Category — Distance Learning

One of the more consistent, ongoing suggestions for improving America’s educational system centers upon the creation of greater competition amongst public schools. The reason for the steady drumbeat centers upon a belief that a change to the free market system would be one of the best methods for creating better educational opportunities for children.

In direct response to the push for greater competition, forty states across America have now initiated legislation to allow the construction of new public schools called charter schools. Minnesota was the first state to pass laws regarding charter schools, doing so in 1991.

The concept is definitely catching on. Today, according to PublicCharters.org, there are 4,303 charter schools across our country educating more than 1.2 million children. The state of California, the second to enact such legislation, has more than 600 such schools educating about one-fifth of the nation’s charter school students.

While the number of schools continues to grow, large numbers of Americans, many even within the field of education, simply do not know what a charter school really consists of or how this new school concept differs from traditional public schools. Today at OpenEducation.net, we provide our readers the fundamentals of the charter school concept.

Creating a Charter School
The basic premise behind a charter school is quite simple. A group of people interested in creating a new public school petitions their local educational authority to construct another educational opportunity, in essence a new school. And by construct, we are talking about both the literal and figurative meanings of the word.

According to USCharterSchools.org, “People establish charter schools for a variety of reasons.” However, research indicates that school founders, those creating a charter school, most generally fall into three groups: grassroots organizations of parents, teachers and community members with a common vision of education; entrepreneurs who see the business potential in creating a school; or existing schools looking to reconstitute by converting to charter status. As for a more specific rational, a national study of charter schools has tabulated the top three reasons that founders create a charter school as follows: to realize a specific educational vision; to gain greater autonomy; or to serve a special population.

Once interested in forming a new school entity, the petitioning group sets up a charter with either a local school board or the state (depending on the legislation that has been enacted in that state). The group must agree to educate the students in their school to a mutually agreed upon standard though again that standard can be adjusted according to the school’s charter and mission. Of course, the petitioning group must meet the fundamental expectations of the respective charter legislation in that state in regards to the proposed mission and relevant standards selected.

Otherwise, charter schools in those states where legislation has been created are free of many other state rules and regulations. At the same time, the school must follow the regulations of the self-created charter and the founding group is responsible for setting up oversight to ensure expectations are met.

Critical to the charter school concept, the founding group must agree that charter renewal will be granted only if the school proves to its sanctioning board that the school is being successful. The length of time for which charters are granted varies, but most are granted for 3-5 years.

Once a founding group creates an approved charter to open a school, the funding mechanism for the new entity is the same as any public school, taxpayer dollars.

Competition Is Created
The broader rationale of support for charter schools comes from the belief that the creation of new public schools will actually create a healthy competition for existing students. Critics point to the current structure, in essence a basic monopoly, as one of the primary reasons that schools are in need of improvement. The feeling is that the traditional public school structure offers virtually no impetus for poor-performing schools to improve.

In addition, many educational and non-educational professionals insist that governmental regulations stifle the learning environment. By their very nature, charter schools are free to experiment with educational practices and curricula. For charter schools, creativity and innovation are not simply buzzwords: these concepts are expected to be the cornerstones of such entities.

Ultimately, when a charter school has been created, parents and even teachers have a choice, to choose the traditional public school or a charter school option. The choice could be based upon higher than average academic standards at one school or because of smaller than typical class sizes at another. The choice could be based upon the innovative approaches being implemented at one school or because the educational philosophy of another school is more in line with the philosophy of the parent or teacher.

Whatever the case, the charter movement is about creating options for students and school choice for parents. To complete the competition model, charter schools that fail to deliver a viable product should in theory suffer from a lack of students and go out of business very quickly. By the same token, strong charter schools could put similar pressures on traditional public schools to perform better or they would lose students and the funding associated with them.

Possible School Options
With the formulation of additional school options, communities can create schools that focus on the arts, either visual or performing, or music, or math and science. Critical to the charter concept, because a school is free to focus in a specific area, these new entities can offer in depth courses according to that respective focus and forgo offering courses that are less meaningful to those individual students.

Instead of a school trying to serve as the ‘be-all and end-all’ for the entire student population in a community, charter schools are free to focus on just one type of program if they so desire. Therefore, one school can offer a college preparatory focus for one group of students while a second school could offer technical offerings for another segment of the population.

All too often, trying to offer both options in a single school actually reduces class offerings for students overall. By creating two separate entities, technical offerings can be expanded at a vocational charter school while more advanced academic courses can be added at a school that focuses on a college preparatory program. In either case, students can truly focus on coursework that fits their desired career path instead of having to find other classes within the traditional high school curriculum that often serve only to fulfill credit requirements.

Lastly, charter school legislation has served to reduce the number of large urban schools. This step has been one of the biggest pluses of the movement, allowing for the formation of smaller charter schools within bigger urban districts. This has led to smaller class sizes and more individualized instruction, two critical components for students.

Editor’s Note: Next, a look at Raleigh Charter High School, a role model for the charter movement.

Flickr photo courtesy of egnowit.

As teachers seek greater technological relevance, more and more individuals have created their own classroom web page. A trip around cyberspace yields a truly amazing assortment of sites, differentiated by their fundamental appearance, overall focus and amount of content.

Because there is a wealth of web site tools to use, teachers have almost too many options available to choose from. Given the plethora of choices and open-ended content options for each format, the question emerges, what should a classroom web site look like and what materials should be available on the site.

One Rubric to Consider
One gauge for teachers has been created by Joan Vandervelde and is on the University of Wisconsin-Stout web page. Vandervelde created seven categories to consider with different amounts of points for respective categories.

The rubric places a heavier emphasis on three categories: the content relevance for students and parents (a potential of nine points); the use of photos, graphics, sound, animation and video to enhance the site (six points); and proper application of fair-use guidelines (another six points).

Of lesser importance, but still receiving consideration are: site navigation tools, both internal and external; layout and text elements; contact person and copyright information; the speed at which web pages load; and the proper use of grammar with correct spelling. Each of the final five categories has a weight of three points each, bringing the total rubric score to 36.

The rubric’s emphasis on content relevance and visual appeal need no explanation. If a teacher has a site, then the material on that site must be relevant to his or her students and to their respective parents. To draw those two groups to the site, visual appeal and a variety of sensory input are certainly helpful.

However, the emphasis on proper application of fair-use guidelines might surprise some. It shouldn’t. Teachers should first and foremost be role models for students and their parents, and a web site is one of the most public methods for teachers to model expectations. Any site failing to meet the agreed-upon requirements sets a very poor example for students.

The final five categories represent the more mundane aspects but links that work, pages that load at reasonable speeds, and an ability to navigate the site are critical. Like the proper application of fair-use guidelines, the text elements, especially those related to spelling and grammar, are a reflection of a teacher’s standards.

A Few Examples
Today, with all the examples to choose from, one could never list all the sites worthy of mention. But to give readers a sense of a few concepts deserving of consideration we offer links to Mr. Mollinga, Miss Ryan, Ms. López-Isa, and Mr. Lang.

We begin with Mr. Mollinga and the site for his class at Sunset Elementary School. This teacher offers some very interesting game options including a version of Hangman that features the spelling words students have been working on. We must admit we got caught up trying to nail that pesky bug at Mosquito Swat.

Mr. Mollinga offers a number of links, broken up by sites for kids (eg: Kidzworld, Artsology, and The Discovery Channel Online), sites for teachers (eg: Teachernet, Busy Educators’ Guide to the World Wide Web, and B.C. Prescribed Learning Outcomes) and sites for parents (eg: familyeducation.com, Scholastic, and Parents Talk.)

But the aspect we liked most was his use of photos featuring the students in his classroom. His site features each student in the class, without any name identification of course, as well as many classroom action shots dispersed throughout the web pages. Such a touch is a great motivator to get both kids and parents to visit the site, a prerequisite for the site to be used.

At Miss Ryan’s site we noted the posting of book reviews with multiple years of examples available. One critical aspect of education is for children to have access to examples of work that teachers want them to emulate. Finding ways to post work online for both students and parents to access, again while maintaining confidentiality aspects, is a great way to provide exemplars for students to aspire to.

All teachers should find ways to post work samples online so that parents have a sense of what the teacher expects as a product from his or her students. We would add that creating basic presentation or movies with voice overs from students would be another aspect to consider. It would serve as both a sample of expectations as well as a draw for students and parents to visit the site.

As for another location for teachers to take a peek at, we offer Ada López-Isa’s Educational web site as a potential role model. Beginning with the site name (Sitio Educativo de Ada López-Isa), Ada provides the Spanish equivalent for all of the families where parents have not yet mastered the English language.

On the site, there are the Florida Sunshine State Standards, again in English and Spanish, the Miami Dade M-DCPS K-12 CBC (Curriculum), the M-DCPS Education Portal for Parents (Portal Educativo de M-DCPS para los Padres) and the Florida Department of Education. Even links to the No Child Left Behind Act (La Ley Ningún Niño Quedará Atrás) are provided in multilingual form as well as the traditional Meet The Teacher (Conozca a la Maestra).

Ada provides teachers an example of how a classroom site can and should be adjusted so as to be a true resource for parents including those who are not proficient in the English language. Though the site offers a number of helpful links, those connections would be of little use if not for a design that recognizes appropriate parental needs.

Many websites offer information on how to learn Spanish, but few have the depth and creativity that Ada offers.

A Resource Haven
When it comes to resources, we offer Mr. Lang’s site as a strong example of what teachers can do.

As with many teachers, Jeremy Lang’s responsibilities form an endless list of expectations. A teacher of Grade 7 Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, and Math, Jeremy coordinates Grade 7/8 Video Production, Grade 7/8 Web Design and the Citizenship Committee. Lang also coaches two sports and handles the tech responsibilities for 3 computer labs and all mobile technology for classroom uses (laptops, Smart Boards, projectors, and digital cameras).

In direct response to those job responsibilities, Lang’s site yields an impressive set of resources for other educators as well as parents and students.

Lang offers separate sections that focus on mathematics, science and technology. Math links range from Create A Graph to Webmath while science sites include Cells Alive, NASA’s Earth Observatory, and Oceanography. Simply check out the student resources page for links to these and other worthwhile sites.

In the area of Video Production, Lang offers links to movie maker forums as well as manuals, both basic and advanced, including three separate aspects of Windows Movie Maker. Additional links bring readers to screen writing and script writing tutorials.

Other areas of focus include Photojournalism & Photography and some useful software sites like CoffeeCup, GIMP and K3D. In sum total Mr. Lang’s site provides other teachers a great example as to how they can extend the learning environment for students, parents and fellow educators.

The specific area that teachers should take a careful look at is Mr. Lang’s game’s room page of online games that kids and adults will truly enjoy, preferably with a mindset on spending time together as they play. From Battleship to Yhatzee, from Chinese Checkers to Solitaire, parents have a wealth of fun options to enjoy with their kids. Lang also offers a number of more traditional learning–oriented options such as Add Like Mad, Colours, Multiplication Station, Subtraction Action and CanadaGeo, each activity offering the potential to directly help children with their basis school expectations. Throw in Word Search and Sudoku options and families literally have hours of potential online action available.

Much to Choose From
When constructing a web site, teachers have many design options to choose from. But to create a truly useful site that brings students and parents back, time and again, we think teachers would do well to consider the various areas we have noted.

As a start, teachers may simply assess their site against the rubric we provided. Such a review would certainly help individual educators improve their online presence.

It represented one of the most shameful of stories. Yet as is always the case with shameful stories, it soon made its way across America.

It seems an 11-year-old boy in Colorado had been suspended from school for failing to remove a t-shirt that school officials had deemed a disruption to the school’s learning environment. According to MyFOXColorado.com, on a day that students had been asked to show their patriotism by wearing red, white and blue, Dax Dalton wore a home-made shirt that read, “Obama is a terrorist’s best friend.”

The fifth grade boy was asked to either change his shirt or turn it inside out. At some point the asking became an ultimatum.

If the shirt were not turned inside out or removed, the school would have to suspend young Dax. The youngster chose suspension.

Father Insists He Will Sue
The boy’s father told the Colorado Fox affiliate that he, dad, is a “proud conservative.” He also insisted that the school was making a mistake by suspending his son. Dann Dalton also had some strong words for the school district:

“It’s the public school system. Let’s be honest, it’s full of liberal loons.”

Mr. Dalton also went on to add, “I didn’t expect (my son) to get what he got, that was ridiculously uncalled for.” He also announced his intent to sue the school district for violation of his son’s first amendment rights.

At the same time, young Dax did acknowledge that he had been “encouraged” to wear the shirt by his father. In a separate Chicago SunTimes article, it was noted that the t-shirt had been designed by dad as well. According to SunTimes.com, Mr. Dalton offered: “I’m full of all kinds of anti-Obama cliches.” He also acknowledged that he had created the message so that “he could easily capsulate it on a T-shirt.”

School District Actions
Given that the situation involved the discipline of a student, the school district was not at liberty to discuss the case in detail with the media. However, the district did acknowledge the incident and noted the suspension was for willful disobedience and defiance, not for the shirt’s political message.

The school, having the responsibility to ensure a proper learning environment for all children, took action based on the disruption of that environment because of the boy wearing the shirt. The school has a dress code that prohibits attire that will “cause or are likely to cause a material and substantial disruption to the educational process or school-related activities.”

According to reports, many children were confused and upset, and the shirt did lead to some very difficult moments at school. Of course, that is what one might expect given that the students were but fifth graders.

Adding to the unusual nature of the situation, again according to SunTimes.com, Dax’s older sister also wore an anti-Obama shirt. Seems that shirt did not disrupt her classes so school officials allowed her to wear her shirt throughout the day.

That shirt had the word Obama on it with a bar through the name and a pro McCain slogan on the back.

Day of Honor Lost Amidst the Turmoil
The students had been encouraged to wear the patriotic colors in honor of a Vietnam-era military veteran who won the Medal of Honor. Media reports noted that First Lieutenant Brian Thacker of the U.S. Army made a visit to the school on the day of the incident.

Yet, at a time set to honor a military veteran, all of the focus was on a overzealous father using his children to share his political opinions. Such behavior can only be categorized as shameful.

And that dishonorable behavior not only led to a young boy missing school, it likely left his classmates scratching their heads as well. Even as a potential teachable moment for Dax Dalton’s classmates, we are not sure that any fifth grader could fully grasp why someone calling himself a “proud conservative” would feel such a strong need to live vicariously through his own children.

Flickr photo courtesy of Nerboo.

Over the past few months we have done several posts regarding the net generation, the so-called group of school children dubbed “digital natives.”

Many experts within, as well as from outside the field of education believe that the current crop of students entering our schools present a unique set of challenges for teachers. The belief is that many are used to the multi-sensory world that technology provides that 21st century classrooms must be adjusted to accommodate that development. In addition, because this generation of students has grown up with computers, video games and social networking opportunities, many of those same experts are of the ilk that today’s students are more computer savvy than their teachers and their parents.

At OpenEducation.net, we too have jumped on the digital natives, net generation, bandwagon.

In particular, we focused on teaching and learning as it relates to this generation in each of the following posts:

• Of Digital Immigrants, Power Browsing, and Bouncing Out
• Video Games in the Classroom – Teaching the Scientific Method to Digital Natives
• Social Media – FaceBook and MySpace as University Curricula
• Of Trashing Teens, The Impact of Generation Y, and Extraordinary Talents
• Virtual Worlds – Westminster Professors Discuss Research
• Higher Education – Dangerously Close to Becoming Irrelevant

We also provided our readers a link to Michael Wesch’s provocative YouTube video in our post, If a Picture is Worth a Thousand Words – More on the Digital Divide?

Conflicting Data
At the same time, we reviewed a very interesting report out of Europe that contradicted the viewpoint that this generation of learners is extremely adept at using technology. Our summary, Student Shortcomings – Anything but Masters of Technology, highlighted several very interesting misconceptions.

For example, the report indicated that this new generation of tech users were anything but “expert searchers.” In fact, the researchers found that most “digital natives” had real difficulty choosing good search terms.

The report did reveal another weakness created by having access to interactive devices. Because students really like activity, they love to cut-and-paste. The report goes on to note, “There is a lot of anecdotal evidence and plagiarism is a serious issue.”

At the same time, there were two major surprises. One related to the growing belief that technology was ultimately making students more impatient and adding to their need for instant gratification. To the complete shock of many, the report indicated that young people demonstrated no higher levels of impatience than did adults.

The second surprise was in regards to the critical assumption that digital natives were more tech savvy than adults. No evidence could be found that teens, in total as a group, were more adept at using technology, than were older adults.

Then, less than a week ago, at The Chronicle of Higher Education, Siva Vaidhyanathan authored a similar piece entitled, Generational Myth, Not All Young People Are Tech-savvy. We give deference to paraphrasing and provide two noteworthy segments from the article directly:

College students in America are not as “digital” as we might wish to pretend. All this mystical talk about a generational shift and all the claims that kids won’t read books are just not true. Our students read books when books work for them (and when I tell them to). And they all (I mean all) tell me that they prefer the technology of the bound book to the PDF or Web page.

Yes, he insists that students prefer the technology of the bound book to that of a web page!

And later:

Talk of a “digital generation” or people who are “born digital” willfully ignores the vast range of skills, knowledge, and experience of many segments of society. It ignores the needs and perspectives of those young people who are not socially or financially privileged. It presumes a level playing field and equal access to time, knowledge, skills, and technologies. The ethnic, national, gender, and class biases of any sort of generation talk are troubling. And they could not be more obvious than when discussing assumptions about digital media.

While Vaidhyanathan dwells a bit too hard on the privilege piece, citing it as a delineation, his point about mass assumptions is consistent with the findings from the European study. The bottom line,it seems, is that not all “digital natives” are tech savvy.

Empirical Evidence Appears to Be Lacking
In our constant search for news on technology and its impact on teaching and learning, we came across a blog with an extremely provocative title, Net Gen NonSense. The site, featuring four contributors, Mark Bullen, Crogoza, Iain Doherty and Tannis, is “dedicated to debunking the myth of the net generation, particularly as it relates to learning, teaching and the use of technology.”

On the Net Gen NonSense site is yet another link to an article questioning the current assumptions, a piece authored by three Australian researchers, Sue Bennett, Karl Maton and Lisa Kervin. Their review of current data questions the ongoing claims that fundamental changes to our educational institutions are necessary because of the unique needs of the current generation of learners.

The researchers insist that such claims have not been subjected to enough scrutiny. In very strong terms, they call the current debate an academic form of ‘moral panic.’

In total, these three scholarly articles indicate we are in fact making some major assumptions about the current generation of learners. Are they truly that unique or have we exaggerated the belief? We began wondering, is all of the hullabaloo regarding teaching the net generation simply much ado about nothing?

Next, in an attempt to answer our questions, we talk with Mark Bullen, one of the founders of the blog, NetGenNonsense, to determine the specific net generation myths he is seeking to debunk.

Flickr photos courtesy of Caghs the Cat Lady and BGBlogging.

Over the past few weeks we have noticed that a new microblogging site for teachers has been garnering a great deal of interest. Edmodo represents the blood and sweat of Jeff O’Hara and Nic Borg, two techies who work in the field of education.

As has been my experience, even though teaching is a full-time job most who work in the profession take on additional school-related responsibilities, whether it be monitoring student organizations or updating district curriculum. Most do so even though there is no extra pay and the additional work adds countless hours to an already busy schedule.

So it was no surprise to find two young men, each with full time jobs, going beyond the call of duty to try to create a meaningful tool for teachers. However, we were even more impressed than usual as these two individuals were seeking to make their work available to educators beyond their home district, and doing so at no cost to users.

These two men have to be onto something since Edmodo has been featured on several tech-oriented sites including SomewhatFrank, Teach 42, and Reflection 2.0.

So we spent some time talking with Jeff to learn about their work especially the rationale for building a microblogging platform for educators. We present our information below in our traditional, unedited question and answer format.

Can you give our readers a brief summary of you and your partner Nic Borg’s backgrounds and how the two of you came to collaborate on the creation of Edmodo?

Both Nic & my backgrounds are primarily in the technology side of education.  Nic just graduated from Northern Illinois University with a degree in Computer Science but he has been working at Kaneland High School in Elburn, Illinois for the last 5 years, building web based tools for them.  He is currently employed full-time there.

I have been working at Community Unit School District 200 in Wheaton, Illinois for the last nine years in their IT dept.  I’ve handled everything from desktop support, managing Network & Server infrastructure, and the management of their web infrastructure. 

About 2 years ago I had the idea of doing a “Youtube for Education” and was thinking about how I would get the project off the ground.  I had been aware of Nic’s work as my wife teaches at Kaneland HS. I ended up contacting him to see if he wanted to work together on a project.  We did an initial meeting and he liked the idea but was too busy at the time to take anything else on.  I kind of let the idea linger, and about a year ago Nic contacted me out of the blue and said he was ready to start working on some projects together if I was interested.  We brainstormed for a few months just trying to see what we wanted to work on.  I had been using twitter.com (a microblogging platform) a lot and thought something similar would be ideal as a learning platform. That’s where the idea for Edmodo was born.

Ultimately, what was the basic impetus for the two of you launching your own blog platform for educators and where did the title/name Edmodo originate? Were there not already many options available to educators?

I had been a little bored with my day job and though there were a number of cool web tools coming out in the past, there were not that many coming out for use in the classroom. 

The name Edmodo is completely made up, but is a slight play on Gizmodo.com, a very popular gadget blog. Ed obviously stands for education.  We wanted something catchy, easy to say and a domain we could actually afford to purchase.

What has been the source of funding for the start-up costs for the site? Are there costs for educators to implement the tool in their classrooms? Can you give readers a sense of participation rates?

Nic and I have been the sole source of funding for Edmodo.  Luckily funding a start-up is very cheap in today’s world if you already have the talent to accomplish what you need to do.  Nic and I have done everything ourselves and have not had any outside costs as a result of hiring any work out. 

Currently, there are no costs for Educator’s to use Edmodo in it’s current state and we want to keep it that way.  We are less than 2 weeks old and already have over 1700 user accounts created.  A lot of the accounts are teachers testing the system out and using it with other teachers, but there are quite a few that have already implemented Edmodo in the classroom which makes us very happy.

Can you give our readers an overview of the concept of microblogging, specifically as it pertains to education? Are there specific advantages created by microblogging, especially as compared to other traditional blogging forms?

According to Wikipedia: Micro-blogging is a form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates (usually up to 140 characters) and publish them, either to be viewed by everyone or if chosen by the user, a select group. We feel the ease of use that microblogging platforms provide makes it a better way to communicate with students than the tradition blogging platform.  Traditional blogging platforms are  designed to communicate long posts to a large group of people. Microblogging platforms are really designed for interaction and communication in short posts and we feel that is an advantage to a teacher in getting their students to interact in classroom activities. 

Can you give readers a couple of specific examples of how Edmodo can be of use in the classroom? Again, what about Edmodo gives educators additional tools over that of other blogging software?

Well my wife is a high school teacher and she just started using it with her students this week.  She’s been using it to post daily assignments and her students are using it to answer questions regarding the assignments.  I know she also plans on using it to have students submit their assignments through Edmodo.  My wife has also created groups for committee’s that she is the head of and plans on using it as a tool for managing communication with other committee members. 

As another potential use, a lot of teachers have students find articles to bring to class. Now a teacher could have the student submit a link to the articles in Edmodo instead of printing them out.  We know a lot of schools are trying to be greener and use less paper and using online tools can help with decreasing the amount of paper usage. 

We think there are so many other ways that Edmodo could be use and think every teacher using it will use it in a slightly different way.  We also believe that privacy & ease of use is the primary reason a teacher should use a tool like Edmodo over a traditional blogging tool for communicating with students. 

Is Edmodo primarily a tool for teachers or does the platform provide students additional options if their classroom teacher gets the ball rolling?

This is not just a tool for the teachers, it’s a tool for students to ask questions either within the classroom timeline or pose to the teacher directly.  Teachers can use Edmodo to have their students submit their assignments.  There is also a calendar that teachers can use to post events and assignment due dates.  Edmodo is designed with privacy in mind but it also gives the teacher the ability to make anything public at his or her discretion.  Another thing, Edmodo is not a finished product, we still have ideas to bring additional classroom features to the platform in the future. Things such as a grade system & parent interaction.  Grades will be a little tricky as we want to be compatible with other grade-book systems that a teacher may already be using.

What have been your most significant learnings as you seek to get such a platform rolling? Are there other benefits to the two of you beyond what you may have learned about creating a microblogging platform of your own?

We have learned so much technically & socially while working on Edmodo. Where do I start? I think one of the big things I’ve learned is you really have to engage teachers and find out what they are looking for in a tool while your building it.  We have gone to great lengths to find out what teachers want in an online tool.  Luckily even though Nic & I aren’t teachers ourselves, we are surrounded by them everyday and they have been an enormous help to us in building Edmodo.  Some other benefits have been all of the great and supportive people we have met along the way.  We would have never of met those people if we hadn’t thought of some crazy idea and decided to get the ball rolling on it.

Flickr photo courtesy of Illustir.

One of America’s most aspired-to professions has seen significant ups and downs over the last decade. While one negative trend appears to have finally been arrested, a new development is creating cause for concern.

On the positive side, medical school application data from 2007 demonstrated a continued growth in both applications and acceptances, with some of the greatest increases occurring within two importance subcategories, black and Hispanic males. On the negative, a recent survey published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reveals an alarming decreased interest among current medical school students in a career focused on a primary care specialty.

Five Year Trend
Data published by the Association of American Medical Colleges late last year revealed more than 42,315 applications to medical school, an 8.2% increase over the number from 2006. The fifth straight year of increased applications yielded more than 17,700 acceptances, an increase of 2.3% over the number from 2006.

That data was continued good news for the American public though the number of applicants still trails that of both 1996 and 1997. However, the fifth straight year of increased acceptances has seemingly stemmed the alarming trend from 1996-2002. During that time frame, applications dropped each and every year, from more than 46,000 in 1996 to under 34,000 in 2002 (a decrease of nearly 30%).

In addition to the general growth trend, the AAMC data revealed that the number of applications by black and Hispanic males increased by 9.2 percent in 2007. The number of black men accepted and enrolled in med schools increased by 5.3 percent. Currently minorities account for about 6 percent of practicing U.S. physicians.

Additional Trends
A February post at HarvardDocs also revealed two very interesting trends. The first intriguing set of statistics related to the percentage of re-applicants gaining acceptance. The second centered upon the male-female ratio of applicants.

Re-application is a phrase used to describe medical school aspirants who were not admitted the first time they applied to school. According to HarvardDocs, 48% of those who had applied only once were accepted. However, those who were applying a second time were accepted at a rate of 39%, a number surprisingly close to those of first time applicants.

Such a rate provides a clear implication that a number of those who were not accepted the first time spent time improving those areas of their application that kept them from being accepted initially. Though the number of re-applicants remains small in total, it is clear that most who reapply do not simply fill out an additional application.

The second item noted at HarvardDocs is the continued growth of female applicants. The number of male enrollees exceeded that of females in 2002 by more than 4,000. That number shrunk to 2,000 in 2007. HarvardDocs quotes AAMC projections as indicating that the number of applications from women will exceed those of men by 2015. Shortly thereafter, enrollment ratios will show a similar trend.

One Major Concern Developing
While the applicant pool is showing steady growth, a recent survey of 1200 fourth-year medical students revealed that just two percent planned to work in primary care internal medicine.

Combined with the significant decrease in medical graduates from 1996-2002, that small percentage has experts concerned about a potential shortfall in what used to be considered the backbone of the American medical system.

As a comparison, in 1990, nine percent of those students surveyed indicated an interest in internal medicine.

One concern appears to be the enormous debt that comes with completing medical school. With some students carrying as much as $150,000 in overall debt, more and more medical students appear to be choosing more lucrative options.

Other factors cited for the decline in interest included: the overall salary gap, paperwork, the challenges of dealing with insurance companies, the demands of the chronically sick and the need to bring work home.

All total, some 2,600 fewer U.S. doctors were training in primary care specialties in 2007 as compared with 2002. However, foreign medical school graduates have helped take up some of the slack. During the same time frame, the number of foreign graduates pursuing primary care specialties increased by nearly 3,300.

While much of the current dialogue is focused simply on providing health care for all citizens, the alarming decrease in those interested in primary care specialties means that an even more sophisticated discussion of the medical profession is warranted.

Photos courtesy of JBlazeB and SendakSeuss

Roughly nine years ago, Professor Sugata Mitra and a few of his colleagues designed one of the most creative and innovative studies of technology education the civilized world has ever seen. The researchers created a hole in a wall in a New Delhi slum, filled the hole with an Internet-connected PC, then set up a camera to record what villagers would do once they became aware of the PC.

The camera recorded children from the slum first examining, then exploring and playing with the computer. To the astonishment of many, including Mitra, the children, without so much as any adult instruction, began learning how to use the computer to get online. Later, those children in turn began teaching others what they had learned.

Many Competencies Were Obtained
According to Mitra, without any instruction, these underprivileged children were able to achieve a fundamental level of computer literacy. In his follow up work, Mitra determined that the children, ages 5-16, had little if any prior formal schooling and could not speak English.

The youngsters were able to glean a great deal of the information by instructing themselves and by seeking help from peers when needed. They learned the basic fundamentals for online browsing and for using the computer to draw within the first few days of the machine’s availability.

Mitra determined that MS Paint was the drawing program most used and Internet Explorer served as the most-used browser. Later, by the end of the first month, some children were able to cut and paste, move and resize windows, and use MS Word to create short messages. Amazingly, they were able to do so without access to a keyboard.

Mitra recorded children forming impromptu groups that would teach one another. As they did so, the children invented their very own vocabulary to define words for using the computer (”sui,” the word for needle, was chosen for the cursor, and “kaam kar raha hai,” the phrase meaning its working was used whenever the hourglass symbol appeared).

Mitra also determined the younger children were the ones most often able to teach themselves new steps. But as opposed to the oft-termed phrase, learning by doing, Mitra found that many of the children learned simply by observing the actions of their peers.

While children were intrigued and drawn to the kiosk, no adults, men or women, made any attempt to learn or use the learning station. However, Mitra came away with the understanding that the parents of the children thought the kiosk was very good for the youngsters, even as they, the parents, remained convinced they could not learn how to use the station nor was it necessary for them to do so.

Fresh Insight as to How Children Learn
Over the next several years, Mitra and his colleagues repeated the experiment in other parts of India. In what has to be seen as a contradiction to the assumption that all children need formal schooling, Mitra replicated his experiment in both urban and rural settings, each time obtaining similar results.

Mitra’s “Hole in the Wall” experiment revealed that even without the direct input of a teacher, if there is an environment that stimulates curiosity, then it is possible for children to self-instruct and share pertinent knowledge. Because of its fundamental structure, Mitra dubbed the entire process “minimally invasive education.”

Nicholas Negroponte of MIT referred to the learning station created under the Hole-in-the-Wall concept as a form of ‘Shared Blackboard.’ The unique learning station provided children in underprivileged communities collective ownership and access, along with an opportunity for children “to express themselves, to learn, to explore together, and at some stage to even brainstorm and come up with exciting ideas.”

On the Hole-in-the-Wall web site itself is yet another apt comparison for the learning station. There the kiosk is referred to as a village “Well” where children “assemble to draw knowledge and, in the process, engage in meaningful conversation and immersive learning activities that broaden their horizons.”

Ultimately, Mitra’s “Hole in the Wall” experiments demonstrated that children could teach themselves and each other provided they were motivated by curiosity and peer interest. Perhaps the greatest surprise to many was that such learning could take place without direct adult supervision or formal teaching.

HomeSchooling and Unschooling Proponents
The work of Mitra reinforces why both homeschooling and unschooling have been gaining support in recent years here in America. In its simplest sense, both of these forms of schooling mimic the fundamental tenets of Mitra’s minimally invasive education.

For the children involved in the Hole-in-the-Wall project, the learning station is simply “an extension of their playground where they can play together, teach each other new things, and more importantly, just be themselves.” Homeschooling parents and proponents of unschooling understand the power of an open setting for learning. They also understand the critical components that are fundamental to Mitra’s minimally invasive education.

However, no matter what term is used, homeschooling, unschooling or minimally invasive education, it is clear that a formal school structure is not necessary for one to tap into a child’s natural curiosity and use that innate inquisitiveness to stimulate learning.

The open-ended exploration of the learning station actually taught children how to learn, problem solve and think critically, doing so in an ongoing manner. Educators of all types, in both formal and informal learning environments, should take careful note of the lessons within the Hole-in-the-Wall project.

Incorporating Minimally Invasive Learning
When it comes to incorporating the concept of minimally invasive education, educators need to realize that no one is advocating a free-for-all. To best get a sense of how one might incorporate the findings of Mitra to any educational setting, we turn to the summary words of Rodd Lucier at The Clever Sheep.

In sharing the wisdom of minimally invasive educational theory, Lucier writes:

“Far be it for me to suggest that we abandon teaching and leave students to their own devices. Rather, let’s be minimally invasive in allowing the learning to happen, but maximally invasive in ensuring that the problems we present to learners are relevant, compelling and appetizing.”

Sugata Mitra at Ted.com:

Over the past week, the media focus regarding the Republican ticket has been entirely on the naming of John McCain’s vice presidential candidate. However, on Monday the Republican National Committee finally released the finished copy of its 2008 platform.

Defending Our Nation (PDF) lays out an agenda that does not necessarily match the viewpoint of its candidate, John McCain.
However, from, “Supporting Our Heroes, Securing the Peace” to “Reforming Government to Serve the People” to “Health Care Reform: Putting Patients First,” the platform reinforces the thoughts of recent Republican agendas. And for those who thought that the party would distance itself from the past eight years, one need only turn to the opening section to see that nothing could be further from the truth.

The platform notes:

“With gratitude for eight years of honorable service from President George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, the Republican Party now stands united behind new leadership, an American patriot, John McCain.”

A Look at the Education Planks
Subtitled Education Means a More Competitive America, the education section continues the Republican push for accountability and school choice yet the planks conspicuously make no mention of President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act. In addition, while higher education continues to be addressed from a cost standpoint, there is little in the way for a call for educational improvements at either the undergraduate or graduate levels.

As with the Democratic platform, the Republican’s note a need for substantial improvement in public education:

“Maintaining America’s preeminence requires a world-class system of education, with high standards, in which all students can reach their potential. That requires considerable improvement over our current 70 percent high school graduation rate and six-year graduation rate of only 57 percent for colleges.”

One noteworthy aspect is the call for greater attention to civics education and for passing our culture to our young:

It is through education that we ensure the transmission of a culture, a set of values we hold in common. It has prepared generations for responsible citizenship in a free society, and it must continue to do so. Our party is committed to restoring the civic mission of schools envisioned by the founders of the American public school system. Civic education, both in the classroom and through service learning, should be a cornerstone of American public education and should be central to future school reform efforts.”

The proponents of NCLB will note that the accountability set forth by the Bush legislation continues to be a focus of the current platform:

“All children should have access to an excellent education that empowers them to secure their own freedom and contribute to the betterment of our society. We reaffirm the principles that have been the foundation of the nation’s educational progress toward that goal: accountability for student academic achievement; periodic testing on the fundamentals of learning, especially math and reading, history and geography; transparency, so parents and the general public know which schools best serve their students; and flexibility and freedom to innovate so schools and districts can best meet the needs of their students.”

But in stark contrast to the actual law the current platform later notes:

“We reject a one-size-fits-all approach.”

Contradictions Emerge
It is interesting to note that the platform offers the following statements:

“We advocate policies and methods that are proven and effective: building on the basics, especially phonics; ending social promotion; merit pay for good teachers; classroom discipline; parental involvement; and strong leadership by principals.”

Yet later, the platform asserts:

“”We renew our call for replacing “family planning” programs for teens with increased funding for abstinence education, which teaches abstinence until marriage as the responsible and expected standard of behavior. Abstinence from sexual activity is the only protection that is 100 percent effective against out-of-wedlock pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS when transmitted sexually.”

While those words echo the views of the religious right, data on abstinence only education classes reveals that such instruction has no impact on teen sexual activity.

Better Teachers
A call to give students the best teachers also matches a plank in the Democratic document. However, the Republican platform is clear that the process for increasing teacher talent is a local responsibility, not one for the federal government.

For students to meet world class standards, they must have access to world class teachers, whether in person or through virtual public schools that can bring high-quality instruction into the classroom. School districts must have the authority to recruit, reward, and retain the best and brightest teachers, and principals must have the authority to select and assign teachers without regard to collective bargaining agreements. Because qualified teachers are often not available through traditional routes, we support local efforts to create an adjunct teacher corps of experts from higher education, business, and the military to fill in when needed.”

Strong on Partnerships and Authentic Education
One real strength of the platform is the focus on reaching beyond the classroom for support and authentic learning experiences for kids:

“We encourage the private-public partnerships and mentoring that can make classroom time more meaningful to students by integrating it with learning beyond school walls. These efforts are crucial to lowering the drop-out rate and helping at-risk students realize their potential.

“Partnerships between schools and businesses can be especially important in STEM subjects: science, technology, engineering and math. The need to improve secondary education in those fields can be measured by the number of remedial courses now offered at the college level.

“We applaud those who are changing that situation by giving young people real-world experience in the private sector and by providing students with rigorous technical and academic courses that give students the skills and knowledge necessary to be productive members in a competitive American workforce.”

It is in this arena that the platform reaches its full push for “policies and methods that are proven and effective.”

Higher Education
Reading the higher education section creates the feeling that our colleges and universities are delivering a world class education, albeit one that is too expensive and all too often home to subversive elements.

“Our country’s system of higher education — public and private, secular and religious, large and small institutions — is unique for its excellence, its diversity, and its accessibility. Learning is a safeguard of liberty. Post-secondary education not only increases the earnings of individuals but advances economic development. Our colleges and universities drive much of the research that keeps America competitive. We must ensure that our higher education system meet the needs of the 21st century student and economy and remain innovative and accessible.”

As for costs:

“Students and their parents face formidable challenges in planning for college as costs continue to outpace inflation. Higher education seems immune from market controls and the law of supply and demand. We commend those institutions which are directing a greater proportion of their endowment revenues toward tuition relief.”

Instead of governmental assistance or a service component as advocated by the Democrats, the Republicans focus on 529s for funding options:

“The Republican vision for expanding access to higher education has led to two major advances, Education Savings Accounts and Section 529 accounts, by which millions of families now save for college.”

And as for the subversive aspects:

“We affirm the right of students and faculty to express their views in the face of the leftist dogmatism that dominates many institutions. To preserve the integrity and independence of the nation’s colleges, we will continue to ensure alternatives to ideological accrediting systems.”

Another strong component of the platform is a call for greater higher education portability and the corresponding need for enhanced distance learning options:

“As mobility increases in all aspects of American life, student mobility, from school to school and from campus to campus, will require new approaches to admissions, evaluations, and credentialing. Distance learning propelled by an expanding telecommunications sector and especially broadband, is certain to grow in importance — whether through public or private institutions — and federal law should not discriminate against the latter.”

Other Noteworthy Elements
There are many other educational planks within the document that reiterate long-standing Republican views. For people seeking greater insight into the planks related to higher education, InsideHigherEducation.com has a thorough review of those items.

For OpenEducation.net, the platform was a pleasant surprise and a stark contrast to a McCain campaign that has been devoid of extensive educational discussion and a Republican agenda that seldom strays beyond the concept of school choice. However, we still have major concerns with their improved and fleshed out agenda – we are particularly concerned with its lack of additional support for early childhood education despite its proven success in other countries and for its failure to realize that a federal investment component is necessary if we are to improve teacher quality in our country.

We also must reiterate our concern with the inconsistency of first touting accountability followed by seeking additional support for a specific program (abstinence education) that has been deemed ineffective. Such language appears to be nothing more than an attempt to pander to a single voting group.

Photos and logos from John McCain.com and ImageEditor.

The Onion is well known for its satiric look at the news. Two weeks ago the site posted a piece on the opening day of school for first-grader, Connor Bolduc, 6.

It was a stark contrast to our post celebrating the start of a new school year. Whereas we attempted to offer an upbeat look by offering our eight videos to get the teacher juices flowing, the Onion sought to look at the opening of another year from the viewpoint of a youngster forced to give up free play for the drudgery of compulsory education.

Compulsory Eduation
The Onion portrayal begins:

“Connor Bolduc, 6, experienced the first inkling of a coming lifetime of existential dread Monday upon recognizing his cruel destiny to participate in compulsory education for the better part of the next two decades, sources reported.”

“‘I don’t want to go to school,’ Bolduc told his parents, the crushing reality of his situation having yet to fully dawn on his naïve consciousness. ‘I want to play outside with my friends.’

The Onion piece notes the sheer hell young Connor is in for:

“Basic math—which the child has blissfully yet to learn—clearly demonstrates that the number of years before he will be released from the horrifying prison of formal schooling, is more than twice the length of time he has yet existed. According to a conservative estimate of six hours of school five days a week for nine months of the year, Bolduc faces an estimated 14,400 hours trapped in an endless succession of nearly identical, suffocating classrooms.

“This nightmarish but undeniably real scenario does not take into account additional time spent on homework, extracurricular responsibilities, or college, sources said.”

Fictional sources offered that Connor was already pained by the process though his mother had assured the youngster that he could resume playtime when school was done for the year. Connor of course offered, “I can’t wait.”

The satirical look at the process of compulsory education was then held up against the youngster’s feelings regarding free play.

“The concept of wasting a majority of daylight hours sitting still in a classroom when he could be riding his bicycle, playing in his tree fort, or lying in the grass looking at bugs—especially considering that he had already wasted two years of his life attending preschool and kindergarten—seemed impossibly unfair to Bolduc.”

School Is Not the Answer for All Children
While the Onion is unequivocal in painting a portrait of school as a negative place, most of us in education want to subscribe to a differing view. The educator’s viewpoint would be more in line with the following portrait:

A youngster eager to learn arrives to find a welcoming teacher who not only loves children, but he or she loves teaching and learning. The child enters a classroom that is bubbling with excitement and full of opportunity, offering an environment that furthers the youngster’s natural curiosity.

Wonderful classroom resources and the caring teacher welcome each and every student to the world of learning, a setting that builds upon a student’s innate curiosity and desire for new experiences to introduce him or her to the fundamentals of reading, writing and mathematical skills. With the development of these basic academic skills, children are provided the opportunity to further explore the world around them, offering them even greater opportunities for learning.

Children from less advantageous homes are provided the opportunity to experience things that their parents simply are unable to offer. At the same time, social aspects also abound giving children the chance to gather in one location, to even have lunch with their friends. Meanwhile, playground time provides opportunities for additional play while those same children socialize with their peers.

A Different View of School
While this rosy picture is the view educators want to portray, the reality for many children is that school not only does not inspire them, it is in fact drudgery.

It could be because their school is not a welcoming or exciting place. Or it could be that the basic school expectations contrast so vividly with those of a home that is devoid of structure. For quite a few, weaker academic skills in the student create a sense of frustration when the student is unable to handle the academic expectations set forth.

Whatever the reason, for some students school is not the answer, it is actually the biggest negative in their life.

The description of Connor actually represents the extreme, given his age. The fact is that most kids who tend to dislike school do not begin to get a sense of drudgery or failure until they have been attending for a few years.

But the fact is school does become a problem for many children. And later on, if the feelings of negativity become deeply embedded, that child may even opt to drop out of a system that appears to have little to offer him or her.

Important to Hear the Perspective
The Onion does not simply dump on education – the article offers additional pain while discussing other aspects of Connor’s future:

“It’s difficult to know the effect on his psychological well-being when he grasps the full truth: that his education will be followed by approximately four decades of work, bills, and taxes, during which he will also rear his own children to face the same fate, all of which will, of course, be followed by a brief, almost inconsequential retirement, and his inevitable death.

“The first of Bolduc’s remaining 2,299 days of school will resume at 8 a.m. tomorrow. On the next 624 Sundays, he will also be forced to attend church.”

So The Onion notes that it isn’t just school that is an issue for young Connor. However, school is the place where educators work so it is the school aspect of the Onion’s piece that draws our attention.

Whether we call it a tongue-in-cheek or satirical view, the Onion’s glass half-empty piece is important for teachers to read. At a minimum, it will at least remind educators that not all children arrive at school thinking school is a great place or that education is the answer to any of life’s problems.

Such children offer enormous challenges. And these youngsters quickly separate the professionals from the teacher wannabes.

We remain hopeful that one of these days Connor will arrive in the classroom of a true professional educator. If he does, we think his view of the schooling process will significantly improve.

But we also acknowledge The Onion is on to one of the fundamentals of the world of a six-year old. Nothing can top the feeling that unstructured play provides a youngster.

Photos courtesy of Poppofatticus and Kibondo.

For the vast majority of readers, the phrase “Taking Online Learning Offline” has to represent the classic oxymoron. Add the fact that some folks are calling the step the latest in “High-Tech” innovation and you no doubt must be scratching your head.

GoCourse Schoolmate
But “Taking Online Learning Offline” (pdf file) is precisely what a Utah valley company called Agilix is doing. The company has begun offering an extension of an existing learning platform to areas of the world that lack broadband access.

The company recently introduced its GoCourse Schoolmate product. The self-contained, client-server learning system is designed to support education initiatives in regions where Internet access is limited or non-existent.

The company’s recent press release notes the need for such a product.

The new product “represents an extension of our GoCourse platform to address the needs of the 95% of the Earth’s population that falls outside the reach of broadband access,” states Curt Allen, CEO of Agilix Labs. “Emerging markets will for the first time enjoy an eLearning experience that isn’t limited by the unavailability of Internet access.”

GoCourse Schoolmate is designed to run on a single laptop or desktop computer and with multiple accounts available for both teachers and students. In addition, the system can be utilized in a computer lab or as part of a learning kiosk.

Taking Online Offline
As for the concept of taking online learning offline, we turn to Agilix VP of Marketing, Jim Ericson for further insight.

“We developed this product to address the needs identified by several local resellers in emerging markets,” notes Ericson. “While our partners will continue to deploy GoCourse under our hosted Software as a Service (SaaS) model, GoCourse Schoolmate provides them with a solution that promises inclusion and equality by extending their services to schools and institutions that don’t have broadband access and to learners that were previously too expensive to reach.”

As for the oxymoron of taking online learning offline, Allen adds:

“I realize it may be a bit startling for people to hear we are taking online learning back offline, but that is how we are going to provide a technology bridge for these learning communities,” offers Allen. “When broadband access becomes a reality, GoCourse will be there waiting to help connect these communities to the rest of the world.”

The concept has at least one blogger wondering aloud if “the future of open education is taking the online offline?”