Learning in the Shift Age (welcome remarks at Virginia ASCD Conference)

I want to ask educators in Virginia to think back for a moment to August.  Do you remember what we were dealing with in August?  Hurricanes.  Earthquakes.  A Fire in the dismal swamp (which is finally out, by the way).  I found myself thinking of a music group from the 70s and 80s.

Although Earth Wind and Fire was a great group, the challenges of August were not great.  What were we doing when the challenges hit?  We were getting ready to start the school year.  And our efforts barely, if at all stopped: we just dealt with the challenges.  As teachers, principals, superintendents, as educators, we are expected to deal with any challenge that comes our way. 

Today David Houle, coauthor of ShiftEd, is going to challenge us to deal with change.  He says we are entering a shift age in which we can master the opportunities provided by global connectivity.  He talks about the emphasis on choice, customization, and flexibility and he challenges us to transform schools in response to these changes.

Houle and coauthor Jeff Cobb write,

Embracing and rapidly managing change is fundamental to the consciousness of the Shift Age.  The speed of change has accelerated so much that it is now environmental: we live in an environment of change . . . The old phrase “standing on solid ground” no longer has merit.  If an individual believes she is standing on solid ground and has a clear, certain view of the world, it is now a given that whether it be six months, nine months, or a year from now that person is going to suddenly realize the world has changed while she was busy being certain.

Karen Washington, a first-year principal in the school district in which I work, had an experience in August that relates to this notion of not standing on solid ground. She was facilitating her first heavy duty instructional conversation with her staff when the earthquake hit.  Do you know what she did?  She kept right on--talking, asking questions, listening.  She didn’t miss a beat.  She admitted later that she actually didn’t even notice the earthquake.

When she told me this, it reminded me of another group, REM and their song in which they sing of "the end of the world as we know it.”

Click on the videos below to check out these brief excerpts of the music video.

It wasn't the end of the world in August, but there was an earthquake, and Karen Washington was totally fine.  Will we be totally fine with the end of the world as we know it--with the shift age that David Houle is about to describe?  I am optimistic that you will each be fine because you are here at this conference because of your commitment to learning.  And our professional learning will be a key to thriving in the shift age.  With the shift age we have opportunities for learning that did not exist previously.  A superintendent who wrote an essay that is part of the ShiftEd book spoke of her sense that there will be few boundaries of space time or place for learning in the shift age.

One example of learning that is not limited by time or place is the conversation that occurred during the last few days via Twitter regarding ShiftEd.  Teachers, principals, and superintendents planning to attend the VASCD conference started the conversation and others who would not be attending soon joined.  Comments were posted at all times of day from people throughout and outside of Virginia.

It is this type of limitless learning that will help us deal with the Shift Age and the earthquakes, hurricanes, and fires of the future.   So, let us get started!

Effective Virtual Learning: Not Just Plugging Them In

A group of Virginia legislators are doing their homework on virtual learning.  Today, Reggie Fox (@fox1210), the Online Learning Coordinator for the York County School Division in Virginia, and I (ewilliams65) spoke with the Education Subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee.  Our message was that effective virtual learning is not just a matter of plugging students in to a computer.  Effective virtual learning is not a cheap, mass production affair.

Reggie Fox addressed the legislators regarding our experience and plans.  In my introductory remarks, I made three key points:

·    Effective teachers of virtual courses, like other teachers, develop strong relationships with students.  They interact extensively with students through e-mails, videoconferencing, phone calls, and interactive group discussions on the computer.  They ask questions, answer questions, moderate discussions, encourage students, and provide feedback to students regarding their work. 

·    The extensive interaction is crucial for success.  The students who have taken our virtual courses have a strong record of success on state exams, but success also entails learning to collaborate, solve problems, and create work products—not just memorize information.

·    This extensive interaction is more expensive than some other approaches to virtual learning, which are not much more than students completing a bunch of worksheets on the computer.  The mass production model does not lead to deep learning.

Yesterday, the Virginia Department of Education announced that our school district is one of two districts statewide (along with eleven other organizations) that have been approved to provide virtual courses to students throughout Virginia.  During the presentation to legislators today, we we explained that this school year the York County School Division will only serve students from outside our district through agreements with other school districts.  A school district may choose to enroll its students in one or more of thirty-nine courses that we offer as a Multidivision Online Provider.  The participating school district would retain the per-pupil state funding, while paying our school district a per-student fee.

Reggie Fox posed several questions today for consideration.  Will we continue to use Carnegie units?  Should students be assessed based on mastery?

The members of the Education Subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee deserve praise for doing their homework on virtual learning.  During the legislative session of 2012, hopefully budget and policy decisions will be made with a recognition that virtual learning is not just a matter of plugging students in for mass production, low cost, education.  We will achieve so much more if we avoid this perspective.