A slightly late post this week, because I was working on CSCW revisions #blameclifflampe
There’s is big hullabaloo nowadays about higher education becoming increasings based on distance learning and online education and moving away from a more traditional model (e.g., UVA thing). Regardless of anybody’s personal opinion about it, online learning is a trend that is gaining momentum and it’s not going away anytime soon. But, I haven’t really heard people talk much about the K–12 model moving online, so that is the subject of my blog this week.
Specifically, I’m talking about the K12 Online School program, which is available as a supplement for home schooling and individual learning (nothing new there), but also as a free replacement for public school in many locations. Is this a good solution for some students in America’s struggling schools? You can learn the basic bits about K12 Online on the website, but I had some specific questions so, I requested more info and called one of their representatives. Here are some selected answers that I got (mostly paraphrased, I didn’t record the phone conversation):
- What is the difference between public and private versions of the program?
The public version is free but not available everywhere. In NJ (for example), the public version is only available for Newark high school students. In the public version of the program, students are required to log into the system for 5-6 hours a day, but the private version is much more controlled by the parent.
- What is the typical week like for a student?
There is a lot of flexibility and variety (especially in the private version), but generally, the teachers assigns homework and quizzes on Monday and the child has until Sunday night to finish all the work (it’s up to the parent/child how the work is divided). There are “live” instructional lessons where the teacher uses video and a digital whiteboard to explain a lesson. The number of these varies, but for example, an 8th grader would likely get 1 or 2 60-minute lessons per week per subject. Teachers also hold office hours over videochat, phone, or instant messaging (channel decided by student, teacher is available over all of these media) and are available basically 24-hour for questions over phone or email. The courses incude online (e.g., sample lesson) and offline (textbooks, workbooks, lab exercises) components and the school sends you everything you need (including things like a microscope for a biology lab). The curriculum (in the private version) is decided by the parent with the help of an academic advisor.
- What is the parent’s role in the day-to-day?
For K–8 students, the parent is advised to spend 3-5 hours a day assisting students with learning. This isn’t about teaching them, but more about motivating and mentoring the child in using the resources made available to them through K12 Online Academy. The parent has to be at home with the child to do this, but you might be able to make an arrangement with your school where the child does the K12 curriculum independently in the school.
- What happens when the child is struggling? Is there a style of learner that doesn’t do well with this system?
When the child is struggling, they can get extra attention from a teacher or an academic advisor, but much of responsibility falls to the parent. According to the person I spoke to, they have rarely seen somebody really struggle, usually “Kid that just don’t apply themselves. They don’t do as well” [this is a direct quote].
You may be surprised that I didn’t ask about socialization in an online school program. Actually, I’m less worried about that. The way kids socialize while home-schooled seems to be more similar to the way adults have to look for social contact — they join clubs, take some classes in classrooms, volunteer, go to organized events, become active in a church, etc. I’m not that worried about that part. You can read more about socialization in an online program here.
My main worry is that this approach will introduce greater division and stratification:
- Parents now have a lot more control over the child’s social circle. They may only want the child to socialize with people who go to the same church, for example. And, there’s not much the child can do about it. This means less mixing of diverse people.
- Parents now have a lot more control over what the child learns. They can select a curriculum that excludes foreign languages or evolutionary biology, for example. This means less exposure to diverse ideas.
- Parents now have a lot more responsibility over how the child learns, because they are the ones that motivate the learning. If the child’s parents are not that great at this or if they don’t know how to deal with specific learning or motivational problems, the child is stuck. There are fewer diverse sources of support to get help. This will increase the strength of the effect that educated parents tend to have educated students. Rich get richer.
- Even if this program is indeed awesome for a certain type of student, it may still be unavailable to them if (1) their state doesn’t have a public K12 online program and they can’t afford private and (2) if both of their parents work and cannot supervise them during the day. This may decrease opportunities available to families that cannot make ends meet without 2 working parents or single-parent families.
Do you think that an online school is a good option for K–12? What do you think are the big problems that need to be addressed for this to become a viable solution?
Moving discussion from Facebook:
David Joyner: A close friend of mine’s siblings are all home-schooled using K-12, and from what I’ve seen, the results are phenomenal. I only have anecdotal evidence, of course, but my first introduction to K-12 was a 7th grade girl begging me to let her show me what she was working on in school. I said sure, and she showed me the Reduction-Oxidation Equations she was doing in chemistry.
I still don’t know what was more shocking — (a) that they had 7th graders doing redox equations (something I didn’t learn until AP Chemistry), (b) that she was actually *better* than I ever was at doing them, or (c) that she actually somehow found them interesting!
It could, of course, just be that she’s a prodigy with a fantastic love of learning — but at the very least, K-12 hasn’t screwed it up yet, which is more than I can say for a lot of standardized schooling I see.
Alan Michael Tipert: I imagine any alternative to traditional homeschooling is valuable in some way.
Jason Yip: I’ve seen a mixed bag of home school with online. One of my former students fell ill for a school year and had to do an online component of chemistry. The online folks sent her a kit with little bits of chemicals in safe plastic containers. A virtual component was possible. Let’s just say that from my years as a chemistry teacher, an online lab and a cheap plastic set of chemicals doesn’t compare to being in a real lab. Another person I once tutored for a little in home school was a social mess.
On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve met and worked with a number of children that were home schooled or used an online course and they were some of the most sociable and smart children I had ever met.
I think the bottom line from anecdotal experience is like any learning environment we design, some students are going to excel, while other will not really ever get used to it.
Lana Yarosh: Do you think there are any reasonable solutions for families where both parents work or single-parent families to be able to online school their child?
David Joyner: I’m also familiar with students who use K-12 as their home-schooling credit while also participating in essentially small classes of 12-15 students taught by a teacher hired directly by the students’ parents. Home-schooling, in Georgia at least, has become a way for parents to have greater control over their students’ education by basically declaring their students ‘home-schooled’ and then doing whatever they want to actually take care of the learning, including often organizing into small unofficial schools.
Lana Yarosh: @Jason Have you ever seen the chemistry lab in an inner city school? Let’s just say that the cheap chemistry set is not a downgrade for everybody…
Jason Yip: Lana Yarosh – So I taught in West Philadelphia for a little bit and we actually had an ok lab setup in a pretty challenging school. I will say that the curriculum is probably what stops a decent lab. You can still learn a fair amount of chemistry MacGuyer style with some lemons, vinegar, batteries, and wires =)
Jason Yip: Sorry, this generation’s MacGuyer is MacGruber. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqySbDqTGGc
Lana Yarosh: David, this would be an interesting study to do. I don’t remember seeing anything at CHI about home-schooling. I’m sure there’s some ultra-innovative ways that people leverage technology. IDC would also be a good audience…
Michael Wilson: This is a very well-established practice in Australia, where the vast distances that separate students in the Outback preclude face-to-face schooling. After the Second World War, the Royal Flying Doctor Service began broadcasting lessons from its airplanes for students in remote regions of the country. Students would receive transmissions on pedal-powered shortwave radios! Since about 2003, the School of the Air, as it is known, has used internet technology–more efficient, I’m sure, but far less romantic.
In any case, distance education for rural students in Australia has been a great success.
Jason Yip: The interesting thing to see about online schooling K-12 will also be how hybrid schools function (online lessons at home, practice at school with teacher). That was the last buzz I’ve been hearing about online learning these days.
Craig Tashman: Wow, very interesting idea–thanks for the post, Lana!
Adam D. I. Kramer: 9-12, sure — sounds great. I did that, other home-schooled friends turned out well, etc.
Prior to 9th grade though, I do have some concerns about social development if the online-schooled kids don’t have regular “play dates” with kids their own age…
Craig Tashman: So, just anecdotally as well, I’ve found home schooled kids do seem all over the map–unusually brilliant and social, or very under-educated. Perhaps this gets to Lana’s point about different education styles for different kids (as well as different parents)?
In terms of the socialization issue, I agree that it’s probably not too detrimental (depending on the parents). Actually, from what I’ve seen, many schools have really dysfunctional social environments that kind of inhibit learning. Especially in those cases, something like Online K-12 could be really powerful.
David Joyner: Lana: That’s actually the direction I hope to go post-graduation. The alignment between software-based home-schooling and intelligent tutoring systems practically writes itself.
Lana Yarosh: David, are you part of this group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/292901437473687/ You might think about joining (and somebody just posted a paper there that might be relevant)