Teacher Information Evening Teacher Information Evening
December 15, 2008 December 15, 2008
Clovis Unified School District Clovis Unified School District
Michelle Steagall, Chief Curriculum Officer
Rob Darrow, Coordinator Instructional Resources
Clovis Online School (COS) Clovis Online School (COS)
More Information
Blog: http://clovisonlineschool.wordpress.com Wiki: http://clovisonlineschool.wikispaces.com
Agenda
Welcome and Introductions
– Thank you
– Raise your hand if…
Developing a charter online school – Why?
How you can become part of the network
Q and A
Developing your Personal Learning Network or PLN
Why are we doing this?
To be America’s benchmark for excellence in online charter schools
To provide an engaging and
comprehensive online course delivery system for students
To meet the needs of all students
Analyzing Data
Clovis Unified has been studying data
regarding this direction for over two years.
– Generation Y / the Net Generation
– Charter schools
– School drop outs
– Online schools
We decided to act…
Charter passed (March, 2008)
Charter approved by state (June 2008)
Charter grant - $250,000 (July, 2008)
School opens August 2009
– Grades 9 and 10.
– Add one grade level each year.
Beginning target: 60 students per grade
The Challenge?
The Challenge?
Preparing a Digital Preparing a Digital
Generation . . . Generation . . .
BC Cartoon
Define “Learn”
A step back in time…
1930s: Revolutionary Change
Progressive educators argued against the one-room schoolhouse:
“we need larger, centralized schools … they will provide students with a better, more standardized education.”
What caused the change?
Improved roads
And a new technology…
Can you guess what it was?
The School Bus
1936, Dodge built the first school bus
Caused the one room schoolhouse to become obsolete.
Fast forward to the 1990s….
Another Revolution
Can you guess what it was?
The
Internet Revolution
In business
In education
In personal life
In Clovis Unified…
1992: The Internet and World Wide Web
1993: Alta Sierra Intermediate opened with a computer on every teacher’s
desk connected by email.
1996: Laptop program, one Internet connection in each intermediate
school.
1999: Every teacher in Clovis USD
issued a laptop computer connected to Internet
Internet Revolution / Online Learning
Changing education in the 21st century
Same way as the school bus changed education in the 1930s
Clayton Christensen, Michael Horn, and Curtis Johnson (2008)
Disrupting Class
“By 2019, 50% of courses taken by
high school students will be online.”
The New Frontier:
Online Learning is the Digital School Bus
of the 21st Century
Let’s look at some data about
– Students
– Charter schools
– Home schoolers
– Online schools
About our students…
the Net Generation / Gen Y
80 million in this generation
Ages 11 – 31
Born 1977-1997.
Gen Y Characteristics
Gen Y believe in “instant
gratification, outcome driven,
values relationships and lifestyle over career, and no sense of
history (because they can Google what they need when they want it).”
– Jason Dorsey, Presentation in Clovis Unified, August 2008.
Gen Y Tech Use
“This generation are tech dependent! Technology is embedded into their being.
Their most important device is their cell phone!”
- Dorsey, 2008. www.jasondorsey.com
Gen Y Tech Use
“For this generation, technology is
like air.”
- Don Tapscott, Author, Grown Up Digital, 2009.
VIDEO from Don Tapscott:
http://www.grownupdigital.com/ind ex.php/the-dumbest-generation/
Tapscott:
Eight Net Generation Norms
freedom, customize and personalize, scrutinize, integrity and openness, entertainment and play, collaborate,
need for speed, innovate.
About Charter Schools
Number of charter schools
– U.S. – 4,568
– California - 702
– Fresno and nearby counties – 76
Number of students attending charter schools increases each year
Where are the online
charters?
California Online Charters
2007-2008: 5112 students
50% growth each year
California Students in Charter Online School by Year
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
2004-2005 2005-2006 2006-2007 2007-2008 est.
Number of Students Leaving Clovis USD
to Attend Charter Schools
07-08: 311
Students moved to charters out of Clovis since Sept. 2008: 23
Reasons students leaving Clovis schools
(as reported to counselors)
Dress Code
Don’t like alternative school
Don’t like comprehensive school
Need to work
About Student Drop Outs 2006-2007
U. S.: 1.2 million (or 7,000 per day).
California: 170,000
Fresno County: 5,121
Clovis Unified: 283
Drop Outs in Fresno County
In Fresno County, 1 in 3 students drop out of high school
Among African American and Latino students, 50% drop out rate
Fresno County has the largest percentage of drop outs of any county in the state
The percentage of drop outs has increased by 30% each year for the past three years.
Why Students Drop Out?
1. lack of academic engagement
(academic achievement, educational stability or educational attainment)
2. lack of social engagement (peer and adult relationships)
Report: The Silent Epidemic (2006)
lack of connection to the school
school is boring
feeling unmotivated
academic challenges
About Home schoolers
California Estimate: 166,000
Increasing each year.
Not officially counted by California Department of Education
Counting students in Clovis Unified (2006-2007)
Same thing happening in all school districts…
To charters: 311
Drop outs: 283
Homeschoolers: ?
Total not attending Clovis schools: 594
About Online Learning
Increasing enrollments every year
Nationally and internationally
Some examples
International Perspective
China: 1.3 billion people
– 20 million 18 year olds
– 2.5 million college slots
– Online learning increasing educational opportunities to 100 million new students
India: Universal Access for K-12 Education in 10 years
– Need 200,000 more schools
– Shortage of good teachers
– “Leverage teachers using technology to bring to scale”
– Educomp Program digitizing learning resources (online content) in K-12 education
Turkey: 10 million students in K-12 taking online courses
Middle East: Rebuilding K-12 educational systems online
World Future Society
Top 10 Breakthroughs Transforming Life over the next 20-30 years.
1. Alternative energy 2. Desalination of water 3. Precision farming
4. Biometrics
5. Quantum computers
6. Entertainment on demand 7. Global access
8.8. Virtual education or Virtual education or distance learning distance learning 9. Nanotechnology 10. Smart Robots
http://www.wfs.org/index.html
Online Learning in U.S. Colleges
2006-2007
3.9 million students in online courses
20% of college enrollments took an online course
Number in online courses growing 12%
each year
K-12 Online Learning in the U.S.
Growing rapidly at 30% annually
In 2007, estimated 1,000,000 enrollments
In K-12:
– 30 states with statewide virtual schools; 44 states with significant policies/programs (Watson, Keeping Pace, 2008)
– More than 50% of all school districts across the United
States offer online and distance learning (Americas Digital Schools Report)
– 18 states with 100,000+ students enrolled in full-time virtual school programs (Center for Education Reform)
States require online course for graduation:
Michigan, Florida and Idaho.
Florida Virtual School growth
The Clovis The Clovis Online School Online School
A vision for teaching A vision for teaching
and learning and learning
Strategies to Teach the Net Generation (Tapscott)
focus on mastery and lifelong learning
empower students to collaborate
design educational programs that allow choice, customization, transparency,
integrity, collaboration, fun, speed and innovation in the learning experience
change the pedagogy of teaching / cut back on lecturing
Teacher directed, memory- focused instruction
Student-centered, performance- focused learning
Isolated work on invented exercises
Collaborative work on
authentic, real-work projects
Factual, literal thinking for competence
Creative thinking for innovation and original solutions
Primary focus on school and local community
Expanded focus including digital global citizenship
Isolated assessment of learning
Integrated assessment for learning
Transforming Learning Environments
Traditional Environments Emerging Learning Landscape
Knowledge from limited, authoritative sources
Learner-constructed knowledge from multiple information
sources and experiences
Clovis Online School
Full time students: funding is all or nothing
With time, we hope the online courses will also be able to be used part time
To Start: 9th and 10th
Grow one grade each year
Meet Clovis USD graduation requirements
Online Content
Teach to mastery, standards aligned
Curriculum Initiative material
Cal Online course content
Open source content aligned to standards
Follow principles of open source, as well as the spirit of Web 2.0 collaboration and
sharing. (See www.curriki.com)
Online Content
- Static vs. Dynamic
Static – stays the same, perhaps changes yearly.
Dynamic - take advantage of many free outstanding resources such as podcasts, YouTube, TeacherTube, iPod university, the Smithsonians, NASA, etc.
Student Enrollment / Recruitment
1. Clovis USD students attending other schools
2. Students outside Clovis USD
3. Will establish qualifications for students to guide selection.
We’re looking for team members, collaborators, and innovators
Some to hire now, some in the future
Some to become part of the larger network of learners
Everything we are doing can be applied in the face-to-face classroom
You may be hired this year or in three years
Developing program, so we have made our best estimate at growth and what we need, but that may change
Dan Pink. (2005) A Whole New Mind
“change is inevitable, and when it happens, the wisest
response is not to wail or whine but to suck it up and
deal with it.”
Courses to begin
Grades 9 and 10
English, science, math, history, Spanish, PE and a few electives.
Employee Timeline
January – Hire course design team (stipends)
May – Hire part time teachers (stipends)
Summer - training
Aug. 2009 – First students
Developing positions: online mentors, tech support, professional development
Decision Time for You
A) Listen and leave
B) Listen and apply
C) Listen and join the Clovis online school network of learners
Some hired now, some hired later
All can contribute
Training just began.
Blog:
http://clovisonlineschool.wordpress.com Wiki:
http://clovisonlineschool.wikispaces.com
Q and A from the Parking Lot