High School and Amy Michalowski at VHS. These are thoughtful, intelligent, caring educators who have invested great thought and attention into developing quality online programs that can really make a difference in the lives of students. These schools are really solid alternatives for public schools. I believe students will not just get their degrees from these schools, but they will also develop important personal and critical thinking skills.
My interview with Ms. Tonks at Mountain View Academy was very interesting. Ms. Tonks is intense and directed, and her materials are all very polished and well presented. I received all of the student interviews as a forward from Ms. Tonks in one evening. She seems to have close relationships with the students and the students appear to be very responsive to requests. It was from Ms. Tonks that I really understood the tremendous value present in online learning for harnessing statistics to personalize and monitor student progress. With a good LMS, teachers can really hone in to what students are viewing and skipping and how much time they are spending on lessons, topics, and pages. Her teachers have found the statistics to be a surprisingly powerful tool for really getting to know students and get some clues as to what, why, and where they struggle the most.
By far the most unique experience I had during this research project was my communication with Max Bertola of Park City Independent/Alexandria International School. What a bright, interesting, and compelling educator he is! I wrote him on a Sunday and he eagerly agreed to visit with me at midnight his time in Alexandria, Egypt! He said the streets were full of noisy revelers anyway because it was ramadan and much of the activity in the city occurred during the late hours. We talked for some time, with his sharing his missions visions with me. He's clearly a go-getter who follows his ideas and his heart. He's a talented educator with many skills and ambitions. I look forward to seeing what happens with his brand new school in Egypt. I suspect that given the uncertain political climate, more students may be looking for an online education. I never really considered the value of online education for unsafe, war-torn, or violence ridden areas. Mr. Bertola got me thinking!
Some schools, like Apex, were unwilling to speak with me. I noticed that a representative from their school looked at my linked in page, which identifies me as working at the University of Texas Online High School, so that may have caused them to be skeptical of the veracity of my motivations. The fact is that this project has been purely for educational reasons. The Director at UTOHS would not allow me to interview anyone from our school or any of our closest competitors schools. UTOHS is going through a great deal of change and I do not think she has had the bandwidth to review any of these materials.
Finding schools and students who would speak with me was a challenge. However, as I mentioned above, those who did speak with me spoke honestly and thoughtfully. This has truly been an extremely rewarding and inspiring project for me. I believe I will be able to apply many of the tips and strategies I learned from these amazing educators, and I hope others who view these materials will benefit as well.
Banner image: Screen shot obtained from https://www.facebook.com/EDTConline 8/28/13.