Week 11 Reflection

What did you learn this week that struck you as particularly important in learning about virtual schools? Has your thinking changed as the result of what you learned this week?

Something that struck me to be important, but not exactly in the context of virtual schools, but research in general... as we read many research reports for the past 2 weeks, I start to wonder

• what motivates the research? Before the research objectives, what motivates the funding agency to spend on research on the set research objectives?
• which audience group do they serve? Have the research outcomes actually benefitted students?
• have the studies really helped inform policies at national and schools level?

I also learnt that researching in a brand new field (online learning) is extremely challenging as seen in many of the reports, where a primary challenge is a limited research base in the K-12 space. Thus, researchers have to be creative and use many different to research on the set topics - meta-analysis, comparative studies, systems dynamics and discourse analysis, content analysis, quasi-experimental study, etc.

And, one other theme that recurs is that objective of comparative studies between f2f and online learning is getting obselete. As this mode of delivery is gaining momentum, stakeholders are no longer interested in just seeing how effective it is in comparison to traditional delivery, especially in view of blended learning. In fact, in this part of the world, blended learning is more common than to have full virtual schools. Thus, I learn that maybe research studies need to be done in a visionary manner, as in, the objectives need to serve a current and potentially future purposes, and these studies will be more valuable if their outcomes can be easily used by educators, parents, students and stakeholders to benefit them.

For example, in my opinion, research that develops prediction instrcutions that help identify successful learner attributes or research that helps identify factors associated with instructional quality and effectiveness, thus helping to inform and improve my teaching practices are all useful researches.

On the whole, I am very impressed by the massive amount of research works done in the US, for education as a whole, not only in virtual schools. While many of such works can be referenced to by many people in various countries, I do think that many education ministries require more resources and focus in local researches as diverse context would likely limit the significance of the results.

Now, turning to what struck me as important, in the context of virtual schools, is the evaluation of many aspects of virtual schools, right from academic performance, to performance of critical components in teaching and learning. Given the limited research base and diverse research techniques to evaluate the programs of virtual schools, i wonder how transferable are the results? How conclusive they are to be applied to policy decision for the whole nation? Given the good performance at VHS, would replicating its model be helping other virtual schools in other context and in other countries perform as well?

Given various standards and benchmarks developed by SREB, NEA, iNacol, etc. are very US-context driven, I wonder if such benchmarks, when applied in other countries, would have any signicant meaning?

On the whole, similar to last week, I do find the discussion around cognitive and affective aspects of distance education, and inspecting the validity and reliability of tools for interactive qualities in course design and instruction of online course very informative and would certainly be useful considerations , should i one day be in the position to run a virtual school / course.

Week 10 reflection

*Gulp* I swallowed hard when I open Means document... 90+pages! And I need to print all the readings in hard copy to read while I flew around for business trips. Alot to read and I've killed many trees - bad for the earth :(
What did you learn this week that struck you as particularly important in learning about virtual schools? Has your thinking changed as the results of what you learned this week?
I think I've learnt alot this week, not only about the researches for online learning, but also about research itself. I am a firm believer of research and development, but not an expert in it. Though I've used techniques of meta-analysis, this is the first time i come across this term! And, many statistical terms are coming back to me now. And though I used to study stats as a minor, I've not been using this domain knowledge for many years, thus terms like p-value, confidence interval, effect size, etc. were all so distant (have to do some basic search for the definition of these terms to understd the reports properly!).
From the reports and the forum discussion, it struck me that more research has to be done for online learning given very good motivation (like trend of rapid increase in online learning). And more research means more resources (like budget) required. And I wonder which organisation would be willing to commit more resources to research on online learning?
I feel that research is a very important aspect to development. For there to be improvement in the practices of online learning and the impacts of it, I guess research is the best bet to inform pedagogical practices, content, curriculum, strucutre of delivering, etc. and help us make the much needed improvement.
Furthermore, I am surprised to see 4 out of the 5 optional readings on Mathematics. Why not other subjects? Is it that many online courses are in Mathematics and not other subjects, due to the nature of content? Or is it that there are many other researches on other subjects, just that I m ignorant about their existence? Hopefully, when we embark on out research projects from Week 12 onwards, we can dig further into research in other subjects (espcially non-scientific subjects).
One main learning i got from this week is with regards to the effectiveness of online learning. I think the conditions and the impact on student achievement are informative. And certainly good points to consider if I were ever to manage or design online courses. These research findings are very much in sync with the what we've learnt from the past week :)

Week 9 Reflection

When I started the unit design, I started missing those days when I sat in the staff work room with my team to brainstorm and discuss the Scheme of Work, how we would teach respective units, how we should assess our students... and i miss the camaraderie of a big team working towards a common good for the students.

As a teacher, besides spending time teaching students, one other thing I enjoyed most was to be a "designer". Just like a fashion or interior designer, a lesson designer needs to plan and draw the designs, and eventually turn them into reality while teaching students. As I feel that we lesson design skills are rusting, I thought this opprotunity to develop a unit had refreshed my knowledge (and fond memories) about curriculum, pedagogy, etc.

Thus, though it is sad to be working alone, I am very happy to be preacticing the skills of designing a unit.

How did you and your partner divided the work? Did that work out? What were the pros and cons of working with a partner at a distance?

Though I didnt get to work with any partner from this class, I do often work with counterparts from the 12 Asia Pacific countries and from around the world via virtual means.

Dividing work load and how to work things out
Doing this virtually can be quite challenging as it is different from the day-to-day communication, where there is often clarification and negotiation going on. As like daily communication, it is often challenging when

• different colleagues have different accents and competency in communicating in English
• participants in the communication are more of a tactile and visual person than audio (thus, imprtant messages often get missed out)
• misinterpretation of tone thus missing the meaning of messages (especially during negotiation)

This often lead to misunderstandning or unhappiness when work gets divided. As such it is always good to enter a conference call with a visual aid like a word or powerpoint document, and make references to it as we proceed in the discussion. And, after the meeting, by sending out the notes of meeting to capture key facts discussed and getting everyone acknowldege it is very important.

I feel privileged that in my company, we have all the necessary tools to facilitate distant collaboration. With a Office Communicator, as long as there is internet connection, I can have call any of my colleague up and have a long discussion without having to worry about cost.

Or when group discussion is needed, we can just get into a conference call using the Communicator, where everyone can dial in a local number and get into a conference room for a synchronous discussion. Again, this helps save cost greatly. Furthermore, if we need to share visual tool, with a click of button to share documents, a team can have very guided discussion, that can be highly productive.

Using Outlook, we can use the "scheduling assistant" to find common free time and work out the differences in time zone at a blink of the eyes :) Though it is difficult to collaborate with people from very extreme time zone, soft skills such as being accomodative, understanding, etc. are important in making distant collaboration work.

Pros and Cons of working with someone at a distance

From an economics standpoint, working virtually is very cost effective. Besides cutting down on travel and related expenses, it helps save time too. I often jump from conference calls to calls, with people from different countries. Hence, this also helps save time and make a person more productive.

As for the disadvanatges, some are already shared above - misinterpretation of messages, misunderstood the tone of the speaker, etc. Generally, there are more pros than cons for people to work collaboratively using diff ICT tools in today's globalised world.

Week 7 Reflection

What did you think about, or worry about, as you began to grapple with creating a unit for an online course?

First thing that came to mind was FOUR WEEKS??!! A unit that lasts 4 weeks and it is to be created in 3 weeks...

When I was a classroom teacher, I spent 16-20hrs working each day:

• One-third of it on actual teaching
• One-third of it on students' development, consultation and interaction beyond classroom
• One-third of it on lesson preparation/design, marking students' work, writing tests/exams questions and marking exams papers

So, 4 weeks worth of lessons will probably map to a few days worth of design and preparation.

But of course, given further instruction, I guess having a benchmark (iNACOL) does help me be more focused and I do feel more relieved when I read on the instructions to see that it is a week-by-week outline... phew! And, it certainly helps to have steps identified in initial design of the onlne course: audience, model, objectives, activities, pacing and assessment.

While it is important to have the knowledge about what kind of Web2.0 tools there are out there, in order to design the unit, I guess it is equally important to select appropriate instructional models, just like a face-to-face lesson. From Sharon Johnston's book, I resonate with the quote from Andy Hargreaves, "Teachers don't merely deliver curriculum. They develop, define it, and reinterpret it, too. It is what teachers think, what teachers believe, and what teachers do at the level of the classroom that ultimately shapes the kind of learning that young people get." I feel that this (develop, refine, reinterpret) would be essential steps in both face-to-face and virtual lessons.

Finally, just want to share some information with my course mates... I've spent the past few months preparing to host a regional event at Singapore. Today is the 2nd day of the event and there are many exciting things happening around my program innovative schools, teachers and students pillars. And, we've launched a Regional School Technology Innovation Centre! All are very exciting ways of engaging students and educators and connecting them to share and collaborate :)

Do check out more info from the following:

http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/speeches/2010/03/09/speech-by-ms-grace-fu-at-microsoft-edu-forum.php

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1042271/1/.html

http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62061738,00.htm

Week 5 Reflection

What did you learn this week that struck you as particularly important in learning about virtual schools? Has your thinking changed as a result of what you learn this week?

Schools being schools, whether virtual or brick-and-mortar, there are many core resources and processes that are similar. There need to be students, teachers and administrators. There need to be syllabi, content, teaching resources, etc. There is teaching and learning, with instructional program, pedagogy, monitoring and evaluation. We talk about performance, teachers professional development, etc.

One important difference is for virtual school is that many of the processes are adopted and adapted from conventional brick-and-mortar schools to suit the online environment, as described in the standards of NACOL.

I learnt that similar processes adopted in an online environment can become very different. Hence, I appreciate the insights provided in "Managing teachers you can't see" and "evaluating online teachers is largely a virtual task". The readings mainly covers evaluation of teachers in an online context and the professional development of teachers. I find that accountability in an online environment with all information, exchanges and output in virtual form, it becomes very challenging to track down real performance and accountability, not only in terms of teachers' performance but also in students' work.

Hence, I do see validation becoming a key challenge for virtual schools.

On a separate note, having researched on the 2 schools selected (similar to the situation faced by other coursemates), I found it extremely hard to mine for any "insider" information, like teachers selecion process, teachers' role, student-teacher ratio, etc. All this hidden information sudenly became crystal clear to me when I read "Professional development for online teachers" (esp the "Cases" section, pp 166-171) and "Best practices in teaching K-12 online: lessons learnt from Michigan Virtual School teachers". Upon these artical, many of the question marks I've around Michigan Virtual School (one of my research school) is instantaneously resolved!I would strongly recommend to my course mates to read pp 16-27 of the latter, which gives alot of information about the practices by MVS teachers and examples of their practices. For the former, besides pp. 166-171, I find the tabulation of Louisiana Virtual School's teacher training and professional development model quite useful. This tabulation kind of bridges the gap that I've identified through this week's reading, ie. a gap between indicators of online teachers' performance and the process of evaluating their performance to that of professional development.

Finally, reflecting on the conditions for online learning...

In this course, we are undergoing an online course. And right now, I am stuck in a country (due to business travel) with broadband internet services and yet not being able to load our coursepage and process CUB email. Given the speed of the service, many institutions' technical support teams had set up firewalls and blocks to many websites (especially multimedia-heavy sites), in hope of easing traffic and increasing speed.

So, I'm starting to realise that for virtual schools to be successful, besides ensuring that students have access to computer of suitable specs and internet access, it is not sufficient. There is a need for high-speed internet in order to download all those media-rich content.

Week 4 Reflection

What did you learn this week that struck you as particularly important or interesting? Has your thinking changed as a result of what you learned this week?

I observed that more established schools have a more developed webdesign of their homepage and are also more aggressive in their marketing. Like the bigger providers such as K12 Inc and Connections Academy, there is greater consistency in the way they market themselves to the public.

And I find it disappointing that, while there are virtual schools with established programs to sell to schools and individuals, there are still so many virtual schools that have yet figured how to present themselves to the public (as observed in some very poorly designed home pages or inaccessible sites). Afterall, without a physical building, I would see the way virtual schools present themselves online to be vital, yet, given the lack in consistency, many had not done a good job in presenting themselves.

As such, even the basic like marketing themselves is not done in an ideal manner, I wonder how is the quality of educational content and services delivered to numerous home schoolers and students seeking alternative education out there??

Given some basic standards drawn up by NACOL, I wonder how many virtual schools are audited against these standards, though some marketed themselves to by accreditated by local authorities.

As I tried to access demo/sample lessons from various schools or content providers, I find great challenges in gaining access. Over just 3 days, I signed up for numerous accounts, with different passwords (due to diff password requirement in length and format). And even after getting registered, downloading plug-in and the program is not that easy either.

Here, I find the dilemma of accessibility to infomration against protecting own's intellectual property rights. I can really appreciate the reason behind all those signing up for an account, etc., but I really find it time consuming and frustrating just to catch a glimpse of how a lesson might look like in their schools! And, it doesn't help that I do not have a US address and phone number, thus signing up for an account is a hassle!

Hmmmmm... maybe in future, if this course is to continue, we can have a generic account in various virtual schools, so that we can catch a demo lesson more easily ;) I am sure the schools' adminstrators would also appreciate the fact that they have less inactive accounts to clear. Or, maybe it is time for the virtual schools to have some consitency in showcasing their trial lessons, for example, providing generic accounts or web-stream their samples to avoid others copying their products easily?

While I get quite frustrated in trying to gain access to sample lessons, I am enlightened when I finally get to go through some online lessons. They were very much different from those that I had done back in the good old days. The interface used are all more interactive and richer. And, I am also enlightened to learn about many other digital tools that different schools use.

Finally, something operational. I had repeatedly written my response in the "good instructional design" 4 times and in the "bad..." 3 times as my internet explorer repeatedly hung on the moodle :( So, lesson learnt is, to type my response in a word processor then cut and paste. At least in this blog page, there is an "autosave" feature... so i am only writing this reflection once ;)



As stated in my wikis,

About Me (part 2)

As I shared responded to one of our coursemate's inquiry about what I do, I thought I would like to share the URLs to some resources that may interest you and be of use for your works in classrooms:
1) Microsoft Partners in Learning - you will be able to find more infomation on this program, some case studies that are from your countries

2) Microsoft Partners in Learning Network - you will be able to read about some recent activities or events, download some free tools for teaching, connect with innovative educators from different parts of the world and find other useful resources. You will be prompted to sign up for a Live ID. Using this Live ID, you will be able to access information at this network.

3) Microsoft Corporate Citizenship - do check out other interesting corporate citizenship programs in my extended work teams. Do look out for Multipoint technology.. really a low-cost deployment which works very well in emerging markets.

4) MARVIN - we've funded a developer in Australia to develop this animation tool. Very interesting avatars that can be used to build video clip in split seconds. Suitable to deliver content. We've innovative teachers who use it to get young kids master language better through peer coaching and learn about "dry" topics like Confucius in a lively manner.

Additionally, we've used MARVIN and the Silverlight technology to build an interactive curriculum for students with special needs.. it is the accessibility curriculum written by a Japanese professor to help kids with physical disabilities to use computers. Do look out for the link to the CARE curriculum in the Network i've stated in #2 above.

Week 3 Reflection

What did you learn this week that struck you as particularly important or interesting?

State virtual schools
Upon reviewing the wikis & comparison table and participating in the forum, it is interesting to see that the diverse presentation (in terms of look and content) across respective virtual schools. And, I find it "shocking" that a few virtual schools actually have such poor and non-robust presentation of their school information! My assumption is that a virtual school being heavily reliant on technology and the Internet, the most basic thing it can show is to at least "look" savvy in its home page presentation. So, it seems that it is a wrong assumption to make.

I find the issue about inconsistency observed is important to note. This observation probably implies that the development of virtual schools is still in its early stages where there is very little benchmarking, though at least most virtual schools' curricula are tied to the state testing standards. Or maybe it is simply a notion of diversity for the differences observed?

Or would it be that the virtual school market is not that competitive within respective states that some schools may just not be well-aligned to PR, marketing, communications and having organizational goal to deliver quality services to the public?

There seems to be many different reasons for the inconsitency observed and as explained by some of my coursemates in the forum. So, will there be a time in future that the art of managing virtual schools become more widespread that there will be more virtual schools and with more intense competition, they'd be more competitive. And, more competition would drive higher standards and better presentation, delivery of services, etc.?

Charter virtual schools
It is surprising to find such a gap in the presentation of info and content on a charter school home page as compared to a state school home page! Comapring Michigan Virtual School (state sch) and Ohio Connections Academy (charter sch), I find the page design of OCA more user-friendly than that of MVS. And, the infomration of the latter is more oragnised and accessible too. I wonder if charter sch pages are generally more well-organized than that of state sch?

Upon exploring OCA and Connections Academy (CA) website, I feel that charter schools are like a "franchise". CA is like the main distributor, who sets the operation model and resourcing model of the schools under its charter. Hence, upon checking other CA schools in other states, they all have the same page design for their school website. Since CA is then the "branding" of the charter schools under its flagship, then I think there'd be a model of monitoring and quality control within their operation model (which is not explicit to the public) to ensure quality delivery of education to each child at his/her home.

Would it be due to this that there is better accountabilty and more consistent delivery, and a more unfied message and look across all CA schools? Hence, I am looking forward to next week's class to look into other charter schools and do a comparison between the two types of schools :)

Furthermore, I kind of find some ans to the question about accessibility to virtual schools, which i raised in previous week's reflection. In CA, they loan out computers with suitable specs and software pre-loaded, and provide free internet access too! In a way, this addresses the issue of accesibility, also bearing in mind that the education is tuition-free. Hence, even poor families will be able to send their kids to virtual schools!

However, I wonder how would on be eligible to apply for this loan and how do they get sufficient resources to fund this exercise??! And, we're talking about 28,000 enrollment in CA to date!! From the "Authorizing Matters, Aug 2006", it seems to imply that a typical charter school will loan out computers to students and reimburse for the Internet charges but no in-depth discussion of how to fund the model of a charter virtual school :( Though there is some mention of "authorizer funding" in the "September 2006" issue, it remians vague to me as to how exactly how the charter model works, for both traditional and virtual schools. I shall research on this over the weekend :)

Initially, I thought the "who should fund virtual schools?" article would shed some light to the way resourcing in charter schools work. But, this article generally speaks of funding in state virtual schools, recomending a 2-stage implementation of a funding model and sharing 3 case studies of how 3 state virtual schools are funded.

Week 2 Reflection

What did you learn this week that struck you particularly important or interesting? Has your thinking changed as a result of what you learned this week?

This week, I had a deep dive into the models of online learning in state virtual schools and in the management and operations of online programs. Frankly, though my job is closely knitted to education in US, being a Singaporean, I have little knowledge about the US education system. Thus, ploughing through "Keeping Pace" was tedious, for there are many alien terms that I need to check out before reading futher... state schools, charter schools, federal, for-profit, run by consortium, legislature, appropriation, multi-district, SEA, LEA... ... mind boggling!

I like the "attributes of online programs" by Watson and Gemin. Going through the "issues" and "variables" under each attributes is like reading a rubric. This has somehow made various aspects of online learning measurable, which is certainly useful in helping the management team of online schools make informed decisions. Furthermore, the 5 areas (curriculum devt & course quality, teacher mgt, student support, technology and program evaluation) can been applied to running a physical school, not just online schools!

Finallly, I would like to point out one thing that struck me most when I researched on Michigan Virtual School - "You can learn virtually anything" as long as there is access to computer (of a certain specs) and to the Internet.

So, given improvment made in managing and operating online schools and gorwing enrollments over time, I think one key factor that make or break this momentum is connectivity. Online learning is bascially made possible by internet connection and computer. And, to have a good experience learning online, I guess a good connection and a computer of "decent" specs are required. As such, what happens to those districts with poor connectivity? How would online learning reach out to people who cannot afford computers? So, they will not get to enjoy the benefits of online learning?

In my job, I visit many developing countries. In fact, governments propose to set up project to promote online learning, especially in rural areas or areas which lack teachers in specific subjects. And, in such projects, the key determinant is again connectivity. Just today, as my colleague made a presentation on using web apps, etc., the very challenge of connectivity is again, brought up. I wonder if there is any resolution to this challenge? Or, is the answer simply, no connectivity, no online learning and no cloud computing....

Week 1 Reflection

What did you learn this week that struck you as particularly important in learning about virtual schools? How has your thinking changed as a result of this week's learning?

I appreciate both sides of views presented in the readings and the postings. I've certainly gained greater understanding of the merits of virtual schools. Frankly, though virtual school concept is not entirely new and that I am in the educational technology field, I do not see many successful cases (success herein refers to improvement in students' standard in national diagnostic).

Especially in other parts of the world outside US, I observe that it is an uphill task to set up virtual schools. Maybe there is "first-mover advantage and that virtual schools can be accessed from any part of the world, the origins of virtual schools seem to be from US, UK and Australia. And, my guess is that due to cultural norms in certain countries, people may not be used to virtual learning and there may be a lack of a complete ecosystem to support the setting up of virtual schools.

Given the case studies and some statistics provided, I am now more convinced that virtual schools is a viable model for learners.

With this learning, I hope that in future weeks into this module, I can learn more about how to work on some challenges of virtual schools - quality, scale and sustainability.

About Me

Background
I am a strong advocate of empowering people through education and I am currently pursuing this advocate in my job.

As the Regional Academic Programs Manager (APM) for Microsoft Asia Pacific, I lead the Microsoft Partners in Learning program across 12 countries in Asia Pacific. Working with local APMs, we strive to increase technology access for schools, foster innovative approaches to pedagogy and teacher professional development, and provide education leaders with the tools to envision, implement, and manage change. All these are done through establishing good and effective public-private partnerships across the 12 countries.

Prior to assumming this role, I work for the Ministry of Education, Singapore. I taught A-level Economics in college (think it is Grades 11 & 12 equivalent in US) and held diverse portfolios. I have keen interest in innovation and research and had led many teams in these areas.

I have a honours degree in Economics and a Post-graduate Diploma in Education from National Institute of Education.

Beyond work, I like to build things. I enjoy putting Lego-blocks together and piecing jigsaw puzzles. And, I love the sun and sports. I like to play team sports under the sun on large green pitches, such as hockey and soccer, or individually conquer long distances like running a marathon. On the other hand, I love music too (play percussion) and had watched most musicals in West End!

What made me interested in this course?
More than 50% of my work (for example communications with customers and collegues around the world) is done virtually, through emails, conference calls and virtual meetings. In my work, I do meet many people in schools who are like me, where information communication technology (ICT) is part of their daily lives.

Given growing ubituitous learning in many schools around the world, online learning is commonly observed. Furthermore, under the Innovative Schools program, I work closely with various schools online.

Hence, I would like to learn more about the models of online schooling and its pedagogical approaches. I would also like to learn more about the research done around the impacts of online schooling. Hopefully, I can contribute more towards the Innovative Schools program, from my learning in this course.

My experience with online learning - positive and negative encounters!

As online learning is not very common in 1990s, my first online learning experience was in university, where course admin, info, updates and content is dealt with online. As online learning is rather new, most of us did have problems navigating in the course web. Adaptabity becomes a core skill to have! Having adapted to the new learning environment, I really enjoyed the convenience of retrieving information anytime, anywhere, and learn at my own pace. Hence, this experience was first negative then positive.

Following that experience, online learning became more common and it has been part of my learning to date, including this module!

Having started teaching at 2002, I was at the other end of online learning, ie. teaching students through the virtual world. I must say that it was initially very challenging because designing an instructional program around a virtual world was a new experience and that it is rather time-consuming to prepare all the new teaching and learning materials online. However, after a getting buy-in from other colleagues, with team work and experience, the preparation of teaching for online learning became easier. And, it was very fulfilling to observe positive impacts on students' learning - engaged learning, teaching less learn more, etc.