See Education As We Know It Is Finished, by Clayton Christensen and Michael Horn in Forbes:
“… others are seeing the hardship of the moment as an opportunity to transform what they do with the implementation of online learning. Pressured by not only widespread cuts but also increasing demands for accountability, these innovative leaders recognize that online learning is a key reform for doing more with less.
For example, the people who run many schools realize that they can save considerably by cutting back on traditional classroom versions of non-core courses--advanced placement, foreign language, economics and so forth--and instead offer them online, thereby aggregating demand across many school districts. Likewise they can cut back on the number of periods during which they offer certain classroom courses and still affordably meet student demand by offering those courses online.
In addition, school districts everywhere from Boston to Wichita, Kan., are seizing the flexibility of online learning to provide affordable credit recovery options for students who fail a course they need to pass in order to graduate.”
Good to hear how online learning will make real-life teachers unnecessary; and yet this guy Christensen is on the advisory board of the AFT innovation fund!
One of the new grants offered by the fund will support more online learning in Boston; as if districts needed any more encouragement to downsize their teaching force. Already, the Bloomberg administration intends to spread virtual instruction to 81 schools this year.
That's innovation, alright.
AFT = Advocates for Firing Teachers. Good job, Mr. Christensen. Ms. Weingarten, Mr. Gates, and Mr. Bloomberg are extremely proud of you.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Your Microsoft check is forthcoming.
I am a NYC teacher currently teaching online summer school in a PLATO classroom. The DOE's network can not handle this kind of traffic. In a building of nearly 3000 students and staff there is only one full time network person. The network is so unreliable that it just took me 30 minutes to reset a student's password on PLATO. This means it just cost the taxpayers of NYC $21 for me to reset a password. I have to believe that I could have been more effective in a traditional setting for those funds. Don't believe that education and the public sector are the same. How many people work in your IT department?
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ReplyDeleteHi parents, wondering what to do over the holiday season?
ReplyDeleteI went to see "imaginocean" at the new world stages. It is an amazing glow-in-the-dark musical for the family. My kids loved it!
They are offering a discount ticket offer at http://www.broadwayoffers.com/go.aspx?MD=2001&MC=JTMOBY610