Director's Blog: Class Schedules Don’t Matter – Class Services Do

As Hurricane Earl approaches the Outer Banks of North Carolina this weekend, I am reminded of how important blended class services are for students who need academic continuity in times of crisis. While many of the schools on the outer banks of North Carolina will close for some days ahead due to the impending storms, NCVPS students in the Outer Banks will still have a variety of ways to access their course materials in a multitude of service settings. Class schedules and numbers will not be a factor this weekend and into next week, because the virtual environment of NCVPS can be there to provide online courses, support, mobile monitoring, and school from anywhere the evacuation route takes them. Yet, when the storm surge subsides, a crisis of class schedules and lack of class services will still exist in many schools across the nation.

Why can’t we be like Singapore who actually practices taking a week off of face-to-face school to provide e-learning services? It is truly a shame we have to wait for a time of environmental crisis to provide class services the way they need to be. Thus, I think it is important to learn from these times, not just to deploy a model of academic continuity when hurricanes and healthcare catastrophes happen, but to actually use the lessons learned during these events to fuel a class services transformation to replace our existing structure of class schedules and grade cohort models of teaching and learning.

David Edwards' Blog: Supporting Online Students: A Mission Impossible?

In 1975, the USS Kirk took on a seemingly impossible mission to rescue those fleeing from the fall of Saigon. According to the NPR story, the ship’s captain decided to take on this rescue mission regardless of the costs. Thus, many are being recognized for the “above and beyond” service.

As I listened, I thought of the distance learning coordinators and the distance learning advisors in our districts and schools who are working diligently to make a difference in students’ lives. Many of these coordinators/advisors are doing this seeming impossible mission in addition to their “normal” jobs. Why? They do it because it is in the best interest of the students they serve. For that, I am truly grateful, because being student-centered is one of the core values of NCVPS/LEO and our school support division.

Working towards a true partnership between NCVPS/LEO and the district has to be a priority in order for the mission of “rescuing kids” to be a success. Though with a new funding formula in place, budget cuts, position constraints, it may feel like a mission impossible on many days.

So, how do we make this work?

NCVPS/LEO has committed to helping districts become leaders in online and blended learning support. We have launched our GOLIVE initiative to provide the districts with the Why, What and How of integrating online and blended learning into your curriculum. These resources include checklists, videos, podcasts, whitepapers, etc. for just about anything you need to know to be effective in support your online/blended learning students. Please visit the GOLIVE site and share the information with your education stakeholders. I have found that those that use this site have a better foundation for supporting online students and become empowered to lead the transformation in their district. So, we want to keep this from being a mission impossible for you!

In closing, I wanted to give you a few tips/reminders for supporting your online learners.

1. NCVPS/LEO has established a strong rapport with a central point of contact in each district. This Distance Learning Coordinator (DLC) will lead the cascade of information flow and logistics for the districts/schools. NCVPS/LEO has provided numerous resources to help the DLC to train and communicate with school-based Distance Learning Advisors (DLA) effectively.

2. DLCs need to own the process of setting a structure in place for DLAs and other online learning stakeholders to communicate and implement best practices from NCVPS/LEO. NCVPS/LEO has training available for the DLC in order to make their role effective and efficient. Contact your Virtual Learning Consultant to get access to the archived training materials.

3. Establishing a good relationship with teachers can help make student support much more effective. Teachers need good/current contact information for the school/district. DLCs can work with DLAs to make sure registration system information is correct and current.

Resources for DLCs/DLAs

- www.thevlc.org

- GOLIVE

- DLC Online Manual

Director's Blog: Baby Ben’s Blended New World

A few hours after Benjamin Marcus Setser’s birth on August 21, 2010, my wife and I were busy building his digital dossier. This term, coined in the book Born Digital, held true to form in that our son was twitpiced, Facebooked, and e-announced in a barrage of digital information. Thus, those who know, care about, and love him could have instant access to details such as length, weight, hours his mother spent in labor, and the general euphoria of our family. In a few short months, he’ll interact with My Pal Scout and then I’m sure move on to Webkinz or Club Penquin after that. Forget the term digital native; rather, Ben is a “blended baby” in a brave new world.

Just three days into his blended experience, North Carolina was recognized as a Race to the Top Winner by the U.S. Department of Education. Not only is this great news for Ben in terms of the innovation that will soon follow in our state, but his Dad’s work at NCVPS just got a lot more exciting as well.

In a review of all Race to the Top applicants and winners, iNACOL has posted a wiki regarding the planning for online education. At NCVPS, we are already hard at work on our efforts to execute on the next generation of blended education in North Carolina fueled by this once in a lifetime grant. Through our Race to the Top grant, North Carolina will offer online learning opportunities for entry teachers' course completion. NCVPS will work to make virtual and blended courses with highly effective online teachers available to students in schools with limited course and teacher availability. North Carolina will expand virtual school courses and work to improve learning opportunities for students in low-achieving schools - especially in math and science.

LOCK Session August 17: IEP and 504 Responsibilities

The virtual learning consultants discuss the IEP and 504 responsibilities when districts enroll EC students.

NCVPS Student Video

Will Hamilton shares his NCVPS experience through his webcam. Will took advantage of one of NCVPS's many Advanced Placement courses. Congrats, Will and good luck!

Virtual Advantage Radio: August 23, Parts 1 and 2

J Bell and Adam Renfro discuss LEO courses with Chief Learn and Earn Online Office Deborah Pedersen.

Part 1



Part 2



See more Audio at TeacherTube.com.

Director's Blog: Elevating Engagement: Watching Others Share, Comment, and Produce Blended Learning

In many classrooms, schools, and districts across America, passive watching of digital content is the norm. The notion is that if students have access to technology and media, then good things will happen. Indeed, computers are turned on, neatly arranged, and hardware purchasing fanatics are united that they are on the cutting edge of educational technology.

As a result, technology often becomes an add on and is not integrated into any significant teaching and learning approach in the school to truly transform student opportunities and results. Moreover, in this model, students are not blending face-to-face learning with e-learning; rather they are passively reading blogs, listening to pod casts, and/or watching videos that give them just enough information to receive a “rigorless” checkmark that the work has been completed, if there is any accountability at all.

For blended learning to move past watching the environment to students “sharing” work, students and teachers must feel compelled to do far more than just view learning objects. Instead, they have to be motivated to share work with others. In the e-business world, a Forrester study found that sharing can make up to 5 to 10 percent of a website’s overall traffic, and it drives up to 50 percent more page views per person than a search (ShareThis, 2008). So, how is a classroom, meeting, and/or school like a website? Where does learning go in the traditional face-to-face classroom? It goes in notebooks, in book bags, on boards, and in hard copy projects and documents.

DLC Training for August 10, 2010

Watch the archived session of the August 10 Distance Learning Coordinator Training Session.

LOCK Session for August 3

Joe Baisley, the distance learning coordinator from Currituck County, presents "Different Options for Managing DL Textbooks."

Director's Blog: Finding Fidelity in a Blended World

The North Carolina Virtual Public School, www.ncvps.org, enters new territory this Fall of 2010 as we have our first ever funding formula mandated by our state legislature. For the first time in our history, school districts have to compare the value of our services amidst a sea of online and blending learning providers. The question school districts are asking right now is how do you find fidelity in a blended world? Because ncvps.org also operates under a state board policy that requires us to approve all e-learning courses for credit in North Carolina, I thought I'd share this week the three big ideas we advise school districts on when looking for fidelity in a blended world of learning providers.

First, all content is not created equal. United States students took courses from state virtual schools, education management organizations, higher education institutions, and corporate e-learning providers to the tune of “75 % of United States school districts having one or more students in a fully-online or blended course environment this past year" (Patrick, 2010). Yet, content experiences often vary. In many instances, many players in this space struggle to align with state standards, invoke existing research on blended learning, and/or focus more on technology
engagement, than rigor.

Director's Blog: Exceptional Times Call for Exceptional Designs

In the fall of 2009, The North Carolina Virtual Public School (NCVPS) began discussions with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) around the requirement that Occupational Course of Study (OCS) students would soon need a highly qualified subject matter expert in their exceptional children's classrooms.

The problem was a difficult one in that even though many OCS teachers were certified as exceptional children's teachers, their certification did not meet the new standard of highly qualified subject matter experts in each classroom. Enter NCVPS.org. As we began to thought partner around the possibilities of our blended model with NCDPI, a new blended model emerged - exceptional times call for exceptional
designs.

In this model, the face-to-face OCS teacher supports the student's unique needs and co-teams with the NCVPS.org teacher who is both certified in the unique content area (Algebra I for example) and trained to meet the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) needs of the student as well.

LOCK Session for July 27, 2010

Beth Bock and Gwen McCormick, both recently retired distance learning advisors, discuss the impact of NCVPS and e-learning in their districts.




See more Audio at TeacherTube.com.