Guest Blog: Credit that Counts for 21st Century Students

By Dr. Bryan Setser and Michelle Lourcey

Our NCVPS Credit Recovery program continues to be celebrated throughout districts in North Carolina and continues to receive national recognition for its rigor, relationship, relevance, and student-centered approach. Recently, we have presented the tenants of our Credit Recovery program to audiences for SREB, Blackboard, and the Massachusetts Department of Public Instruction. To learn more about successful North Carolina schools using our NCVPS Credit Program, check out these podcasts: http://www.ncvps.org/courses/credit/.

The current educational climate in North Carolina is producing conversations about how to balance the need for credit recovery and the efficacy of the credit recovery option. At NCVPS, we believe that credit recovery must require more of students than a finite number of hours in front of a computer, pointing and clicking at answers. We believe in the power of certified teacher instruction and the power of students producing work that displays the highest levels of critical thinking. If your students are pointing and clicking at a computer screen, they are not working at the highest levels of any learning taxonomy or paradigm.

Our approach to credit recovery is not a shared belief among all those that provide credit recovery options. Costly vendor models often do not provide alignment to the NC Standard Course of Study, prepare students for the next level of instruction, or provide a NC certified teacher to work one-on-one with the student, guiding the instruction.

Credit Recovery Podcast: At Your Own Pace

Students in the NCVPS Credit Recovery program work at their own individualized pace. What can you do if students master the course before the end of the semester? Listen to one lab facilitator's story to find out how she planned for that situation during the Fall 2009 semester. Feel free to contact the facilitator, Erin Johnson, at ejohnson2@wcpss.net if you have any questions about her experience.

A Virtual Desktop Solution for North Carolina - Another NCVPS Advantage

This week's guest blog is from Chanin Rivenbark, the Chief Technology Officer for NCVPS. This blog post is part of our Executive Director eseries at www.ncvps.org. Watch the vidcast there and/or read the blog, and catch the virtual advantage today.

A Virtual Desktop Solution for North Carolina - Another NCVPS Advantage

It has been about a year since NCVPS Technology started an e-learning community called the Technology Advisory Committee, or TAC for short. Through the TAC, the NCVPS tech team has spoken to many technology leaders and advocates in North Carolina school districts and charter schools. The feedback they give us is extremely helpful in planning our technology strategy. Their feedback gives us much to think about when planning the technology future at NCVPS.

One idea that was introduced and discussed in the NCVPS TAC was a Virtual Desktop Service. After some discussion in the TAC meeting, we explored the possibilities of hosting a pilot Virtual Desktop for NCVPS students. We are happy to say that we expect to roll out a pilot of this service this year, and hope to expand to multiple school systems in time.

As most technology folks know, there are as many definitions of virtual/cloud technology as there as technology folks. So, let me define what we are planning, how we plan to do it, and why.

What? Our Virtual Desktop project is an application delivery system accessed by a Internet browser. It is not a Remote Desktop connection and an RDP session is not required. To use the system all you need to do is open an internet browser then go to a specified URL where you would see a webpage that looks like a standard icon based desktop. Users click the icon of the app they want to use and it launches in a new window. Simple enough, right?

How? Our objectives are simple:

Provide a simple to use system for students.

Supply a standard version of software applications to students.

Get a volume price break on software by combining the needs of the entire state's virtual student population.

Build the tool as a web-based technology (no client install), thus minimizing the set up for school tech support and home based users.

Why? Well, the advantages are quite obvious....

The technology requirements for NCVPS users are limited to a computer that has an Internet browser and an Internet connection. The cost to support NCVPS in the schools and districts are minimized due to volume licensing options and centralized hosting solutions. Staffing help! We can stop having 115 districts doing the same job of tech set up for NCVPS, and let 1 entity do it. Finally, this all comes down to one thing, students! This technology gives us a more efficient way to provide students with the technology they need when they need it.

NCVPS is on its way to establishing a Desktop Service. We have high hopes that we will be able to partner with all schools and districts in the state to give our students the tools they need to be prepared for the 21st century that awaits them.

For questions, email Chanin Rivenbark at chanin.rivenbark@ncpublicschools.gov

21st Century Leaders and Learners:

This week, I'm "retweeting" and reprising a blog from my colleague Tom Vanderark. Tom is often referenced on our GO LIVE site at:http://sites.google.com/site/ncvpsgolive/ and you can access his blog directly at: www.edreformer.com. The key to this week's blog is the "what" in terms of "what blended learning looks like now and in the future in your schools and districts". Need help getting ready? Reach out to www.nvps.org today and we'll assist. Enjoy Tom's descriptors and share it with your school boards and school staff.

Post Cards from the Year 2015

Here’s a couple snapshots of high school a few years from now using currently available tools and a few in development. These pictures are student-centric; there are obviously a number of teachers and learning professional involved in the success of each of these students. Comments, suggestions, alternatives welcome as we vision the blended learning future together.

While getting ready for school, Maria opens her netbook at 7am to check her schedule for the day:

• 9:00am language lab
• 10:00am civics seminar (check three sites before attending)
• 11:00am video conference with deputy mayor
• 1:30pm math lab
• 3:00pm band
• 4:00pm volleyball

Marias’s civic seminar is an English/Social Studies block. As part of the course, she is the deputy editor of website attempting to illuminate the immigration debate. Maria has interviewed a dozen local and national politicians and activists on both sides of the issue and has produced article and opinion pieces judged by online peers and advisors. All of Maria’s contributions are filed in an electronic portfolio.

During the 60 minute language lab, Maria enters a virtual village market where she interacts in Mandarin with native speakers. The 90 minute math lab combines self-paced online learning with occasional individualized online tutoring she gets stuck.

An online guidance system has helped Maria develop self-management skills, select the right high school courses, decide on a double college major—journalism and political science—and select a college. With her Advanced Placement credits, Maria can finish college in three years including a semester abroad. Her early acceptance letter included a work-study offer to write for the college web site.

At midnight, Mario is still contributing to a discussion stream with his virtual learning team comparing two opposing views of tax policy. He checked a Harvard resource, How to Write a Comparative Analysis, in preparation for his classroom work the next day.

He is nearly through his homework playlist that included a math game, a biochem simulation, and a virtual environment recreating the Battle of Bull Run. From his game score, Mario knows he’s got more work to do on quadratics. His smart recommendation engine has already queued a new math game that may be a better learning mode for Mario—the system determined that his persistence improves under competitive situations with public recognition of his point status.

Mario has nearly enough merit badges to complete Lower Division (what used to be 9^th and 10^thgrade). His culminating project and successful public demonstration will mark a midyear transition to Upper Division where he will begin earning college credit and begin working on a career concentration including an internship.

Monique is enrolled in the upper division of a virtual high school. She visits the office at least one day a week to meet with an advisory group and project team. Maria laughs at folks that are concerned about her lack of social interaction—she has 800 friends on her social network, a dozen mentors, five learning teams, four project teams, and three academic advisors that she regularly interacts with. She plays in a youth symphony and is on a year-round club soccer team (which takes care of her required PE credit).

Monique takes two online college credit courses and works 30 hours each week. When she graduates from high school, she plans to continue working and attend college online so that she can graduate debt free. She plans to execute the online services business plan she wrote for a high school business class—she may just leave college with money in her pocket.

All of these school models blend online learning and onsite support; all are highly personalized and engage students as individuals and team; all utilize a tiered staffing model and a variety of tools. You could do most of this today, but like School of One or NYC iSchool, it would be a challenge. In a few years the content, assessment, management systems, and learning platforms will make learning experiences like these relatively common. It will just take a little imagination, some focused investment, and a little room to innovate.