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Online education finds bigger foothold in Idaho

October 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The Pirate Academy’s classes are administered through the Idaho Digital Learning Academy, which connects students with teachers from around the state through its online platform.

The Legislature established the IDLA in 2002 to expand course offerings to rural schools, and enrollment in the online program has grown by about 50 percent every year, reaching about 9,800 this semester, according to Nick Smith, IDLA’s director of education programs.

Smith, a former principal in the Bliss School District, said rural schools such as Notus have been at the forefront of online education in Idaho, and they offer lessons as districts around the state prepare to meet new graduation rules requiring students to complete two online classes to graduate.

After all, IDLA is one of the course providers that districts will turn to as they require online classes.

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Money concerns drive technology reforms in Idaho schools

June 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The details are no joke, however. Other committee members who work for the state-funded Idaho Digital Learning Academy are concerned that for-profit vendors will claim their students. IDLA is partly staffed by Idaho teachers supplementing their incomes.

Meanwhile, task force members like Cliff Green, regional vice president for the for-profit Insight Schools, see opportunity.

“It’s been hard to come into a state and compete with subsidy,” Green said, referring to IDLA. “Now, whoever has the best product will win.”

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Opinion: Improving education through technology

June 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Many of our universities offer high school students online courses that qualify for both college and high school credit. Students enrolled in online classes can easily graduate from high school with a full semester or two of university credits, giving them both an educational and financial incentive to continue their schooling. Brigham Young University-Idaho has recently been authorized to expand its Pathway Program, offering online courses to students around the world, including concurrent enrollment classes for high school students.

The Idaho Digital Learning Academy provides high-quality online courses to students starting in the seventh grade. Each virtual classroom has a real-time teacher and principal to assist the participants.

Classes may qualify for university credit or simply supplement the local curriculum.

For instance, when Glenn’s Ferry High School lost its Spanish teacher, the 14 students in the class were able to continue through an online course taught by a real Hispanic instructor.

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Idaho voters will pay $77.3 million to support local schools. Should the Legislature re-examine funding in Idaho?

May 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As Filer eyes a new supplemental levy as a way to save programs, nine miles to the west, Buhl’s school leaders are questioning how they’ll cope after their proposed $360,000 supplemental levy failed to pass muster with voters.

“I’m disappointed and we’ll have to get creative, unfortunately,” Buhl School District Superintendent Byron Stutzman said. “There’s not a lot we can cut out. We can cut more textbooks, but we have to turn the water and heat on for our students so they can learn. It’s going to come from the salaries piece.”

Stutzman said elective programs will be cut with the teachers who once led them, but new online learning opportunities will fill in some of those gaps.

“In my thinking, the positions that are open will be offered online or through blended learning, which will mean bigger class sizes,” he said. “But wasn’t that part of the Students Come First plan? We can utilize the Idaho Digital Learning Academy, which allows us to offer variety to students.”

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Local High School Requires Online Courses

March 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

SUGAR CITY, Idaho — As legislators consider superintendent Tom Luna’s education reforms in Boise, one local school is ahead of the curve when it comes to technology.

It was fast fingers for Ali Garrett as she logged onto the Idaho Digital Learning Academy on Tuesday morning for her health occupation class.

“I personally think online classes are good for everyone,” said the junior.

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Rural schools may face tech disadvantage in meeting Luna’s proposal

February 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

This year, 19 of the 83 students at Castleford High School in western Twin Falls County are taking courses through the Idaho Digital Learning Academy while they’re in school. But Assistant Principal Karen Garrison said a recent survey revealed that 25 percent of student respondents didn’t have Internet access at home.

Garrison said providing students the opportunity to take courses through IDLA that aren’t offered in Castleford “probably equalizes the playing field with the bigger schools,” but noted that students tend to score lower in online courses than they do with face-to-face instruction.

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Larger classes to pay for technology: Learn more about Idaho schools Superintendent Tom Luna’s reform plan

January 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Districts will have several options for content — the Idaho Digital Learning Academy, colleges and universities, other high schools in the state or private content providers like K12, which operates the Idaho Virtual Academy charter school. Luna suggested that the IDLA and online offerings by colleges in the state would “grow big time because the demand out there is going to be huge.” Utah offers 1,100 courses a day to high school students, Luna said.

Q: Will kids take online classes at home or at school? A: The online courses will be part of the traditional school day. The school will decide where and how to provide them. The state will pay for the mandated online classes. The classes will save money because it pays less per student for online courses than it does for in-class instruction.

“It costs less to deliver them, but the success rate is there,” Luna said.

Q: So, if it’s cheaper and effective, how long until more classes are offered online and fewer are taken with a teacher in the room? A: “I don’t want the perception that there’s some sinister plan that someday all learning is going to be online and that we won’t have schools,” Luna said. “I suspect some people may accuse us of going through that. I don’t think that’s ever going to happen. There’s always going to be a place for teachers. They are the most important component.” Q: Do Idaho Democrats agree? A: No. They leveled some of those very complaints against Luna on Friday.

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Idaho invests in videoconferencing

December 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

McKenna’s online seminar program and the Idaho Digital Learning Academy are piloting a revolutionary system from Vidyo, an industry leader. The company is one of the first on the market with a videoconferencing system that uses the latest videocoding standard to enable a video stream to be layered and to offer ranges of resolutions, quality levels and bit rates.

The software eliminates the central component of old-school videoconferencing — a device called the multipoint control unit — and replaces it with a router that costs thousands less and uses significantly less energy.

Healthwise, a Boise nonprofit that develops content and patient education for health companies, will begin testing new technology from HP, which is partnering with Vidyo, in January. Healthwise wants to use videoconferencing to meet with clients nationwide.

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Wallace science students selected for state honor

December 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The ISAS coursework will be offered online by Idaho Digital Learning Academy from January through May. This graded course consists of eight online units and a semester project that allow students to build their knowledge of NASA, space exploration. Based on their performance in the coursework in this program, Andrew and Amanda may be selected to participate in an expense-paid, week-long residential academy at NASA Ames Research Center in California and Boise State University. Students will receive one science credit for successful completion of online coursework.

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Online Education: Does It Really Work?

November 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment

“The activities are so important for our school kids and being able to do hands–on learning in some of our professional technical courses. Being able to out into the workforce,” said Dr. Dobbs.

Online classes through Idaho Digital Learning Academy cost $75 a course and if you take them through the Twin Falls School District during normal class time, they’re paid for.

For teachers like Barry, they only make $100 a student, adding up to about $2,000 each class.

Even though Barry explains that’s not much, she’s glad to be on the other end of the computer that your child may be learning from.

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