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Can States and School Districts Cut Costs Through Digital Learning?
January 18, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment
Digital learning represents wide-open terrain for K-12 education reform. Several states — Alabama, Arizona, Idaho, Michigan and Minnesota — require students to take an online course to receive a high school degree. Twenty-seven states have established statewide full-time virtual schools since the first opened in 1997 in Florida, according to a report by the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, an indication of virtual education’s growing appeal.
As with all innovations, though, there is always a question of cost for providing such new technologies, especially when states are providing less per-pupil funding.
A study released last week by the Education Center of Excellence at the Parthenon Group (commissioned by the conservative education think tank, the Fordham Institute) suggested that the costs of digital learning could be significantly less than more traditional modes. The authors cautioned that its findings must be interpreted with some caveats: costs vary across digital education platforms and different entities pursue online learning for different reasons (cost-savings versus enhanced offerings, for example).
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2011 Was an Inflection Point for Digital Learning
December 26, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment
In November 2010, in his most important speech, Arne Duncan called for more productivity during this ‘new normal’ period of lower revenue. As our second ‘new normal’ year draws to a close, the challenges are numerous but the inflection is clear — the shift to personal digital learning is on and innovations in learning are accelerating! Eleven trends marked 2011:
1. Poverty. The level of challenge was ratcheted up this year as most U.S. schools faced a double whammy of budget cuts and more kids in poverty. Despite heroic efforts, we lost a little ground on the equity front this year.
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New IEN director says project a year ahead of schedule, under budget
December 13, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment
Green said, “One of the reasons that I was brought on was to bring the stakeholders together, create a … plan for the future of the IEN. … Once we complete this strategic plan, we’ll operationalize it and effectuate it. … We’ve already begun work on it. We have a facilitator in place, and we hope to deliver the product March 31st.” The plan, Green said, will go to Luna, the State Board of Education, and the governor for approval.
Green is a former executive director of the Idaho School Boards Association who in 2008 was named executive director of iSucceed Virtual High School, and this year formed Praxis Management Group. A former teacher, from 1998 to 2002 he worked for the Idaho Division of Professional-Technical Education.
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