LOCK Session for March 8: Registration Reminders

This VLCs give an overview of fall and summer registration.

NCVPS Overview

LOCK Session for March 1: The virtual learning consultants give an overview of the North Carolina Virtual Public School.

NCVPS Art & Music Job Fair: March 29, 2011

NCVPS is seeking qualified teachers for art and music positions. If you are an NC-certified teacher in those areas, be sure to check out our job fair March 29 at 6 p.m.

The job fair will be in a Wimba live classroom. Follow this link to the Wimba room: http://ncvpsclassroom.wimba.com/launcher.cgi?room=_ncvps_s__11381_1_193139

You can also join the conference by phone by using the following access information:

Phone : (201) 549-7595

PIN codes :

Student : 15058162

The job fair will run from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Debra Pylypiw will present.

Generation Text

[Blog post by David Edwards, NCVPS Chief Communications Officer]

One of the biggest gaps facing education today is that our Digital Immigrant

instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are

struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language. In other

words, the education system generally speaks analog, students listen in digital.

Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people

our educational system was designed to teach. Today’s students think and

process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors. Engaging

these digital connoisseurs is going to take a shift in how we “listen” to our

students and address their learning needs. Dr. Michael Osit’s book helps us to

take a look at this fast paced, instant gratification set of learners as well.

NCVPS is preparing a new series to help NC educators better understand this set

of learners we are calling “Generation Text”. This video series of interviews with

local, state and national educators will give viewers a good sense of how school

districts, policy makers, and others are working to “speak digital” and engage

their students. If you have ideas for speakers or topics, please contact Adam

Renfro at adam.renfro@ncpublicschools.gov . Our first session will air in the second week of March!

Please join the conversation.

Catch the latest Virtual Advantage Digest here!

Modular Learning Update

[blog post by Jennifer Nobles, Modular Learning Specialist]

A few weeks ago Dr. Weeks introduced the four service options NCVPS offers NC students. This week's vidcast takes a deeper look at the what, how, and why of the Modular Blended Learning program Dr. Weeks introduced. Take a few minutes to explore the modular blended learning approach by watching this vidcast. To learn more about the Modular Blended Learning program stay tuned to our website under the Courses tab where more information will be coming soon!


URL: http://www.screencast.com/t/4jomDFv0r

NCVPS on My Carolina Today

Dr. Setser discusses NCVPS on My Carolina Today.

Going LIVE with NCVPS: The Four C’s of Innovation

Blog post by Don Lourcey, NCVPS Innovation Director and GO LIVE Coordinator.

North Carolina Virtual Public School, through its Leadership and Innovation division, offers the GO LIVE Innovation Initiative. GO LIVE stands for Getting Organized to Lead Innovatively for Virtual Education. This initiative engages Leading Edge Districts in 21st century conversations in order to lead innovatively, build leadership capacity, and further SBOE 21st Century Learning Goals. To that end, NCVPS offers four levels of servicing options, the Four C’s of Innovation. They included Comprehensive, Component, Collaborative, and Customizable. Please watch this short video that outlines each option and an integrated portfolio approach for school districts participating as a GO LIVE Leading Edge District.

If you are having difficulty viewing the video, follow this link: http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cXniDbInC

For a deep dive into the the Go LIVE initiative, check out the following links:

The Four C’s of Innovation Presentation (the slides featured in above video)

Apply of be a GO LIVE Leading Edge District

Visit the GO LIVE website for Mission, Vision, and Values if Initiative

The following image captures the flow of the Portfolio Support Approach that will be implemented for each participating Leading Edge District.

As a district leader, please complete the following survey to help our Leadership for Innovation and School Support Divisions understanding how to best integrate our portfolio support approach.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHlMdi1tb2lobVVOa3c2N1hiNUNvRWc6MQ

Rethinking Education

This video was produced as a contribution to the EDUCAUSE book, The Tower and the Cloud: Higher Education in the Age of Cloud Computing, edited by Richard Katz and available as an e-Book at http://www.educause.edu/thetowerandth.

NCVPS Courses Across the Service Options

Documentary Photography: How to Create a Photo Essay

The NCVPS Arts Department invited special guest Anne Darling to discuss documentary photography.

You can learn more about the event here, and watch the presentation below!



Thanks, Arts Dept!

Search Analytics Can Lighten the Blue

[Blog post by Adam Renfro, Virtual Learning Consultant]

Have you heard the one about the most depressing week of the year being the third week of January? Psychologists created a mathematical model that declared January 24^th to be the epicenter of our funk. Check that out here on Wikipedia. They’ve even appropriately named it Blue Monday! And really, how could someone dispute something like this

when it comes to determining our mood?

Just the thought of that has made me a little more moody while I sit in my North Carolina ice cave this January. And the 24^th is approaching.

But guess what? The Internet tells us that this is a meme that took flight before the power of the Google, MSN, and Yahoo (etc.) search engines were analyzed.

Bill Tancer, in his book Click: Unexpected Insights for Business and Life, explains that the most depressing week of the year happens right around Thanksgiving.

Okay, and how does he determine that? Simple: He studied the search habits of over 10 million American Internet users. I’m not sure how big the sample size was for the psychologist/mathematical model, but 10 million is, shall we say, a rather large sample size.

After he filtered out student searches for “The Great Depression” (apparently a nation-wide mandatory research paper since 1929) and included searchers for depression pharmaceuticals like Zoloft, Tancer found that “a significant number of us turned to our search engines the week of Thanksgiving in hopes of understanding our holiday blues.”

I’m only mildly concerned about depression as I watch ice-covered branches snap off trees in my backyard, but I am curious if we are paying enough attention to search analytics. While Tancer doesn’t completely answer “why” America searches about depression at Thanksgiving time (psychologists can still have a go at the “why”), he does lead us to the power of search analytics. It should be noted, though, that the searches do give an insight into the “why.” For example, “Why does a frozen turkey cost more than filling up my SUV with premium” might give us one of the “why” answers.

Therefore, do we understand search-engine analytics and how easy they are to access? What could students do with those analytics as they research material for class? What could districts do if they studied the search habits of students and teachers?

How interesting would it be for a science teacher if he or she knew a student had searched for “but why does E = mc2?” Imagine how much teachers could extend learning if they knew what students were searching for. Despite what we might think, today's students are still curious by nature.

Today’s students, let’s call them Generation Text, love that search engine. They might be reluctant to ask a question in class (“the nerd in the front row just asked why E = mc2”) , but they’re not afraid that the search engine will pass judgment on them. And if they’re like my own kids, they know that I have to google half the questions that they ask me anyhow.

Did you know that you can create your own custom Google search engine for your students? Set up is easy, and you can determine which sites are searched. This helps teachers keep students on task, and it’s very easy to add to the list of searchable sites. And, most importantly, if you embed the search engine into your own site, you can also turn on the analytics to see what students are searching for when they use it.

Follow this link to find out more about creating your own custom Google search engine: http://www.google.com/educators/p_cse.html

And be sure to celebrate during the week of January 24^th. Despite what the model says, we survived Blue Monday months ago.

References

Tancer, B. (2008) Click: Unexpected Insights for Business and Life. New York: Hyperion.

Blue Monday: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Monday_(date)

Internet Meme: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme_(disambiguation)

Click: http://www.amazon.com/Click-Millions-People-Online-Matters/dp/1401323049/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294764297&sr=1-6

Google Custom Search: http://www.google.com/educators/p_cse.html