Director's Blog: Baby Ben’s Blended New World

A few hours after Benjamin Marcus Setser’s birth on August 21, 2010, my wife and I were busy building his digital dossier. This term, coined in the book Born Digital, held true to form in that our son was twitpiced, Facebooked, and e-announced in a barrage of digital information. Thus, those who know, care about, and love him could have instant access to details such as length, weight, hours his mother spent in labor, and the general euphoria of our family. In a few short months, he’ll interact with My Pal Scout and then I’m sure move on to Webkinz or Club Penquin after that. Forget the term digital native; rather, Ben is a “blended baby” in a brave new world.

Just three days into his blended experience, North Carolina was recognized as a Race to the Top Winner by the U.S. Department of Education. Not only is this great news for Ben in terms of the innovation that will soon follow in our state, but his Dad’s work at NCVPS just got a lot more exciting as well.

In a review of all Race to the Top applicants and winners, iNACOL has posted a wiki regarding the planning for online education. At NCVPS, we are already hard at work on our efforts to execute on the next generation of blended education in North Carolina fueled by this once in a lifetime grant. Through our Race to the Top grant, North Carolina will offer online learning opportunities for entry teachers' course completion. NCVPS will work to make virtual and blended courses with highly effective online teachers available to students in schools with limited course and teacher availability. North Carolina will expand virtual school courses and work to improve learning opportunities for students in low-achieving schools - especially in math and science.

North Carolina will provide online professional development for teachers and implement the iNACOL standards for teaching and learning. Furthermore, North Carolina will employ virtual classroom observations. Throughout our entire effort, North Carolina will take a blended leadership approach with both onsite (face-to-face) and online (virtual) professional development concerning all blended learning standards. For more on our work please follow the iNACOL wiki.

Efforts like those in North Carolina can enable kids like my son across the country to have a real advantage in a blended world. Zip codes are not going to be a barrier for the kids of a blended generation. They’ll be able to access not only the highest quality courses and teachers in their state, but they’ll be able to access those same courses for free from places like MIT, as well as instructors from Singapore. Shouldn’t we all be able to select the world’s best teachers, in the best courses, providing the best lessons, modules, or mobile apps by the time Baby Ben is in elementary school?

Moreover, data systems on teacher, school, and district effectiveness during this blended generation should present parents with unprecedented choice options that will allow them to live and work in the communities they love while at the same time accessing content and economic opportunities from across the state, nation, and globe.

Yet, to make all of this happen, school leaders will need to move from the role of gatekeeper to the role of blended world innovator. Leaders will need to have key discussions with school board members to end preservation of the status quo when quality and innovation can be brought into their communities over the net. Leaders will also need to rethink access and schedules for blended delivery. Simply put, the role of the blended leader will be the single most important role impacting my son’s blended development in the current education system.

As a parent who’s watching him grow in this blended world, his mother and I are not going to sit idly by and tolerate status quo leadership, teaching, and/or services for our son. We are going to follow the data on blended learning at study sites like USED, VSC, and Sloan. We are going to share that data with schools we evaluate, and we are going to benchmark our choices for his education based on the leadership’s capacity to unleash the technology for his education. We are also going to expect that our son’s teachers have a capacity for blended instruction. And if we don’t find it where we live, this flat world has tons of options to bring a world-class education to another innovative school, to our home, to the palms of our hands, and/or a blended services model of all three.

For my part, I am working on a free site to assist blended learners and leaders in this effort. Bryansetser.com will officially launch on September 13, 2010 for the sole purpose of bringing learners to the place where blended leaders collaborate. This site will feature social media mashups, interactive Web 2.0 components, videos, feedback forums, blogs, and e-resources to assist blended leaders preparing for this brave new world. Stay tuned, “Baby Ben” may be googling your school very soon.