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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A bill that expands online learning opportunities to Florida’s elementary school-age children is going to Gov. Rick Scott.
The bill (HB 7063) received final passage Friday in the Senate on a 36-3 roll call. It passed in the House on Tuesday.
For the rest of the article, go to Bill expanding virtual learning in Florida for elementary school children goes to Gov. Scott
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – A bill that expands online learning opportunities to elementary school-age children has been passed by the Florida House.
The bill (HB 7063) was approved by a vote of 100-16 on Tuesday and now goes to the Senate.
For the rest of the article, go to Florida Virtual School could offer elementary school options
So how does one solve this problem once it’s entrenched? Imposing a new funding model on top of the existing business typically doesn’t work. Instead management needs to create an autonomous organization that can craft its new business model from scratch as the innovation demands–serious business model innovation.
Given this, I’d be surprised if districts could simply shift to the new funding model Hill describes—and even if that didn’t matter, because this funding is opposed to how they operate today, they will predictably gear up to fight the sort of wholesale change for which Hill advocates.
It’s one of the reasons that I think a more fruitful way forward, at least for now, is to create these new funding models for the online learning entities that are growing—just as Florida did with the Florida Virtual School, for example—and build on the change from there as these disruptive innovations gain share.
For the rest of the article, go to School Finance in the Digital-Learning Era: A Review
As online learning programs become prevalent in U.S. schools, school and district leaders, teachers, and policy makers are looking for the best ways to use technology to enhance learning. A new SRI International report, Implementing Online Learning Labs in Schools and Districts, provides such a guide for creating successful blended learning programs that can benefit many students.
The report summarizes lessons learned from the pilot year (2010-2011) of the Virtual Learning Lab program, a collaborative effort between the Miami-Dade County public school district—one of the largest in the country—and the Florida Virtual School—a state-wide, Internet-based public high school with the highest enrollment in the country. SRI researchers collected information on 5,500 students in 38 public high schools through surveys, interviews, focus groups, and site visits to seven schools.
For the rest of the article, go to Study of Miami-Dade’s Virtual Learning Lab Reveals Key Success Factors for “Blended Learning” Programs
A new study is sounding alarms at the quick expansion of virtual education programs in states like Florida, saying for-profit companies are pushing states to offer full-time virtual instruction paid for by state tax dollars with little research on the quality of these programs.
The study, written by two professors at the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and released Tuesday, highlights a number of emerging problems with the growth of online learning.
Serious questions
The study raises questions about the quality of virtual education, such as the lack of supervision, as well as the financial motivations of for-profit companies that have pushed state legislatures to expand virtual instruction.
“Private corporations, most of which are for-profit, have recognized a huge potential market in virtual schooling,” wrote the study’s authors, who urge states to more closely examine how much they pay for virtual instruction.
Florida has long been at the forefront of virtual education. There is the state-backed Florida Virtual School, which offers full-time and part-time virtual classes paid for by taxpayer dollars and each school district in the state is required to offer virtual classes, either through its own program, the Florida Virtual School, or private companies.
And this year, a new state law requires all public high school students to take an online course prior to graduation as well as allow charter schools to offer full-time “virtual” classes.
For the rest of the article, go to Study finds flaws in virtual education
Meanwhile, virtual schools are moving into the spotlight this year as a Florida law requiring high school students to take at least one virtual class before graduation kicked in. The Miami Herald took an in-depth look at the issue in a story on Sunday. But as Florida goes all in on online learning, Harvard University’s education site points out in a recent article that many virtual schools are moving some classes into brick-and-mortar buildings. Why? Because they are finding some kids don’t do as well taking online only classes.
A testing company that Florida officials criticized last year for being late with FCAT scores is now being chided by Oklahoma school districts for the same problems. And reports continue to filter in of slow traffic times around some schools, especially during the afternoon pickup times.
For the rest of the article, go to EduJax: Teachers unions need to take lead; virtual schools see value in classrooms
Most people think of online learning as a quiet, solitary experience. But over the past few months, after interviewing students, parents, and educators, a different sort of picture has emerged. We’ve learned about who teaches and learns online, and why, what works and what doesn’t, and perhaps most importantly, whether online learning affords the same quality of education as that of traditional schools.
I spoke with Apex Learning CEO Cheryl Vedoe, one of the leading online curriculum providers to traditional and virtual schools; Maureen Cottrell, a science teacher at iHigh Virtual Academy in San Diego, California; Rian Meadows, an economics instructor at Florida Virtual School; Patti Joubert, the mother of two full-time Florida Virtual School students; and Carylanne and Christiane Joubert, her two daughters.
For the rest of the article, go to 5 Surprising Perspectives About Online Schools
PRLog (Press Release) – Dec 21, 2010 – Continental Academy, a premier online learning institution that has been providing long distance courses since 1996, offers its online high school diploma program called P.A.C.E to adult students who have dropped out of high school but would want to finish their education.
Known as the Pioneering Alternative Career-centric Education, the P.A.C.E program is offered to individuals who are at least 18 years of age, providing them an affordable opportunity to continue their high school education, earn their diploma, and get a better job.
For the rest of the article, go to Continental Academy Offers a Self-Paced Online High School Diploma Program
To meet class size this year, the school hired four new teachers and two months into the school year moved 100 students to start new classrooms. School districts are adjusting schedules, offering virtual online learning to older students and reassigning teachers.
“My hope is we won’t have to turn a child a way from they’re neighborhood school. I don’t want that to ever happen. However we have to comply with the law we can’t say it will never happen,” says Pietsch. “My concern as an administrator is to do what’s best for the children,” she adds.
For the rest of the article, go to Voters reject Amendment 8 on class size; students and schools will need to be flexible
St. Petersburg, FL– Poynter’s News University recently announced that more than 75 percent of educators surveyed are integrating e-learning into their classroom curriculum. And of those who responded affirmatively, more than 60 percent ranked it as extremely important to classroom teaching.
More than 625 educators participated in the online survey, which examined how teachers are combining classroom teaching with online learning, such as self-directed courses, Webinars, tutorials and instructional videos.
For the rest of the article, go to NewsU Survey Finds Educators Are Integrating E-Learning Into Curriculum
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