Electronic tablets break down educational barriers in R.I. schools

By Linda Borg

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="380" caption="Jalixa Ramirez, a seventh grader at the Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts in Providence, uses an iPad to read her essay. The charter school’s 34 students use iPads to write essays, edit videos, practice math skills and e-mail homework. "][/caption]

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Step into the Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts in South Providence and this is what you see: seventh graders using iPads to write essays, edit videos, practice their multiplication tables and e-mail their homework to teachers.

The iPad and other electronic tablets are quietly revolutionizing the way a handful of Rhode Island schools provide instruction, communicate with students and parents, and evaluate teacher performance.

West Warwick is about to pilot a Windows-based tablet program in two of its elementary schools.

Woonsocket offers dozens of online courses in everything from Mandarin Chinese to bioethics.

Providence is using the iPad to evaluate what teachers are doing in the classroom.

And the Rhode Island Association of School Principals is training educators from 15 public school districts on how to use the iPad in the classroom, in the central office and in special-education settings.

Because Trinity, a first-year middle school charter, only has 34 students and 6 teachers, it can afford to give an iPad to every student. At $500 from the school’s operating budget, the iPad is cheaper than a typical laptop, more portable, and, with its touch screen technology, easy to use.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="380" caption="Delaney Jimenez, a seventh-grade student at Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts in Providence, discusses her idea that she illustrated on her iPad as she is timed by fellow student Preston Powell with his iPad. "][/caption]

At Trinity, the iPad has nearly eliminated the need for paperback novels. The school buys one book for $6 and downloads 34 copies. And there are many books in the public domain, such as the entire works of William Shakespeare, available free of charge. The potential for cost savings is considerable.

“When teachers say, ‘Get out your worksheet,’ I’m like, ‘OK,’ ” says 12-year-old Teri Thompson. “When they say, ‘Get out your iPad,’ I’m like, ‘Yes! The iPad!’ ”

“It’s not boring like when you have pen and paper,” says Jalixa Ramirez, another seventh grader. “Plus, it’s much easier to organize your work. You can save everything to a file.”

Sharon Hussey, the executive director of the Rhode Island Network for Educational Technology, calls the iPad a “transformational device” because of the way it allows students and staff to interact with a host of applications, from math games to streaming video.

“Students today are constantly around technology,” says Jennifer Patten, a seventh-grade history teacher. “That’s how they engage. The iPad heightens that engagement. It gives them access to a wealth of information that goes beyond the textbook and it allows them to be critical of what’s out there.”

Last week, students watched the Egyptian revolution develop in real time by watching live blogs and broadcasts from CNN and other media sources. “Students were able to see history unfold in front of them,” says Elizabeth Richards, the artistic director of Trinity, which is dedicated to the performing arts. “And this was a revolution which arguably began online.”

Trinity uses the iPad to foster a constant dialogue between students and teachers. A child can submit a homework assignment and get almost instant feedback. An essay can be revised several times with teacher input before it is submitted for a grade. If a student forgets his homework assignment, he can e-mail his teacher from home.

“It gives students safe, secure, unprecedented access to us,” Richards says.

Trinity has also created a math portal that allows parents to review their child’s homework assignments via the iPad or a personal computer.

Of course, with greater freedom comes greater responsibility.

That’s why Trinity has developed a detailed policy, signed by student and parent, which explains how the iPad can be used. For example, the use of social networking sites is prohibited. Students may only access the Internet through a specific application that filters out inappropriate material. And the iPad must never be left unattended.

“It’s like my baby,” Ramirez says. “I don’t let anyone take it from me.”

“So far,” Richards says, “we have had zero problems with broken iPads, zero problems with stolen iPads and zero problems with serious violations. The kids are rising to that level of responsibility. That’s what we as a school are about.”

Trinity also understands that the new technology is also about having fun. For Christmas, the school bought several game applications, including the wildly popular Angry Birds, for students.

And Trinity is constantly discovering unexpected ways in which technology enriches learning. Richards says that a student e-mailed her about a friend who was in a potentially unsafe situation at home. The school was able to address it immediately.

“The iPad doesn’t make or break what goes on in the classroom,” she says. “You still need dedicated teachers and a quality curriculum. But it’s a huge asset to increase the diversity of content in the classroom. And it puts at students’ fingertips some of the technology that is changing the way the world works.”

Although technology is expensive on any large scale, there is little doubt that school districts large and small are beginning to embrace it.

According to a recent study by Education Week, a national teachers’ magazine, 46 percent of public school districts offer distance learning over the Internet or through video conferencing and 53 percent use online curricula.

But there continues to be a gap between what teachers want and what they get. Although more than 80 percent of teachers surveyed said they would like to use technology in the classroom, 47 percent said that funding for such technology is inadequate.

In the meantime, some districts are harnessing the technology they already have.

In Woonsocket, high school students use videoconferencing to bring authors into the classroom, communicate with other schools, and share data. One day, students piled into the library to watch a surgery performed in real time.

But it is the district’s distance-learning program that has generated the most buzz.

Located in the Woonsocket Area Career & Technical Center, the E-Learning Academy offers 200 electives and 13 advanced-placement courses that students can take on school computers without sitting in class.

What began six years ago as a credit-recovery program has since morphed into a virtual high school that enrolls more than 500 students.

It has saved more than a few students from certain failure, says coordinator Michael Ferry. Last year, a sophomore walked into Ferry’s office and said, “I quit.” After talking with the young man, Ferry realized the student’s biggest problem was getting to school on time.

“Can you make it here for 10 a.m.?” Ferry said. The student said yes.

The student showed up every day and took two courses at a time. He went to summer school.

He kept asking, “Am I a junior yet?” and Ferry kept saying, “Keep taking courses.”

Last spring, he asked the same question. This time, Ferry said, “I’ve got some bad news. You’re not a junior. You’re a senior.”

The young man graduated in June.

“I call them my angels,” Ferry says. “There are 500 stories like this one.”

Not every student is cut out for the traditional high school. Distance learning is perfect for the young mother, the student who is struggling with English or the student who has to work to support his or her family. It also works for the teenager who is “school-phobic,” who can’t deal with 2,000 students and all of the attendant drama.

“Technology offers flexibility in scheduling and the ability to work anytime,” Ferry said. “We would never be able to service these kids face-to-face.”

Working with a company called Nova Net, the high school took the company’s online courses and aligned them with its own curricula. Ferry said that the students taking the online courses receive the same content as those taking the face-to-face classes. The beauty is they can work at their own pace.

Students use this program to make up credits, and Ferry says that 56 students graduated last year thanks to the opportunity. Students can also access the curricula from home.

In Providence, iPads provide a fresh take on the classic “learning walk.” In the past, principals have observed teachers and then scribbled their observations on a long worksheet. The iPad not only makes it much easier to complete the evaluations, it aggregates the data and helps schools identify strengths and weaknesses in each subject.

The observations are not a “gotcha” exercise, however. Rather, they are an attempt to collect feedback from individual classroom visits, collate the data, and spot trends. Are students engaged? Are teachers mixing up different styles of instruction? Does the student know what is being taught and why? Ultimately, the information will be used to give teachers feedback on how to refine instruction.

“It’s important that we look at what we’re doing,” says Lenora Goodwin, an AP environmental-science teacher at Central High School. “I have good days and bad days, but I know that in the end I’m moving my kids along.”

lborg@projo.com

This article was originally posted at http://ping.fm/tKtEK

Interview with HIMSS CEO Steve Lieber: Mobile is the future

Health IT is very much in a transition phase right now. The “meaningful use” incentive program for electronic health records is underway, though in its early phases. National health IT coordinator Dr. David Blumenthal is departing government service in April, even as federal officials work to develop regulations for Stage 2 and Stage 3 of meaningful use.

And right at the nexus of all the change is mobile healthcare, according to H. Stephen Lieber, president and CEO of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).

“The laptop is almost becoming a bit outdated as we move to smartphones and tablets,” Lieber said last week in a wide-ranging interview ahead of the organization’s annual conference, now underway in Orlando, Fla. Mobile is the next evolution in information technology, and we’re right on the cusp of the mobile era.

“It’s where we’re headed. It’s the future,” Lieber said. “The ability to deliver care from somewhere else [while] the patient is in still a different place, that very much is where we are headed.”

Lieber did acknowledge that some people are already there. “It’s certainly current for many. It’s the future for all,” he said.

In many ways, HIMSS conference is a new venue for mobile technology. While Sprint CEO Dan Hesse keynoted at HIMSS10 in Atlanta and more than 200 of the 900-plus vendors at HIMSS11 claim to offer mobile applications, mobile is struggling to find the spotlight in this massive event.

As we reported last week, a good portion of the mobile-related content at HIMSS is taking place outside of the regular conference.  Sunday featured a pre-conference RFID symposium, and mobile is central to HIT X.0: Beyond the Edge, a series of sessions on emerging healthcare technologies—including mobile, wireless and social media—that HIMSS really is running as a separate conference with an additional registration fee.

“The objective here is to bring into the HIMSS conference those things that you typically didn’t find prominently,” Lieber said of the X.0 programming. They’ve been there, but might have been hard to find. “You almost had to go looking for them,” he added.

“We want to be bringing into the conference what’s coming or what’s here but hasn’t necessarily been embraced on a widespread basis, as other technologies might,” Lieber explained. “It attracts a very different kind of audience.”

How much so? Of the approximately 900 people who signed up for HIT X.0, more than half had never attended HIMSS before, according to Lieber, likely because they didn’t see enough value in the main conference  to make it worth their while.

“We were successful in reaching out to a different audience, focusing on a different subject and structuring it in such a way that the audience recognizes that this is not typical for HIMSS,” Lieber said.

Lieber did caution against falling victim to unreasonable expectations some may have set for mobile health. “We see it all the time, in terms of hype cycles and booms,” he said.

“People need to be careful as they’re looking at applications and they’re looking at hardware, making sure that it’s designed for the environment,” Lieber cautioned. “The iPad wasn’t really designed for a linoleum floor,” for example. Nor was it designed for hospital-grade sanitizers.

“There’s a lot that happens in the early days [of a technology]—people coming into the field who come from a different sector and think they can just transplant their product or learning to healthcare, and it doesn’t work quite that way,” Lieber added.

One area prone to hype is remote and home monitoring, but Lieber is optimistic about its future. “Home care, that’s an area that still is in its infancy—if it’s even barely in infancy—that’s going to be another transition that we’ll see over the coming years.”

Of course, lack of reimbursement has held back wider adoption of wireless monitoring technologies. HIMSS is not actively lobbying insurers to pay for telehealth services, but the organization historically has been slow in getting into financial and reimbursement issues. “It’s related to what we do, but we’re much closer to the technology, the hardware and software issues,” according to Lieber.

But the time is coming. “What we are starting to see is a recognition by the payers that it’s in their best interest to find the ways to provide the right kind of reimbursement and incentives that help move care to the lower-cost—and oftentimes more-effective—setting,” Lieber said.

Insurers must make sure that they aren’t just paying for a service on top of regular care, though, Lieber said. “They’ve got to figure out how [to] bring that reimbursement scheme in that provides the right incentives that shifts it from a higher per-unit cost to a lower per-unit cost.”

This article was originally posted at http://ping.fm/Q18Qc

New sensor tags promise to improve compliance, operations

Three new wireless temperature and humidity sensor tags from Ekahau could help with regulatory compliance and improve operations across a number of industries, including healthcare. The Wi-Fi-based RTLS vendor says its new tags deliver an automated way to measure, monitor and manage areas where changes in the environment could be harmful.

Wireless and battery powered, the tags are designed to be easily configured and can be deployed in various environments without having to run cabling for power and connectivity. The tags boast a three-year battery life (when set at a 15-minute reporting interval), and are capable of sampling temperature and/or humidity every 15 seconds. On-board heuristics enable the tag to immediately report anomalies if they occur between reporting intervals, according to a company statement.

Two of the tags—the TS1 and TS2—have extended cable probes that can be installed inside the environment where temperature is being measured, such as a freezer or refrigerator. The TS1 tag has a single probe; the TS2 is a dual-probe tag.

The third—a humidity sensor tag called the HS1—includes on-board sensors that measure relative humidity (RH) ranging up to 100 percent, and temperature ranges of -40 degrees to +85 degrees Celsius (-40 degrees to +185 degrees Fahrenheit).

All three include audible and visual alarm indicators on the tags themselves and allow for programmable alarm limits and local data logging. The upside of continuous data logging is that the measurement data will not be lost even in the event of a network outage.

All of the new sensor tags also incorporate the ability to receive acknowledgments from the Ekahau servers and a smart re-try capability, in case of data transmission failures.

This article was originally posted at http://ping.fm/hCIFz

Mobile solutions, new tech to play key roles at HIMSS Read more: Mobile solutions, new tech to play key roles at HIMSS

Along with interoperability, mobile solutions and new digital technologies will be among the biggest foci of the upcoming HIMSS conference (Feb. 20-24) in Orlando, Fla. We'll be hosting an executive breakfast on Tuesday, Feb. 22 at the Wyndham Orlando Resort on mHealth's ever evolving role in achieving Meaningful Use. And the health IT fair will showcase new mobile products from RIM, Sprint Nextel, and Siemens, which is teaming up with Enterasys.

NaviNet, which specializes in online communications between physician practices and health plans, will unveil its first set of mobile products since acquiring Prematics last fall. Prematics, which started with e-prescribing software subsidized by health plans, now offers clinical messaging and care management platforms, as well. NaviNet has integrated these patient information capabilities with its own revenue cycle management solution and connections with health insurers.

Health plans will also be represented at HIMSS through recent acquisitions of health information exchange (HIE) vendors. Axolotl, which was purchased by United subsidiary Ingenix, and Medicity, now part of Aetna, both will have a presence. Ingenix also will be touting its acquisitions of Picis, A-Life Medical and Executive Healthcare Records.

Also of interest on the exhibition floor will be the emergence of the "digital pen" technology, which promises to make it easier for physicians to document visits in electronic health records. Shareable Ink, already being used in many emergency departments, is about to announce a deal with a major ambulatory EHR vendor. Anoto, another digital pen firm, describes outpatient EHR vendor NextGen as its partner.

To learn more:
- explore the conference agenda and exhibitor list at the HIMSS website
- read about the Navinet-Prematics solution

This article was originally posted at http://ping.fm/rzOxL

Administering a Gross Anatomy Exam Using Mobile Technology

By Alireza Jalali, Daniel Trottier, Mariane Tremblay, and Maxwell Hincke


Mobile technology has infiltrated medical school education. Students now bring tablet PCs, rather than notebooks, into the classroom. They can access Web-based curriculum during lectures and add notes directly to their files. At the Faculty of Medicine University of Ottawa the curriculum for the first two years is online, and PDAs have largely replaced reference books for students in clerkship programs. And more telling, employees at Ottawa Hospital Medical have been encouraged to replace pen and paper notes with iPads. Thus, transitioning from written to digital examinations seemed to be a reasonable next step. To assess the benefits and drawbacks of this approach, we developed a mock anatomy examination using the Questionmark software and compared its administration and evaluation on two electronic devices.

At the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Ottawa, gross anatomy is taught during the first two years of medical school. The course is divided into four units: musculoskeletal anatomy; the thorax, head and neck; the abdominal and pelvic cavity; and neuroanatomy. Students attend anatomy lectures and laboratories almost every week. After each unit students take a final laboratory examination, they also take a timed midterm examination. During each examination, students rotate through 20 (midterm exam) or 40 (final exam) stations in the laboratory covering anatomy, pathology, radiology, and a few other disciplines. Students spend two minutes at each station and answer two to four multiple-choice questions (MCQs). MCQs are frequently used in medical schools because they are reliable and allow for rapid marking and prompt feedback to learners (Fowell and Bligh, 1998); also MCQs can be used to examine higher levels of learning (Collins, 2006).

Our goal was to eliminate these paper examinations and move to an online version. As instructors we use guidelines from the National Board of Medical Examiners and the Medical Council of Canada to aid us in constructing our examination questions (Case and Swanson, 2002; Touchie, 2005). Since the students are taught using cadaveric specimens, their examination should also include such specimens. However there are disadvantages: Voluminous amounts of paperwork need to be organized. In proctoring seven examinations a year to 150 students, we use approximately 35,000 pieces of paper. It takes time to prepare the printed examinations, organize the examination stations, and then to carry all of the papers to the laboratory before the examination. It is also time consuming to correct the examinations and communicate results. Besides the issue of sustainability, online evaluation would save administrative time and money in addition to helping us to provide faster feedback to students.

Experimental Procedures


To move from a paper-based examination to an online version, we researched available hardware and software. We decided to use a portable device, which would allow us to continue to use the timed examination, the students would also be able to move easily from one station to another. After a discussion with our medical technology team, we chose two tablets for this study that were light weight and had fast screen reaction time and long battery life: the Lenovo S10-3t running Windows 7 Enterprise and the Apple iPad Wi-Fi 64GB running the iPhone 3.2 OS.

With all the available options, we tested numerous learning applications. Students were already comfortable Questionmark Perception and it was compatible with existing technologies being used at the school. The tool allows the creation of a question bank in different languages, which is very useful for our bilingual university. Also the ability to create 12 types of reports was useful, specifically the coaching report. The student can see detailed information, including the answers and scores for each question, which is used to help coach individuals through their learning curves. Furthermore, Questionmark Perception makes it possible to return to and continue a previously started examination via an auto-save feature. This feature is not Wi-Fi dependent and, therefore, lends itself well to a potentially unstable Internet connection environment and provides confidence for use during a live examination. For all of these reasons, our university purchased a license for Questionmark; eventually all of our written examinations at Faculty of Medicine will be created using the software.

Our data collection method was straight forward; we set up a mock anatomy examination using four stations, each having two MCQs. A student, an IT staff member, and a faculty member, who were all familiar with the paper-based examination, completed the examination first using the iPad, and then using the Lenovo tablet. The volunteers had two minutes at each station. Afterward they were individually questioned about their general impressions of the online examination and their preferences regarding the devices used.

Results

We identified numerous benefits and challenges related to the method. All of the participants liked the idea of an online anatomy examination to replace the paper version. Ease of use and immediate feedback were among the advantages they identified. The two main disadvantages identified were the stress related to not having an examination paper in hand and dependence on a potentially unreliable Internet connection. The participants found that an online examination added to the stress of taking the examination. The participants worried that their responses would not be recorded by the machines and that their answers might not be submitted.

Conclusion


Although the online examinations may help faculty administratively, it will present challenges. Students may be stressed by undergoing a new method of examination and will require suitable orientation. The choice of hardware and software also needs to be considered carefully, as the examination might render differently depending on the selected technology. During our study we discovered depending on the selected online examination tool, an online exam will render differently on the iPad compared with conventional laptops and tablet PCs. This is mostly do to the fact that iPad uses Safari as browser instead of the more widely used Internet Explorer. Consequently achieving the desired look and user experience required modifications to digital files; even our method for organizing the examination was affected. However our preliminary trials established that an iPad and the Questionmark software was a suitable combination to use for a timed, online anatomy examination. This recommendation is in line with the Ottawa Teaching Hospital's decision to use the iPad at the patient bedside for clinical purposes. Our hope is the transition from paper examinations to an online version will save faculty members time, but also improve the evaluation process for students. An electronic exam will also translate into cost savings for the university. Moreover the final licensing examination administered by the Medical Council of Canada is taken on a computer, adopting an online anatomy examination will offer students much needed practice and, it is hoped, better preparation for such professional examinations.

Acknowledgments

The authors appreciate the continued and enthusiastic support from the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Medicine and Bureau des Affaires Francophones (BAF) with this project.

About the Authors


Alireza Jalali, M.D., is a Francophone professor of anatomy at the Division of Clinical and Functional Anatomy, at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada. His research explores the use of technology and more particularly the Web 2.0 tools in medical education.

Daniel Trottier is the manager of the Web, multimedia, learning technologies and IT Systems at the Medical Technology Office at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada. His research interest includes the use of new technological tools in medicine.

Mariane Tremblay is a multimedia and learning technologies designer at the Medical Technology Office at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada. She is fascinated with the use of new technology in medical education.

Maxwell Hincke, Ph.D., is the Head of the Division of Clinical and Functional Anatomy at Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada. He is very interested in the use of novel technology for teaching anatomy in the medical curriculum.


References

Case, S.M. and Swanson, D.B. (2002). Constructing Written Test Questions for the Basic and Clinical Sciences. Third Ed. Philadelphia, PA. National Board of Medical Examiners, http://ping.fm/i0yp6

Collins, J. (2006). Education techniques for lifelong learning: Writing multiple-choice questions for continuing medical education activities and self-assessment modules. Radiographics 26 (2): 543-551.

Fowell, S.L and Bligh, J.G. (1998). Recent developments in assessing medical students. Postgrad Medical Journal 74 (867):18-24.

Touchie, C. (2005). Guidelines for the Development of Multiple-Choice Questions. First Ed. The Medical Council of Canada, Ottawa, ON, http://ping.fm/FhMT3

This article was originally posted at http://ping.fm/cl3e6

Education Budget Makes Tough Choices to Allow for New Investments in Early Learning, Reform and Innovation, Teachers and Leaders, and College Completion

Deep cuts and efficiencies in several key education programs will help fund new education investments to keep American students competitive in the global economy under the proposed 2012 Obama administration education budget. The President released the budget at a Baltimore public school on Monday, February 14.

"We are cutting where we can to invest where we must," said Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who joined President Obama for the announcement. "These are challenging times, but we can't delay investments that will secure our future. We must educate our way to a better economy by investing responsibly, advancing reform and demanding results."

Areas for new investment run the spectrum from early learning to college completion, and include funding for formula and competitive K-12 programs, including a new district-level Race to the Top program with a rural set-aside and another round of Investing in Innovation grants. The budget also includes new and expanded programs that support teacher and principal effectiveness.

Not including Pell Grants, the administration's 2012 budget request for the Department of Education is $48.8 billion, an increase of $2 billion or 4.3% over the 2011 budget, which was not approved by Congress and is being funded through continuing resolutions.

The Department expects demand for Pell grants to reach 9.6 million students next year, up from 6 million in 2008. The President's budget protects recent increases in the maximum grant to $5,550 while ensuring that all eligible students continue to be served.

In order to sustain the program in a responsible way, the Administration proposes saving billions by eliminating subsidies for graduate students with loans and eliminating a provision that enables some students to receive two Pell grants in a single year.

"These are very tough choices but with rising demand, we have to stretch our dollars as far as possible and do more with less," Duncan said.

In addition to eliminating 13 programs that will save $147 million next year, the Administration will cut $265 million in career and technical education (CTE) grants. States will still receive $1 billion in CTE grants next year as well as $3.1 billion for Vocational Rehabilitation State Grants and $635 million for Adult Education grants.

"Career education is vitally important to America's future but we need to strengthen and reform our programs before expanding them," Duncan said.

Other highlights of the budget include:

• $350 million for a new Early Learning Challenge Fund to boost quality or early learning programs.


• $900 million for a district-level Race to the Top program with a rural set-aside.


• $300 million for a new round of i3 (Investing in Innovation) grants.


• $500 million more for Title I (for low-income students) and IDEA (for students with disabilities) formula programs.


• $150 million for the Promise Neighborhoods program, which integrates educational and social services in targeted communities.


• $100 million more for after school programs (21st Century Community Learning Centers) for a total of $1.27B.


• $54 million more ($600 million total) to turn around low-performing schools


• $4.3 billion for teacher and principal preparation programs. This includes formula grants to states, alternative certification programs, STEM teacher prep programs, funds to support a well-rounded education, minority teacher recruiting programs and scholarships for high-achieving students to work in high-need schools.


• $175 million in competitive grants to boost college completion.


• $90 million for a new education research and development program and $60 million more for research and evaluation programs at IES.

"These targeted funding increases reflect the administration's competitiveness agenda and our continuing commitment to protect students most at risk while supporting reform at the state and local level," Duncan said.

In addition to setting aside some new RTT funding for rural districts so they get a fair share of the dollars, Duncan said that the competition would, "Recognize districts leading the way in terms of increasing productivity and raising student achievement."

Additional information on the U.S. Department of Education's FY 2012 budget proposal is available at http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget12/index.html.

This article was originally posted at http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/education-budget-makes-tough-choices-allow-new-investments-early-learning-reform

Online learning is making education more efficient and more effective

In his State of the Union address, President Obama urged the United States to out-innovate the rest of the world in order to to remain competitive. And when it comes to innovation, there’s no better place to start than education.

Fortunately, we're already moving in the right direction. Online learning is already being integrated into American education, with more than 3 million K-12 students enrolled in an online course in 2009. And the phenomenon is no longer confined to distance learning. Most of its growth has occurred in blended-learning environments, in which students learn online with adult-supervision.

This trend will continue. The troubled budget picture, coupled with the demand for better results, is forcing school operators to rethink the structure and delivery of education. This, in turn, is accelerating adoption of the blended learning model.

Blended learning has the potential to upend today’s standardized, factory-model school system by enabling personalized learning approaches for all students. Many experts agree that targeting students’ different needs at different times will in turn result in higher achievement.

One example is Carpe Diem, which began as a traditional, state charter school serving 280 students in grades 6 to 12 in Yuma, Arizona. When it lost its building lease eight years ago, the school had to slash its budget and question every assumption about what a “school” should look like.

Today, students at Carpe Diem are using online learning as teachers roam, looking over shoulders and offering instant help whenever a student struggles. Students only progress to the next level or unit once they have demonstrated mastery of the unit on which they are working. The software provides frequent feedback.

Students also spend time in traditional classrooms where teachers re-teach concepts as needed, and enhance and apply the material introduced online.

So far, the personalized learning approach has created a far more productive and affordable school model. Its student population—60 percent of which is on free or reduced-price lunch and 48 percent of which are minorities—is excelling. In 2010, the school ranked first in its county in student performance in math and reading and among the top 10 percent of all Arizona charter schools.

What is keeping America back from having many more Carpe Diems? Mostly ourselves. A host of policies and funding streams dictate to schools their inputs and processes, thwarting creative and innovative arrangements for student learning in the process. Others either restrict the online courses students may access, or tie them to an arbitrary calendar year. These policies should be reformed, and students should advance based on mastery; not the amount of time spent in a classroom.

Other countries are already moving in this direction. America, with its abundant technological resources and entrepreneurs on hand, ought to lead rather than follow.

Michael Horn is Executive Director of Education at Innosight Institute, a nonprofit think tank focused on education and innovation, which released a January 2011 report titled “The rise of K-12 blended learning” in conjunction with the Charter School Growth Fund and Public Impact.


This article was originally posted at  http://ping.fm/bUDCe