5 Steps to Avoid Legacy Thinking regarding Virtual Learning

You are a member of the state legislature or state Board of Education. You believe in the anywhere, anytime, any pace learning potential of virtual courses and schools. Do your legislation and regulations fully support the transformative power of virtual learning or cling to legacy thinking?  

The rise of virtual learning reflects global trends described by futurist David Houle: the flow to global, the flow to the individual, and accelerated electronic connectivity.  He warns that

legacy thinking undercuts our ability to understand these trends. Legacy thinking, observes Houle in his latest book Entering the Shift Age, “is viewing the present and future through thoughts from the past.”

Avoid confining your view of virtual learning with a legacy perspective that clings to seat-time requirements, start-date regulations, and other input controls relating to topics such as library media resources and the timing of state assessments.

Last week, I shared five recommendations with the Virginia Board of Education as it reviews proposed regulations relating to public virtual schools.

1.       Replace seat time requirements with a focus on student mastery of content and skills. Virginia’s requirement for 140-clock hours of instruction for a one-credit course violates the notion of any pace learning. Tell school divisions that they can replace a seat-time approach to virtual learning with a competency-based learning approach without going through a waiver process.

2.       Use your bully pulpit to explicitly call on the state legislature to provide for local control of the start date of the school year.  The local control at a minimum should extend to school divisions with a virtual school or significant number of virtual courses. Current statutes restricting the ability of school divisions to start the school year before Labor Day violates the notion of anywhere, anytime, any pace learning.

3.       Don’t show favoritism to school divisions that use private providers of virtual courses. The Board’s proposed guidelines for pre-Labor day openings state that school divisions may warrant a waiver in the case of a full-time virtual school with courses from external providers that begin instruction prior to Labor Day. You have authorized our school division to provide virtual courses to students throughout the Commonwealth.  Don’t penalize us by refusing to consider our waiver requests while reviewing the request of divisions that rely on outside providers.

4.       Ask the state legislature to extend flexibility to school divisions in the timing of administering state assessments. With online learning greater flexibility exists in terms of pacing and the timing of completing a course. Students would benefit if they could take an end of course state exam immediately after completing a course rather than months later.

5.       Acknowledge that access to library resources can be provided in a variety of ways, including through digital resources and online resources.  Proposed regulations include a reference to student access in a public virtual school to appropriate library resources so an explicit statement relating to digital/online resources would avoid misinterpretation of this input regulation.

These five steps would help Virginia harness the anytime, anywhere, any pace learning potential of virtual schools and courses.

How can policy- and regulation-makers where you live help realize the potential of virtual learning? In what ways does legacy thinking confine the view of advocates of virtual learning?

Thanks to Reggie Fox (@rfox1210) for his assistance in developing these recommendations.

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!

Shift Ed Calls for K-12 Transformation

Here are some key points set forth by David Houle (@evolutionshift) and Jeff Cobb in Shift Ed: A Call to Action for Transforming K-12 Education.  Each key point is set forth in fewer than 144 characters.  I wrote them in this format so that I could share some of them via Twitter in an online discussion of ShiftEd in the days leading up to Virginia ASCD Annual Conference, which starts today.   At the invitation of Ann Etchison (@ann1622) and @VASCD, I will be providing welcoming remarks at today’s conference, prior to David Houle’s General Session keynote address. 

Here is a link to the Shift Ed web site: http://www.shiftedtransformation.com/shifted21/

Shift to #teaching 21st century skills unlikely in current K-12 ed system says @evolutionshift #vascd11 #shifted

K-12 ed system more of a containment area than place to prep kids 4 21st century says @evolutionshift #vascd11 #shifted

widespread disagreement re: K-12 but we need unified vision says @evolutionshift how achieved? #vascd11 #shfited

Stop tinkering w/ ed system & curriculum-instead look at what it needs 2 become says @evolutionshift #vascd11 #shifted

How has ed responded to new tech world? It hasn’t says @evolutionshift #vascd11 #shifted

We compartmentalize tech driven change so traditional teaching is untouched says @evolutionshift #vascd11 #shifted

In 2 many schools #edtech is little more than an add-on says @evolutionshift #vascd11 #shifted

Next 20 years are the Shift Age when we master opportunities of global connectiveness says @evolutionshift #vascd11 #shifted

Schools must move beyond being purveyors of info says @evolutionshift #vascd11 #shifted

@evolutionshift Is connectedness a force separate from “flow to global” or just its cause? #vascd11 #shifted

Connectivity-global culture-power 2 individuals are key 2 Shift Age says @evolutionshift #vascd11 #shifted #edchat

Choice-customization-flexibility explode in shift age says @evolutionshift #vascd11 #shifted

Constructivism cited in #shifted is not new-but in time of emphasis on individual is the world finally ready 4 cnstrctvsm? @evolutionshift #vascd11 #shifted

Should we confine kids w/i 4 walls for set time to be fed set content? asks @evolutionshift #vascd11 #shifted

Most of current #edreform is reactionary

Need to shift 2 thinking about #learning experiences not ed systems says supt woodward in #shifted @evolutionshift #vascd11

We need to be creators of #learning experiences says supt woodward in #shifted @evolutionshift #vascd11 #shifted

There should b few boundaries of time space place 4 #learning says supt woodward in #shifted @evolutionshift #vascd11

Students will gradually assume responsibility 4 #learning says supt woodward in #shifted @evolutionshift #vascd11

How much freedom should students have 2 decide when where how 2 connect 4 #learning asks @evolutionshift #vascd11 #shifted

What are skills needed 4 #learning in social networks asks @evolutionshift #vascd11 #shifted

we need to customize means of #learning-should we also customize outcomes @evolutionshift #vascd11 #shifted

Are schools only or even mostly physical places? Asks @evolutionshift #vascd11 #shifted

What do you think of the common core? @evolutionshift

Schools must become better at shape shifting to meet new demands says @evolutionshift #vascd11 #shifted

#shifted web site has additional resources http://www.shiftedtransformation.com/shifted21/