Options and Opportunities by Stephen Downes
It was a crisp, clear september morning–the kind where you can see forever across the
manitoba prairie–when the police car pulled me over. It was mid–1995 and unusual to see a van
crammed full of computers and electronic gear on a rural highway hundreds of miles from the nearest
city. At least, that is what I told myself as the officer approached, his speeding-ticket notepad in
his hand.
In the end, I escaped with a warning–and a convert. The
Internet was coming to Manitoba students, I told him, and
with it, a vista of new educational opportunities. Over the
years that followed, I would demonstrate my portable,
Internet–enabled network in communities across southwest
Manitoba, building support for the online high school and
college courses local Assiniboine Community College would
be offering.
Providing Alternatives
What I offered them, and what we built in our rural region of
western Canada, was not simply access to online resources. It
was choice. In a small high school, only one or two students
might be interested in contemporary world politics. Or perhaps,
on a First Nations reserve, supplementary English instruction
might not be available. We could build a course for
those students and for others like them across the province. Our
province-wide course made these things possible.
Today, choice is becoming increasingly important to parents
and students. We have learned the importance of serving
students with special needs, including those who are gifted and
those with learning or physical disabilities. We understand the
need for an increasingly varied cultural dimension in learning,
as parents seek to pass on their language, religion, values, and
traditions to their children. And we have seen the value of schools
that specialize, such as the Aviation High Schools in Seattle,
Wash., Long Island City, N.Y., and Oakland, Calif.
And so parents are being presented with an increasing range
of choices. For those who can afford it, private or parochial
schools have always been an option. Today, students also have
the opportunity to study the advanced International
Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum. Outside–of–school instruction
is possible, such as that provided by Sylvan Learning Centers.
Online courses are another option.
Meeting Diverse Needs
Faced with an increasingly demanding parent population, students
who want more choices and opportunities, and a wider
range of competing alternatives, what can public school administrators
and supporters do to respond? How can schools
and school boards be reconfigured to provide the range of options
being asked of them? Fortunately, examples exist that illustrate
how systems can adapt to meet changing conditions.
For many years, Canada’s Edmonton Public Schools has successfully
operated a system that allows parents and students to
opt for one of a number of alternatives. Students can choose
between advanced placement schools, Arabic or Mandarin
bilingual programs, dance programs, hockey programs, IB
programs, and much more. "We believe that the one–size–fits all
model of education is no longer appropriate in today’s
rapidly evolving society," write the school board trustees. "Children
have different learning styles and some achieve better in
certain environments. Edmonton Public Schools is making a
strong statement about our ability to address and meet the changing
needs of students."
Working with the teachers’ union, the school board drafted
a framework for decision–making at the school level. It encourages
principals to foster "meaningful parent and community
involvement in school matters." A key element of this is
a program in which parents, teachers, and community members
jointly review testing results and collaborate to design
special programs or special schools.
Technology’s Role
Educators also have learned that the dedicated use of
technology can support effective and diverse learning.
While many schools struggle with traditional computer
labs, initiatives such as the Maine Laptop Program,
which provides each student with his or her own personal
computer, are promising models. Teachers are
able to personalize instruction, students are more motivated,
and learning has improved.
The development of cheaper, more agile computers
will greatly extend the range of school laptop programs
worldwide. Most well known is the One Laptop per
Child (OLPC) project, led by computer scientist and
educator Nicholas Negroponte. OLPC’s stated goal is
to distribute hundreds of thousands of its $200 XO children’s
laptops throughout the developed and developing
world so all children can be "given the opportunity
to tap into their own potential, to be exposed to a
whole world of ideas, and to contribute to a more productive
and saner world community." Similarly,
computer-chip maker Intel, through its World Ahead
Program, is offering the Classmate PC, a cheap and lightweight
computer for classroom use. And ASUS made
headlines in November 2007 when it unveiled the wireless
Eee PC. Priced at $250, the seven-inch device was
immediately snapped up by the Fresno (Calif.) Unified
School District, which purchased 1,000 units as part
its campaign to boost student achievement. This initiative
included giving each student a digital
portfolio that is linked to the district’s main computer
network and will hold all of the student’s schoolwork from
kindergarten through 12th grade.
With more affordable and more mobile computers with Internet
access, administrators can rethink the design of schools
and school districts. There is, for example, no reason to restrict
students to a common program of studies in the same classroom
at predetermined times. Thus, the Knowsley Metropolitan
Borough Council in Merseyside, England, an industrial
suburb with a student population of 21,000, is closing its
1950s–era high schools and replacing them with student learning
centers. As reported in The Independent, "The style of
learning will be completely different. The new centres will open
from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. in both term–time and what used
to be known as the school holidays. At weekends, they will open
from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Youngsters will not be taught in formal
classes, nor will they stick to a rigid timetable; instead they will
work online at their own speeds on programmes that are
tailor-made to match their interests."
The purpose of the Knowsley initiative is to provide a more
diverse school system in order to offer choices to an increasingly
diverse school population. In a BBC News article, Nick
Page, the man responsible for overseeing the transformation,
argues that the district is responding to parent and community
demands. Students, parents, and employers wanted "different
types of products" from the education system, Page said. "What
we are trying to do is to make sure that the physical and learning
structures are adaptive and relevant in 25 years’ time."
A Look at Online Learning
Online schools are far from new. The Virtual High School in
Ontario, Canada, has been offering online credits since 1996.
Anyone can enroll–many of its students are adult learners–
and can sign up for classes at any time. Learners study at their
own paces and are credentialed via a proctored final exam. "The
flexible time schedule and professional, committed teachers enabled
me to work full time in my senior year, and to graduate
early and pursue an exciting internship with an international
company," writes student Brent Emanuel in what is a typical
case study.
There is a substantial role for the public–education system
in supporting online learning. The iQ Academies (see accompanying
box), for example, offer online courses and services
to students in Wisconsin, Kansas, and Arizona. Students
are able to go full–time or to take courses not offered at their
schools, such as advanced placement or foreign languages.
Again, the objective is to provide choice and diversity to
students and parents. By taking advantage of distributed educational
services and resources, even small and remote schools
can offer a personalized course of instruction for every student.
The key to offering choice is not only to offer choice of school; it is to offer choice in school.
iQ Academies
iQ Academies are online high schools in which more than 1,100
students take courses via computer from home–or anywhere else
with an Internet connection. Students tend to be kids who have
been home schooled, are unable to attend traditional school
(e.g., aspiring models or athletes), or have social or public-safety
issues that make attending a brick-and-mortar school difficult.
"iQ Academy is so much more than course content online,"
says Lisa McClure, director of operations for iQ Academies,
which are run by KC Distance Learning. "iQ Academy is structured
very much like a traditional high school. We use the
school-year calendar, with semesters and typical ninth through
12th grade progression in courses."
The three schools–in Wisconsin, Kansas, and Arizona–work
hard, however, to emphasize the "high school" part of being
virtual high schools. Kids take classes with fellow students and
a teacher who does all the grading, runs real–time online tutoring,
and is available for questions via e–mail, phone, or online
chat. Counselors travel to meet with kids face–to–face several
times a year, and the school plans in-person study groups and
social events.
Each iQ Academy is associated with a specific school district,
although students can attend tuition–free from anywhere in the
state, and graduates receive a high school diploma. "Students at
the other Wisconsin public schools who want to take something
not offered at their school, like Japanese or AP Spanish, can
enroll part-time," adds McClure. –Carl Vogel
What Kind of Choice?
The diversity offered in online programs is illustrative. We are
used to thinking of online learning as resembling traditional
classroom instruction, with a teacher leading
students through a course of study. In online learning,
however, students can learn from interactive videos
and animations, they can work with simulations, or
they can listen to music. Students learn to write, and
more important, to read and be read. They can work
in groups, collaborate, and share their work with an
online audience.
Online learning also allows students to work on
programs of study that are grounded in real problems.
In a simulation called Cyber–Budget, for example,
students can work on the national budget of
France. There is no reason why this educational and
community–based activity cannot inform the actual
budget passed by the French parliament.
This is also the approach taken by a collection of
institutions based in Rhode Island known as Big Picture
Schools. Founded by Dennis Littky and Elliot
Washor, Big Picture charter schools offer personalized
education programs that allow students to work with
their community to pursue their interests. They do not
focus on content–oriented curricula. Thus, for example,
we see Shenandoah High School, a Big Picture
School in El Dorado, Calif., in which students do
internships with more than 300 mentors at businesses
and organizations throughout northern
California.
Students, though, need not align
themselves with the interests of local
employers to address real problems. In
Denmark, an entrepreneurial educational
program called KaosPilot
International lets students identify realworld
problems that interest them and
address these in the course of their
studies. While many KaosPilots form
their own businesses, others perform social
and outreach work, such as a group
that is working with the organization
MyLife in Cape Town, South Africa,
to build a village for street children
and help with product development.
Students do not have to travel to
Denmark or Cape Town to engage in
authentic learning, however. In the
years following my work at Assiniboine,
I traveled around Alberta,
Canada, working with town managers
and elected officials for Alberta
Municipal Affairs and the University
of Alberta, creating MuniMall, an online–learning and
resources community where participants’ learning and work
could merge. It was important in the design of this project to
enable people who aspired to become municipal officials and
those who already were employed to share the same
online resource, to learn from the same sources, and
to talk with one another, because when a student engages
in personal learning–when he or she is learning
to make choices in an uncharted discipline–it is
important to find support in a community.
Belin-Blank Center
Every summer, nearly 1,000 gifted students from around the
country arrive at the University of Iowa for courses that will
expand their horizons, taught by the staff of the Belin-Blank
International Center for Gifted Education and Talent
Development. Junior high and high school students take classes
such as the Human Genome Project and Flash Fiction, and
elementary school students learn about robotics or computer
programming.
":For many kids who come to campus, this is their first taste of
college life," says Susan G. Assouline, the program’s associate
director. "The idea is to allow students to develop in an area
they are passionate about and to be with others who are passionate
about the topic."
The Belin-Blank Center also provides Saturday courses during
the school year in several locations throughout Iowa and operates
the National Academy of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering, a
program that provides early entrance to college for exceptionally
talented students. It’s all part of the center’s commitment to
support opportunities for gifted students, which also includes
professional development for teachers and a talent search for
exceptional students. –C.V.
Embracing the Community
It is possible, and probably necessary, to support
choice in the public–school system. And there are many
examples to learn from–many more than could be
included in this short article. We know that a school
district can create a range of school choices, and we
know that school districts or entire states can provide
the online resources to make choice possible. And we
know that what today are called alternative forms of
schooling can make real-world engagement in genuine
problems not only an instrument of student
choice, but also of deeper, more meaningful learning.
Oakland Aviation High School
Students who attend Oakland Aviation High School in Oakland, Calif., have a
choice in 10th grade: business or aviation. Either way, they will graduate well
on their way to a successful career. This charter school allows students in one
of the country’s poorest urban areas to graduate with either an Associate’s
Degree in business or the Federal Aviation Administration certification that
allows a mechanic to work on airliners, an exacting program that requires
more than 1,300 hours of specific training.
"The purpose of an education is to have a more rich and fulfilling life," says
Jay M. Dunlap, Oakland Aviation High’s principal. "Everybody here has to
apply to a four–year college, but if you decide to go into the field, there is a job
with a future waiting for you. And if you go to college, you can enter with two
years of credit."
The school was created to link students to local resources, such as key staff
members at the massive Port of Oakland or courses taught by professors at
partner institution the College of Alameda. The school is small, with about 120
total students. "I like the fact that I know every student, that I have every parent’s
phone number," says Dunlap. "One of the great challenges of this school
is that students in this district are an average of three to four years behind
grade level. It’s a credit to our staff and students that we are working to overcome
that, and we are making progress." –C.V.
Proponents of public–school education will have
to embrace not only new technologies that support
learning and new pedagogies that leverage those
technologies, but also new forms of organization
suggested by those technologies and pedagogies.
Where in the past we have relied on standardization
as our guarantor of quality and access, we will in the
future be looking toward more flexible measures–
measures rooted in the needs expressed and pursued
by an increasingly diverse population. We will be able,
in ways we haven’t previously, to enable each person
to pursue his or her own educational objectives in
his or her own way. And as the economic imperatives
that demand a standardized curriculum fade,
the educational, social, and economic benefits of diversity
not only will become clearer, they will become
imperative.
What will be required is a set of educational– and
board–governance policies that end the isolation of the
school board and of education generally, and that embrace
the entire community. If pedagogy in the future
amounts to creating the conditions under which students
can learn for themselves, the community will
absolutely have to participate in that education. Creating
opportunities for students to see and share in the
workings of their community, to interact with the mentors
and role models that will shape their lives, and to
work directly with the tools they will use to build their
futures–this will be the role of teachers and of the educational
infrastructure that supports them.
Stephen Downes is a senior researcher at the Institute for
Information Technology in New Brunswick, Canada.
Author of the daily research e-newsletter, OLDaily
(www.downes.ca/news/OLDaily.htm), he also develops
education content-syndication systems.
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