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@ The Concord ConsortiumSpring 1999Realizing the educational promise of technologyCONCORD.ORG

LINKS ON THIS PAGEGNU/Linux—www.gnu.orgApache—www.apache.org New York Times—www.nytimes.comNational Public Radio—www.npr.org Forbes—www.forbes.comScientific American—www.sciam.com/1999/0399issue/0399cyber.html

Free and Open To AllFree Open Source Software couldprove to be a windfall foreducation. Learn more about howit could impact the classroom.

Meet the BoardSheldon Berman, Superintendentof Hudson Public Schools, andTally Forbes, Vice President ofEarthwatch Institute.

Synergy Projects andPocket ComputersSmall hand-held computers arenot just for business. See howtheyÕre being used in theclassroom.

INSERT: Virtual High SchoolThe average VHS course has 18students in 12 schools and sevenstates. Learn more about what itÕslike to take a course or teach one.

Speaking Up forOnline EducationPressure grows to define what itis and what it isnÕt.

The Inquiry DilemmaHow do we assess inquirylearning? The GenScope andBioLogica projects are lookingfor answers.

PerspectiveHow can we demonstrate theeffectiveness of learningtechnologies in the classroom.

[email protected] project for 4thgraders; Reading the Rocks;Computerworld SmithsonianMedal Award.

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Free and Open to AllThe Potential for Free Open Source Software in Education

by Robert Tinker

Does free software thatimproves technology-basedlearning and saves billions ofdollars for education sound like animpossible dream? Thanks to a rapidlygrowing movement based on an operat-ing system that many refer to as“GNU/Linux,” realization of thatdream may be closer than you think.

What are its advantages? TheGNU/Linux1 operating system issmaller, more reliable, more extensible,and faster than Windows NT, Win-dows 98, or the Macintosh OS. Itoffers capabilities that Apple andMicrosoft have only promised to deliv-er. Fully half the Web servers on theInternet are running on the free soft-ware Apache, which is based onGNU/Linux. And programmers work-ing cooperatively over the Internet allover the world have developed manyother packages of free software as well.

One group refers to this kind of

software as Open Source, but the origi-nator of the movement Richard Stall-man prefers the term Free Software. Tobe inclusive, we use the name FreeOpen Source Software (FOSS) to referto software with source code that canbe modified and freely redistributed.Programs whose source code is avail-able to users – for modification,improvement, or just plain curiosity –and which is free of charge wouldclearly benefit the education sector.

Recent DevelopmentsPublic acceptance and enthusiasm

for GNU/Linux is on the upswing. Inthe last few months, GNU/Linux hasbeen featured in The New York Timesnewspaper and magazine, Forbes, Scien-tific American and on National PublicRadio. In February, protesters who useFOSS operating systems rallied atMicrosoft offices demanding a refund

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1GNU/Linux is a term that refers to the work done by GNU (Ga-new), a project organizedin 1980s by Richard Stallman that made operating system components that extended theUNIX operating kernel and an alternative free kernel called Linux (LINN-ex) developed in1991 by Linus Torvalds. The resulting GNU/Linux combination is popularly known as theLinux operating system. We choose to call it GNU/Linux, although we acknowledge thatothers have differing views.

Concord Consortium: www.concord.org

The Concord Consortium

EditorRobert F. Tinker

Managing EditorLee McDavid

@CONCORD is published three times a year byThe Concord Consortium, a nonprofit

educational research and development

organization dedicated to educational innovation

through creative technologies.

Copyright ©1999 The Concord Consortium.

All rights reserved. Noncommercial reproduction

is encouraged, provided proper credit is given.

Virtual High School and VHS are registered

trademarks and Teacher Learning Conference is

a trademark of The Concord Consortium.

We occasionally make our postal mailing list

available to organizations we think are of interest

to our readers. If you do not want your address

distributed in this way, please send us a mailing

label from this newsletter and a request to keep

your address private.


37 Thoreau Street, Concord, MA 01742

(978) 369-4367, FAX (978) 371-0696

[email protected]

http://www.concord.org

The projects described in @CONCORD are sup-ported by National Science Foundation grantsREC-9553639, REC-9896075, REC-9725524,REC-9554211, REC-9813485, REC-9554198,CDA-9720384, GEO-9801806, ESI-9896068and ESI-9554162, and U.S. Department ofEducation grants R303A60571 andR303A70182. We also receive donations fromcorporations and individuals. All opinions, find-ings, conclusions, and recommendationsexpressed herein are those of the authors and donot necessarily reflect the views of the fundingagencies. Mention of trade names, commercialproducts or organizations does not implyendorsement.

Our Board of Directors is a diverse association of dedicated and successful professionals commit-ted to expanding educational opportunities worldwide. This issue of @CONCORD profiles thefinal two board members and their interests. More detailed information about each member isavailable from our web site.

Meet the Board

is treasurer anda founding member of The ConcordConsortium. Shelley is one of thefounders of Educators for Social Respon-sibility, a grassroots educationalmembership organization that currently isfocused on conflict resolution in educa-tion. Shelley is the superintendent ofHudson Public Schools in Hudson,Mass., which is a leader in instructionalinnovation. He is helping forge a produc-tive relationship between his schools andour R&D. Shelley is the author of twobooks: Promising Practices in TeachingSocial Responsibility (1993) and Children’sSocial Consciousness (1997), published bySUNY Press.

is a foundingmember of The Concord Consortium.She is vice president of Earthwatch Insti-tute, where she is in charge of educationand development. Earthwatch is an inter-national nonprofit organization which hasprovided opportunities for teachers andstudents to make important scientificcontributions in field research by joiningscientists at their field sites worldwide.Through Tally’s efforts, these teachers areusing technology to integrate their fieldexperience into their teaching. Tally’s con-tinued involvement in the Board ofDirectors provides us expertise in fundraising, scientific research, and educationalinnovation.

Sheldon Berman Tally Forbes

LINKS ON THIS PAGEEducators for Social Responsibility—www.esrnational.orgEarthwatch—www.earthwatch.org Hudson Public Schools—www.hudson.k12.ma.usBoard of Directors—www.concord.org/about/board.html

We Dream . . .

We dream of an educational system that responds to each person’s learn-ing needs. We dream of classrooms where there is collaborative learning.We dream of students and experts working together locally and interna-tionally to solve problems worldwide.

Education is the single most important investment a society can make inits future. Quality education is essential to help people everywhere real-ize their full potential. The Concord Consortium is a research anddevelopment nonprofit organization made up of teachers, curriculumdevelopers, technology experts and innovators committed to stimulatinglarge-scale, technology-based improvement in teaching and learning.

Through the creative and appropriate use of information technologies, webelieve our dream of universal quality education is possible.

We are dedicated to realizing the educational promise of technology.


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LINKS ON THIS PAGECC Smart Sonic Ranger—concord.org/slic/smartprobe.html Synergy Project—www.concord.org/~sherry/cilt3Com Palm—palmpilot.3com.com CILT—www.cilt.org ImagiLabs—www.imageworks.com

Concord Consortium: www.concord.org Page 3

role of teachers in supporting integratedscience learning mediated by pocketcomputers. These early studies are pilotsfor larger studies planned in primary,middle, and high school classrooms thisfall. Palm Computing, a 3COM compa-ny has donated pocket computers tobegin these studies. A new Palm inter-face called ImagiLabs can be attached toPalms to allow data collection. CILTresearchers will study how students usepocket computers coupled with Imagi-Lab to record and understand data.

Pocket computers initially will betesting with 10th grade students in Cali-fornia as field-based inquiry tools tocomplement an Internet-based curricu-lum and Internet-based studentassessments. Students will use the Palmto study ecosystems and measure factorssuch as pH, dissolved oxygen, and salini-ty in a local creek. Using the data theycollect at the creek, students will useInternet-based modeling and visualiza-tion tools to construct theirunderstanding of water quality anddetermine how to create healthy water.

At the same time, the Kids andPalms™ project is initially testing pocketcomputers with students on the primaryand middle school levels in Massachu-setts. This project will design activities,curricular materials, and assessments withteachers to establish if the students inand out of the classroom can use thesehandy portable computers. Age appropri-ate activities with Palms are planned forstudents in a second and fifth grade.

Carolyn Staudt is a curriculum developer forThe Concord Consortium. Sherry Hsi is apost-doctoral scholar at the Center forInnovative Learning [email protected], [email protected]

Over the past several years manybreakthroughs have occurred inlearning technologies. Studentsare able to explore, investigate, and ana-lyze their local environment withincreasing ease. Teachers are using graph-ing calculators connected to computer-based lab interfaces to test the waterquality in streams. Programmable motiondetectors and light switches are beingused to teach concepts of control andfeedback. Due to technologically innova-tive and powerful tools, students areengaged in the inquiry process firsthand.

We’ve all seen the business travellerwho boards a plane scribbling on a pocketcomputer to review a schedule, find aphone number, prepare a presentation orrecord expenses. Now imagine these smallpersonal computers in the hands of everystudent. Not only could they take notesanywhere, they could calculate real lifemath problems, set up spreadsheets, orga-nize databases, draw sketches, even collectdata from their surroundings. As a result,a set of numbers and abstract scienceconcepts becomes linked to relevant expe-riences and personal everyday events.

In partnership with the Center forInnovative Learning Technologies(CILT), The Concord Consortium is

developing and studying educational usesof inexpensive computers and computerinterfaces with students. Through theLow-cost Ubiquitous Computing Themeresearch efforts of CILT, students aretesting the use of pocket-sized computersand portable probeware.

These small computers were originallyconceived as electronic personal organiz-ers. Probeware is software and hardwarethat allows sensors to be connected andused with these portable computers. Fromour experience, providing low-cost com-puters and universal access to all studentswill fundamentally change learning.

Our first experience with these amaz-ingly friendly small computers was with afifth grade class. We had asked the stu-dents to explore changes in distance overtime using a recently developed lantern-style CC Smart Sonic Ranger. With theaid of software, data was displayed on acomputer screen in graphical form so thatthe students could quickly analyze andexplore motion.

We placed similar software on the3COM Palm™ and one sunny afternoonasked two the fifth grade students to testthe Palm and the Sonic Ranger in theschool playground. One grabbed thePalm and the other took control of theSonic Ranger. Together they walked fromone end of the playground to otherdesigning activities to plot out distanceand recognize motion. Their immediateownership of the pocket computer andprobeware was a glimpse at the readinessstudents have to explore and design theirown investigations.

The CILT Synergy Project is target-ing this excitement on the part of thestudents for inquiry. It is also studying the

by Carolyn Staudt and Sherry Hsi

Synergy Projects and Pocket Computers

@

Kids can use a pocket computer equippedwith a probe to analyze air temperature.


LINKS ON THIS PAGEGNU Public License—www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html GNOME—www.gnome.org GNU/Linux—www.gnu.orgDarwin—www.publicsource.apple.com/projects/darwin Gimp—www.gimp.org RedHat—www.redhat.comVA Research—www.varesearch.com KDE—www.kde.org

on the unused copies of Windows thatcame pre-installed on their PCs.

Corporate and investor interest inGNU/Linux is growing, too. Not onlyhas the publicity made GNU/Linux,and by extension all FOSS, moreacceptable to the public, it has resultedin investment funding for companiessuch as Red Hat and VA Research thatwill lead to healthy competition intechnical support services. GNU/Linuxusers will now have inexpensive optionsfor technical support (though muchsupport is also available via the virtualsupport circle of other GNU/Linuxaficionados).

The acceptance of FOSS is impor-tant because it challenges the conven-tional wisdom that free software isunsupported, and therefore, useless. Infact, many of the most important ele-ments of a FOSS system are supportedand updated at a level far above that ofcommercial software. Greater accep-tance could generate support for pub-lishing educational software as FOSS.Educational funders often insist thatprojects generating educational soft-ware find a publisher to disseminatethe software, even if they charge exor-bitant prices. The well-founded fear isthat by placing software in the publicdomain for free (otherwise known as“freeware”), no upgrades or ports wouldever be made and the software wouldbecome obsolete as soon as the tech-nology moves on. The fallacy in thisargument is the assumption that mak-ing the software free and open sourceis equivalent to placing it in the publicdomain and providing it free. A key

element usually incorporated intoFOSS software licenses is that if modi-fications or improvements are madethese changes must also be made avail-able to the community under a FOSSlicense such as the GNU PublicLicense (GPL)2. A FOSS license pro-vides an alternative that ensures a con-tinued life for the software. This sub-tle but crucial difference is the legaland ethical underpinning which helpscreate trust and cooperation amongfar-flung programmers. No one isafraid that their code will be ripped offfor profit; in fact, often there is ahealthy competition to see who canwrite the best code.

Until recently, FOSS has beenassociated with operating system soft-ware only, but this is changing rapidly.System software is just the beginning.In addition to the Netscape browser,there are now FOSS spreadsheets,word processors, a presentation pack-age (similar to PowerPoint™), andGimp, an image manipulation programthat is similar to Photoshop™. Thereare thousands of applications beingdeveloped including some primitiveeducational tools.

Educational UsesAt the founding of The Concord

Consortium over four years ago, weselected GNU/Linux as the operatingsystem for our email, ftp and web host-ing. It has proven to be stable, highperforming, and easy to maintain.

The current educational value ofGNU/Linux is limited, however.Because it is unlikely that many stu-dents and teachers would want to useraw GNU/Linux, its main applicationtoday is in back rooms where network

servers live. While this might reducethe cost of software for these comput-ers and improve their reliability, itwould not represent a major savings forschools, who need relatively few serversand whose operating systems are asmall expense compared to hardware,networking, and support costs.

But now that GNU/Linux is soonto have two graphical user interfaces(GUI) and extensive support, it couldbegin to have a major impact on edu-cation. The KDE and GNOMEgraphical user interfaces look similar totraditional desktop environments usinga mouse to control moment and sizingof windows, for instance, conventionswith which PC and Mac users alike arefamiliar. While impressive, GNOMEis under development and not ready for

Free and Open to Allcontinued from page 1

Glossary of Terms

Free Open Source Software (FOSS)is our nondenominational attemptto clarify the open source code andfree labels; it refers to programsthat are both open source (you cansee and modify the source code),freely available and sometimes freeof charge.

GNOME is a graphical user inter-face – in other words, a desktopenvironment, being developed bythe Free Software Foundation. KDEis a competing free desktop envi-ronment.

GNU (Gnu’s Not Unix) is a freesoftware system that is upwardlycompatible with Unix.

Java is a programming languagedesigned by Sun Microsystems forcross-platform functionality.

Linux is the kernel of an operatingsystem developed as a variant ofthe UNIX operating system. Togeth-er with GNU, it is a reliableoperating system, known as Linux-based GNU System or GNU/Linux.

2The GPL requires that anyone can use the software without charge, provided anyimprovements made are protected with the GPL copyright.

FOSS may not yet be ready for large-scale implementation, it is almost cer-tain to be there soon. It is importantto have research results available atthat time that can help guide educatorsand answer the inevitable questionsabout the cost and educational value ofwidespread use of FOSS in education.It may also be possible to stimulate thecreation of a programmer group inter-ested in creating and maintaining freeopen source software for education.

Three initiatives are needed. Thefirst would create pilot implementa-tions of FOSS to better understand thetotal costs and benefits of institution-wide use of this type of software. Asecond would support increased educa-tional use of FOSS by harvesting theavailable free open source software andsupporting its use in education. Thethird would stimulate the developmentof quality free software for educationby engaging the programming commu-nity in creating needed software.

Initiative One:Create Pilot Implementations

A few ambitious colleges andschool districts should be extensivelysupported in early and wide implemen-tations of FOSS. Institutions servingpoorer populations might benefit mostfrom savings. The goal of these pilotprojects would be to gain operationalexperience that would be widely useful.

Pilot studies are important becauseeducational technology is intimatelyrelated to the intellectual and educa-tional life of institutions. The shift toFOSS may involve correspondingshifts in the kinds of software promot-ed and the educational strategies used.Because there will be fewer compatibleeducational titles, educators will haveto abandon software written before


LINKS ON THIS PAGEBlackboard—www.blackboard.com Logo—lcs.www.media.mit.edu/groups/logo-foundation/Logo/Logo.html


general use. However, given the pace ofdevelopment, we anticipate onlymonths – not the usual years of soft-ware development – before a free stablegraphical user interface is available.

When a good graphical user inter-face exists for powerful and reliableproductivity and educational packages,the benefits to schools will becomesubstantial. Because FOSS softwarecan be freely distributed, a school thatbuilt its technology use around gener-al-purpose FOSS tools and Java appli-cations could make these tools avail-able to everyone in the school commu-nity, including parents. For those run-ning GNU/Linux, this would increasestudent and community access to tech-nology while reducing school softwareand support costs.

It would also reduce the supportcosts associated with tracking licensedsoftware and moving limited quantitiesbetween classrooms as needed. FOSSsoftware could also reduce hardwarecosts because it is relatively compactand can run on older, perhaps donated,computers. Once free open source soft-ware matures, it will be quite stable, soits use might also reduce technical sup-port costs. The combination of thesefactors could, in a few years, add up tosignificant savings for education, whileoffering better reliability and new edu-cational benefits.

Commercial Software vs. FOSS?Commercial educational software

can exist along with FOSS, so educa-tion will be best served by a combina-tion of FOSS and commercial soft-ware. The FOSS strategy worksbecause a large community of pro-grammers is willing to undertake soft-ware development and knowledgeableusers contribute support. By not beingproprietary, free open source softwareencourages elegant problem solving

and local and international coopera-tion. Since many programmers get nofinancial return for their improve-ments, most contributed FOSS is cre-ated to solve real-world problems facedby programmers, e.g., a student needs anew function for a thesis or a companyneeds to support infrared ports.

Educational publishers, however,will continue to produce and supportspecialized educational software. Theywill simply add GNU/Linux to theoperating systems they support.Already, Blackboard, a commercialonline course authoring and deliverysystem, runs with GNU/Linux. Mosteducational software is now beingwritten in Java because it is the bestdual platform (i.e., Windows and Mac)development environment. Becausethere is a FOSS Java interpreter, all thepresent and future educational softwarewritten in Java will run with GNU/Linux, whether FOSS or commercial.

Other powerful educational appli-cations like Logo, HyperCard, andprobeware are likely to follow. A pack-age of software modules that supportstudent records, individualized assign-ments, and electronic portfolios couldbe generated in FOSS.

In essence, an educational strategythat relies on FOSS software shoulddepend primarily on general-purposetools. Because the number of tools islimited and the tools themselves aregeneral, teachers can integrate themwidely in the curriculum. From theperspectives of both educational reformand the cost of support, this is a soundeducational strategy.

Next StepsThe time is now ripe to launch a

research and development effort tobring the benefits of free open sourcesoftware to education in a timely man-ner and to evaluate its impact. While


LINKS ON THIS PAGEGNU/Linux—www.gnu.org GNOME—www.gnome.org

Java became the dual developmentplatform of choice. This means a shiftto educational use of FOSS general-purpose tools or software written inJava that might be commercial or free.

Such extensive change will be moreof a liability at institutions alreadymaking sophisticated and varied use ofeducational technology than at poorerinstitutions just starting to use technol-ogy. Many effective school technologyplans support the use of a limitednumber of software titles; schools canimplement a few broadly and deeplyrather than a greater number, but onlyfor a shallow application.

Institutions pilot testing FOSS willneed extensive technical support,teacher professional development, andtool-based curriculum materials. Theywill need to revise their plans for inte-grating technology into educationaround the strengths and weaknesses ofFOSS. Their teachers will need assis-tance in creating activities that takeadvantage of general tools and the Javaapplications available. Their technicalstaff will need support to make thechanges.

The pilots will need to be carefullyobserved and evaluated. To understandthe actual savings, a thorough account-ing will be needed to determine thefull costs of traditional approaches andthe pilot implementations.

Initiative Two:Increase Educational Use of FOSS

There is a need to harvest the avail-able free open source software and sup-port its widespread use in education.This would involve providing testedand easily installed distributions ofFOSS software of particular interest toeducators. As the FOSS movement

expands, there will be an increasingdeluge of software of variable educa-tional value and technical quality. Sift-ing through this for applications thatare solid both educationally and tech-nically will be beyond the capacity ofmost schools or colleges. A centraloperation is needed that can provide acombination of educational and tech-nical guidance. The educational guid-ance would involve suggesting newprogramming projects and evaluatingthose under way. Technical guidance

would ensure the quality and compati-bility of the resulting code.

This technical service might alsoinvolve the creation of some newapplications. For instance, being able togenerate x-y graphs from a spreadsheetis very important in education. The

available FOSS spreadsheets may nothave any graphing capacity, but couldbe easily hooked into a FOSS grapher.An effort to collect and distribute edu-cational FOSS should include hybridslike this when educational needs arerecognized.

Initiative Three:Develop Quality Software

The most speculative effort, butone with the biggest potential payoff,would involve attempting to enlist vol-unteers in the creation of educationalFOSS software. If the same altruisticinstincts that have led thousands ofprogrammers to create GNU/Linuxcan be harnessed for education, therecould be an avalanche of free educa-tional software.

Rewards and a seeding effortmight be all that is needed to unleash asoftware effort that would easily sur-pass all programming currently beingdone in education.Rewards mightinvolve the recognition of outstandingcontributions to education. It is proba-bly also necessary to contribute as wellas harvest software. A seed educationaleffort, bringing programmers to thepilot schools and colleges for summersor one-year stints, would be an ideal –though clearly ambitious – plan. Thiscould generate useful applications andattract much wider interest in the ideaof developing free open source educa-tional applications.

ConclusionThese three initiatives could yield

huge dividends for education. AnnualU.S. educational technology costs areprojected at $6-25 billion and 20-25%of that is software. If FOSS were tohalve or even quarter the cost of soft-ware, it could save anywhere from $300


The graphical user interface being developedby GNOME is familiar to Macintosh users.


The average VHS course has18 students in 12 schools and7 states.

OTHER COUNTRIES WHO HAVEPARTICIPATED IN VHS:

Germany SingaporeZimbabwe Jordan

LINKS ON THIS PAGEModel Secondary School for the Deaf—www.gallaudet.edu/~precpweb/index.html Gallaudet University—www.gallaudet.edu

There are ten students in Wash-ington, D.C., who are likeevery other student who logsinto the Virtual High School™ website to get assignments, join discus-sions, and just shoot the breeze withother classmates.

Except for one thing.They’re more familiar with typing

out their thoughts than many VHS™students because most of these studentshave used a TTY, a telephone systemwith a keyboard for the deaf.

“One of the great benefits for deafstudents of participating in the VHSclass is that communication with hear-ing teachers and peers is much moredirect than using interpreters,” explainsJoyce Barrett, site coordinator for theModel Secondary School for the Deaf(MSSD). The school is located on thecampus of Gallaudet University, theonly university in the world for deafand hard of hearing students.

Last fall five girls and five boysfrom MSSD were the first deaf stu-dents to sign up for VHS. At thebeginning of the term Barrett contactedthe VHS teachers who had her studentsand explained that they were fromMSSD. But it was up to the discretion

of the students themselves whetherthey wanted to divulge their deafness totheir classmates. Some didn’t, and somedid. Those who didn’t said it wasbecause it was unnecessary. For thosewho did, the response that one studentreceived was typical of all: “They treatme just the same.” Those students whodid tell their classmates were unani-mous in saying they received a positiveresponse.

What attracted the ten MSSD stu-dents to VHS was the opportunity towork independently and the challeng-ing quality of the courses. As withmany VHS students, the ability to takecourses not offered at their own schoolwas also a big motivation. They doveinto everything from astronomy andpoetics to government issues, photogra-phy, and sailing. “I love workingindependently,” one student said in anMSSD survey. “I was very motivatedbecause I had to depend on myself.”Several students especially enjoyed theamount they were learning and thefeeling of accomplishment, which onestudent described as more like a col-lege-level seminar.

Many of the problems they encoun-

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Virtual High SchoolBreaks the Sound BarrierListening and Learning from the True Pioneersby Lee McDavid

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pecial Issue

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1998-1999 SCHOOL YEAR

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STUDENTS (Fall 98 + Spring 99)

TEACHERS

VHSFACTS

COURSES OFFERED 36

SCHOOLS PARTICIPATING 68

STATES PARTICIPATING 17

TEACHERS WHO HAVECOMPLETED THE TLC 46

PROJECTED NUMBER OFFALL 1999 COURSES 100

STUDENTS (Spring 1999)

CONCORD.ORG

Virtual High School: vhs.concord.org VHS-1

VHS-2 Virtual High School: vhs.concord.org


EditorRobert F. Tinker

Managing EditorLee McDavid

@CONCORD is published three times a year byThe Concord Consortium, a nonprofit

educational research and development

organization dedicated to educational innovation

through creative technologies.

Copyright ©1999 The Concord Consortium.

All rights reserved. Noncommercial reproduction

is encouraged, provided proper credit is given.

Virtual High School and VHS are registered

trademarks and Teacher Learning Conference is

a trademark of The Concord Consortium.

We occasionally make our postal mailing list

available to organizations we think are of interest

to our readers. If you do not want your address

distributed in this way, please send us a mailing

label from this newsletter and a request to keep

your address private.


37 Thoreau Street, Concord, MA 01742

(978) 369-4367, FAX (978) 371-0696

[email protected]

http://www.concord.org

The Virtual High School project described in@CONCORD is supported by U.S. Departmentof Education grants R303A60571 andR303A70182. We also receive donations fromcorporations and individuals. All opinions, find-ings, conclusions, and recommendationsexpressed herein are those of the authors and donot necessarily reflect the views of the fundingagencies. Mention of trade names, commercialproducts or organizations does not implyendorsement.

Spring 1999

LINKS ON THIS PAGENetCourses—intec.concord.org/faq.html#num1 LearningSpace—www.lotus.com/learningspaceTeachers Learning Conference—vhs.concord.org/Pages/Main+Office-FAQ

Evaluating Online High School CoursesTruthorConsequencesby Liz Pape

Now that many schools have spenta great deal of time, volunteereffort and money to networkschools, the question many are now askingis “What do we do with it?” Will net-works and the introduction of technologyinto the curriculum make learning easierfor students? Will students be better moti-vated to learn? Will teachers be able toteach better, more effectively?

These are some of the questions thatmany school administrators are beingasked, by parents, community members,and taxpayers. If technology is the tool,what is it that we are using the tool for?

For the past two and a half years, theVirtual High School (VHS) has beenaddressing some of these concerns. VHS isusing technology as a tool to build onlinehigh school courses that are given over theInternet. Our experience has shown that itis possible to effectively use technology tooffer high school online courses and thatthe VHS is a scalable model. VHS courseshave given students throughout the coun-try the opportunity to take courses thattheir schools are not able to offer, to workwith students from a variety of locationsand cultures, and to use technology dailywhile in their online NetCourses.

How do we know that these coursesare as good as courses being taught inhigh schools across the country?

Although VHS courses are developedand taught by high school teachers, whatadditional support is given to them so thatthey might learn to effectively use thisnew medium? In VHS, quality of teachingand curriculum content is primarily influ-enced by our training program, called theTeachers Learning Conference (TLC),and by the online standards all VHS Net-

Courses are measured against. PotentialVHS teachers must participate in theTLC, a graduate-level online professionaldevelopment course developed and taughtby VHS faculty. Teachers bring to theTLC their skills as high school teachersand we add online pedagogy and assess-ment skills. During training, asparticipants develop their courses, we eval-uate the courses against criteria that wehave developed. These criteria addressareas such as the appropriate use of Learn-ingSpace technology, appropriateness and

organization of content throughout thesemester, and use of online assessmenttechniques. Once a teacher completes theTLC training course, he or she can offer aNetCourse to VHS students.

How is the quality of teacher and stu-dent participation evaluated in aNetCourse?

Because they consist of databases andreside on a file server, the entire courseand all its interactions are archived andreviewed, both while the course is takingplace and after it has ended. While thecourse is in progress, VHS national officepersonnel evaluate teacher and studentattendance in the course, making sure thatall are fully participating. Assignments

How do we knowthese courses

are as good ascourses being taught

in high schools

across thecountry?

Virtual High School: vhs.concord.org VHS-3

LINKS ON THIS PAGETeachers Learning Conference—vhs.concord.org/Pages/Main+Office-Want+to+Join

Two Teachers Blast Off

Robert Erger is a science guy.Christine Voigt is a wordsmith.What do these two teachers havein common? –The planet Mars.

“It was our big dream that we couldhave a course that incorporated math, sci-ence and social studies,” explains Voigt,who is developing the cultural side of atwo-course vision that she and Erger arecreating in their VHS training course, theTeachers Learning Conference (TLC).Erger is a science teacher and Voigtdevelops curriculum at the ACT Acade-my in McKinney, Texas. They plan toteach their classes next year in VHS.

“There is so much history in the spacerace,” explains Erger, who came to teach-ing after 13 years as an engineer. Hiscourse, which he envisions running con-currently with Voigt’s, covers the scienceside of the equation and is called“BLASTOFF.” While his students arebuilding model rockets and solar cars,Voigt’s students will be studying our cul-tural fascination with space since theRenaissance in her class “From Earth toMars.” Occasionally their course contentwill overlap, such as when students readand discuss together the novel Contact.Both courses converge later in the year toplan the colonization of Mars, one fromthe math and science perspective, the

other from the perspective of its impacton the prevailing social culture of art,music and literature.

“The hardest thing for me is planninga whole year ahead of time,” explainsVoigt. For Erger the biggest challenge isthinking up ways to engage kids who willbe far away. “Some people, when theymove to teaching in a virtual environ-ment, think the same way. For me, it’s aparadigm shift.”

Voigt agrees. Asked if she could havedesigned her online course without takingthe TLC, she says, “I probably wouldhave thought that I could, but after beingin it, I have the perspective of the studentand what happens.”

Even though the time commitmenthas been considerable and the technicalchallenges occasionally daunting, they areexcited by teaching in VHS next year.

Says Erger, “When I see other teach-ers developing things, I’m jealous. I wish Iwas a kid.”

and media resources are evaluated. Stu-dent portfolios are reviewed to make surethey are kept up-to-date, so that studentscan always know the status and grades oftheir submitted work.

Once a course is completed, we evalu-ate the entire semester’s activities,including types of assignments, resourcematerials made available to students, dis-cussions, and all submitted student work.Without actually participating in class-room discussions, we can review them,evaluating whether there is student-to-student discourse or juststudent-to-teacher discussions, checkingto make sure that teachers and studentsare participating on a regular basis andthat their comments show an understand-ing of course content. Students are alsopart of the evaluation and review process.Students take online surveys at the end ofeach semester, giving teachers additionalfeedback about the course and the instruc-tional method.

This year, the VHS national officesworked with professionals from universi-ties and state departments of education todefine standards for online courses and tocreate a NetCourse Evaluation Board.These standards will be used to evaluatecourses during their development andimplementation, and then after the cours-es have been completed and archived. TheNetCourse Evaluation Board will bereviewing all archived VHS course offer-ings to suggest revisions before courses aretaught again.

The online NetCourse standards arebroken into two main categories: opera-tional and instructional standards.Operational standards define the environ-ment in which courses are taught and thepersonnel and technology resources thathigh schools should provide. Instructionalstandards are divided into three areas:pedagogical, assessment and curriculumstandards. Pedagogical standards define

how teachers teach in an online environ-ment. Does the teacher work to create avirtual learning environment in theCourseRoom? Are expectations for coursework clearly communicated to students?Have course materials and expectationsbeen adjusted for individual learningneeds? Does the teacher incorporate mul-timedia techniques in the NetCourse?Assessment standards define expectations

for how teachers should communicate tostudents their grades and the status ofsubmitted work. Are student portfolioskept updated? What feedback do studentsreceive about submitted work?

Curriculum standards address coursecontent. Online courses should have thefollowing characteristics: engageability,


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Page VHS-4 Virtual High School: vhs.concord.org

LINKS ON THIS PAGEForks—www.forks.wednet.edu Westborough—www.westborough.org Las Lomas—www.laslomas.acalanes.k12.ca.usMarlboro—www.marlborough.com/edu/high.html Fremont—www.infolane.com/k12/jfk

So you read that online teaching isthe wave of the future and youwant to try it. You take a class thatteaches you how to teach online. Youwork day and night designing a course.One day you find yourself with a virtualclassroom of twenty students spread outonline all across the country. You spendmonths putting into practice all thethings you learned about online collabora-tion, threaded discussion groups, andmultimedia presentations. At the end ofthe term, you pat yourself on the back,you’re an honest to goodness experiencedonline teacher. So how do you feel?

Exhausted! say many teachers.“Everything took more time than I

would have expected,” explains MarshaWest, who teaches WebQuest from ForksHigh School in Washington. Writing les-son plans, responding to questions,making assignments. The usual. But it alltakes place on the computer.

“For me, the hardest thing about actu-ally teaching a VHS course as opposed tothe theory of teaching a VHS course hasbeen juggling all those different things atthe same time,” says Susan Leavey, whoteaches photography in Marlboro, Mass.“Some days I have 30-40 comments,questions, assignments to try to keep upwith and answer on top of my teachingload and life as we know it.”

No doubt about it, for a VHS teachercommitted to teaching well, the timecommitment is considerable. So is theneed to be creative. How do I get stu-dents talking to each other? How do Idevelop rapport with students I can’t see?How do I get reluctant students torespond? How do I assess student workfrom a distance? What do I do about a

higher level questioning, critical thinking,problem-solving, hypothesizing, readingfor comprehension and interpretation,data collection, analysis, synthesis andevaluation. VHS NetCourses should bean opportunity for the student to master alimited number of concepts in depth,rather than many concepts at a minimallevel. Wherever possible, learning objec-tives should be mapped to nationalstandards, and an interdisciplinaryapproach is encouraged.

The development of an effectiveonline professional development model,rigorous evaluation of NetCourses before,during and after their implementation,and effective administration by VHSnational offices assures a satisfactory expe-rience in continuing years.

Virtual education can never replacethe social learning environment within aschool. However, virtual instruction canbecome another effective vehicle forstrengthening our instructional programsand course offerings.

By merging the best in instructionalpractice with the best in current technolo-gy, we can demonstrate the potential ofnetwork and information technologies inpublic education. But most important,VHS shows that public education canplace students at the forefront of knowl-edge and experience internationally andprepare them for the demands of eitherthe workplace or further education.

Liz Pape is the VHS administrator. For moreinformation on the TLC, see page [email protected]

Truth or Consequencescontinued from page VHS-3

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student who doesn’t come to class? “Itwas a humbling experience for me to havestudents fail regardless of what I tried todo,” says Leavey. But she also had some“great students who knocked my socks offwith the quality and thoughtfulness oftheir work.”

Teachers face other surprises in thevirtual classroom. “There’s far less roomfor ‘winging it’ for teachers in an onlineenvironment,” says Matt Huston, whotaught in Los Lomas High School, Calif.

Teachers like David Jost, who teachesmusic at Westborough High School inMassachusetts, believe that the VHSpreparatory class, the Teachers LearningConference (TLC), is essential for learn-ing new skills, but also for experiencing anonline course from the students’ point ofview. “It made me realize what the stu-dents were going through in my ownclass,” says Jost. “I was able to see howVHS actually looked and felt.”

“The TLC is where it’s at for anyonebeginning to work in this area,” agreesDavid Senecal, who teaches one of VHS’smost popular classes, Project Sail. “[TLC]gives you the training to utilize the soft-ware for developing your course and alsothe opportunity to create a methodologyfor delivering your class.”

Jerry Lapiroff has been watching all ofthis from somewhat of a distance. He is aVHS site coordinator in Fremont, Calif.,where he helps VHS students with theircourses. “I never expected that – even thefirst year – some students would find anonline course the best experience of theirhigh school careers,” he says.

So rest up, teachers. It may be a signof your success that student enrollment isexpected to double next year. @

All In a Day (and Night)Long Hours and Hard Lessons Online

LINKS ON THIS PAGEWomen’s Wheelchair Basketball—www.unomaha.edu/~brasile/usawomen.htm

Virtual High School: vhs.concord.org Page VHS-5

Jennifer Miramonte High School

Jennifer is a fierce competitor and conse-quently a world traveller. She was an alter-nate last year to the USA Women’sWheelchair Basketball team which wentto Australia, and she competed in the100m, 200m and 400m races at the 1998World Championships in England. Shereturned to Australia this April to competein the Junior National Wheelchair Games.Jennifer likes the freedom of VHS, but shehad to get used to emailing a question toher teacher and sometimes waiting a dayfor the answer. She is taking the VHScourse Introduction to Computer Pro-gramming, which she calls a “fun class,” inpart because she “wanted to go into a class

Who Are VHS Students?The high school students who sign up for VHS courses do it for many differentreasons and come from various backgrounds. Here are profiles of a fewfrom the Class of 1998-99.

VHS Parentsand the

Online Classroom

Online Newspaper Keeps

http://vhs.concord.org/Pages/Campus+Life-Newspaper

For the latest school buzz, point your browser to the online paper for VHS stu-

dents and faculty – VHSZine – where you’ll find interviews, personal stories,

politics, and poetry. “I would say that the number one objective of the newspaper

is to give the students and staff a chance to share with each other more than on a

strictly academic level,” explains Augusta Patterson, a graduate student at Marl-

boro College in Vermont, and editor of VHSZine. She and Storie Frost, who does

the web work, pull the paper together every few months.

Patterson works with a core group of seven student volunteers to write and edit

articles by students and staff. Everything from movie reviews to a discussion of the

NetCourse Evaluation Board can be found in the ‘Zine, which started in fall ‘98

and is now in its third addition. “We are hoping that as interest in the VHSZine

grows, it will serve as an alternative means of expression for all the people

involved with VHS,” says Patterson. Anyone interested in contributing to VHSZine

can contact her at: [email protected]

This spring over 500 students aretaking VHS courses. What do the par-ents think about the online coursestheir sons and daughters are taking?What are the special challenges forparents of online students?

Ruthanne Adams is in a uniqueposition to keep track of her daughterCaitlin’s participation in VHS. Adamsis a VHS teacher herself, in Massachu-setts. “I appreciate the ability to haveaccess to the assignments and day-to-day teaching that goes on,” explainsAdams. She regularly logs into theVHS site and views Caitlin’s contribu-tions and assignments. “I can attest tothe fact that my daughter has workedmore and harder on this English classthan any she had previously taken.”

Nancy Vachani, in California,agrees that her niece is more self-motivated in her VHS class than inother classes, and Vachani appreciatesthe diversity of classes availablebecause of VHS, but, she says, “I donot feel quite as connected to theclassroom work.” She finds it harderto gauge the amount of homework inthe class and the instructor’s teachingstyle when there is no back-to-schoolnight in which they can meet andtalk. She would like to see more directcommunication from the school orteacher about her niece’s progress inher VHS class, much like what shereceives from her regular classes.

Both Adams and Vachani are peri-odically frustrated with thetechnology, which sometimes seemsto thwart their best efforts to log into aclass. But they agree that, in Vachani’swords, “in general the pluses out-weigh the minuses.” They arecommitted to working out new waysof communication that can bring kids,as well as their parents, into theonline classroom.

that I knew would be full of boys andshow them that girls can succeed at pro-gramming as well.”

Charles Shrewsbury High School

After only two years Charles is what you’dcall a VHS veteran. “I was there from thevery beginning,” says Charles, who weath-ered the early days of server crashes andother glitches. “It took a lot of patience,but I made it through as a better person.”He first heard about something called an“online classroom” at an informationalmeeting at his school. “I learned that Vir-tual High School curriculum, althoughconducted over the Internet, was anythingbut centered on computers. In the end, itwas the courses that made up my mind on


Students and Teachers in Touch

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LINKS ON THIS PAGEShowcase—vhs.concord.org/Pages/Campus+Life-ShowcaseLearningSpace—www.lotus.com/learningspace

Page VHS-6 Virtual High School: vhs.concord.org

whether I would take Virtual HighSchool.” Over the past two years he’staken Earth 2525, A Model UN Simula-tion, and Business in the 21st Century.He’s currently enrolled in Web PageDesign. Although similar in content tohis regular classes, his VHS classes haveadded a whole new meaning to getting toclass on time, he says. “All of my classeswere occurring 24 hours a day. I some-times saw people passing in assignmentsand contributions to class discussion attwo in the morning.” He found himselfcarrying on serious discussions with otherstudents long after the class had movedon to other topics. As Charles explains,“Any person who states that communica-tion over the Internet is impersonal reallyhas no clue what he is talking about.”

Talib Hoover High School

Talib came to the United States fromPakistan looking for better educationalopportunities. He enrolled in HooverHigh School in Ohio his junior year andtook two VHS courses before graduatingand being accepted to Ohio State Univer-sity, where he is now a freshman.Although VHS offered him the freedomof coming to class on his own schedule, itturned out to be one of its biggest chal-lenges. “I think the hardest part of VHS isself responsibility,” he explains. “There isno physical teacher watching what you aredoing.” Talib also liked the variety ofclasses offered, and being an avidastronomer, he took Stellar Astronomy.“[VHS] is more like independent studyand it is more challenging,” he explains.Wanting to improve his web design skills,he enrolled in Writing Through Hyper-text and created a project on the provincesof Pakistan, which can be viewed in theShowcase section of the VHS web site.

VHS Studentscontinued from page VHS-5Not Chat

Not Emailby Marsha West

When people ask me how Vir-tual High School “works,”they almost always refer tochat lines or email. But VHS doesn’t de-pend on either of these. In educational-techno-speak we call LearningSpace a“collaborative, asynchronous environmentfor active learning”! In ordinary English,this means that students work together,but not necessarily at the same time, toplan and present their work – which mayinclude multimedia presentations, essays,research papers, creative writing, debates,seminars, or panel discussions – all thesame kinds of things they do in regularface-to-face school.

The one thing I have become moreaware of as a NetCourse teacher is thatthe VHS experience is more like a regularhigh school experience than it is different.You have to get to know your classmates.You have to risk sharing your ideas, exhib-it good communication skills, practicegood manners, learn to be flexible, developgood study skills, including time manage-ment and ethical use of source materials.You have to learn to communicate effec-tively with your teacher and your teacherhas to learn to communicate effectivelywith the class and appropriately with eachindividual student. You have to find aproper balance of formality and informality.

From the teacher’s point of view, thechallenge is to make the virtual classroomseem as real as any physical classroom –providing interesting and challenging as-signments, making meaningful connec-tions between different topics that comeup, modifying instructional techniqueswhen appropriate, being sensitive to the“teachable moments” that arise from

spontaneous interactions with studentsyou come to know well but never see. Oneof the most important goals in my class,WebQuest: a Literary Odyssey, which is amodification of an AP English course Ihave taught for nearly 20 years, is to fostercritical thinking skills and a mature levelof discourse in class.

In one discussion thread, the studentsmaintained a high level of energy over aconsiderable period of time. The com-ments ranged from casual to profound,but the general level of discourse was ex-traordinary for high school students –more typical, perhaps, of a college semi-nar. The students were able to communi-cate voice, personality, and tone in an all-text environment, which shows how dis-cussion in a NetCourse can be perhapseven better than in a face-to-face group.No one gets interrupted. Everyone has achance to reflect on what others have saidand formulate a thoughtful response. I trynot to dominate these discussions, but in-terject comments to raise issues, encourageparticipation, or just to make sure that Iam perceived as “being there.”

So it truly isn’t chat, which is notori-ously shallow and fosters sloppy thinking.And it isn’t email, which correspondsmore to passing notes in the back of theclass than it does to dialogue in a class-room. Conversation in LearningSpace iscollaborative; it is energizing; it aids learn-ing; it fosters accountability. It facilitatesthe use of higher level thinking skills andprepares students to be effective workersin the world’s online business environ-ment. And because all that discourse be-comes part of a permanent database, it isperhaps the best possible means of track-ing what actually goes on in a classroomfor the purpose of improvement of in-struction.

Marsha West is a VHS teacher at Forks HighSchool in [email protected]

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Virtual High School: vhs.concord.org Page VHS-7

101 Ways to Write a Short StoryA Model United Nations Simulation Using the InternetA Shakespeare Who-Dun-It Aeronautics and Space Travel and Record-breaking with

Model AirplanesAmerican Popular Music AP StatisticsAstronomy: Stars and the CosmosAtmospheric Interactions Aviation History Beyond Today Bioethics Symposium Biology II - A Second Year Course BLASTOFF – Building Lead Associate Scientists Through

On-line Fabulous FrontiersCalculus for Business Career Awareness for the New Millennium Computer Graphics on the InternetConnecting Mathematics and Science Through Technology Current Issues in Nutrition and HealthCyberReporting Democracy in America?Deutsches Cyberabenteuer (German Cyber Adventure) Chemistry II Earth 2525: A Time Traveler's Guide to Planet EarthEarth Dynamics Eastern and Western Thought: A ComparisonEmployability Skills Environmental EthicsEthnobotany Evolution and the Nature of ScienceEvolutionary Genetics with a Biotechnology Twist! Expanding Artistic Vision Through Photography Explorando culturas hispanas a través del InternetExploring America through its WritersExploring the International Business World Exploring the Wonderful World of Multimedia Exploring Themes in African-American Literature Folklore and Literature of Myth, Magic, and RitualFrom Earth to Mars: A Study in the Humanities of

Space Exploration Getting to Greatness: Composers and Their Music

with You as the Critic Heroes History and Science: There’s no divorce in this marriage History and the Silver Screen Informal Geometry: A Construction Approach Interdisciplinary French ThinkQuests International Diplomacy – A Simulation-Based Diplomatic

Exercise Introduction to BotanyIntroduction to Computer Programming Introduction to HTMLIntroduction to MicrobiologyIntroduction to Ornithology

Investing in the Stock Market Java Programming Basics Leonardo DiCaprio to Mel Gibson: Shakespeare in FilmsLogic, Deductive Reasoning and Proof Malaria: A Case Study for Understanding Biology Marketing With Probability Mathematical Problem Solving Music Appreciation and CompositionMusic Composition and Arranging Mythology – Stories from Around the World, from the

Beginning of Time, to the End of the Earth Narrating Family Histories Natural History of the Southeast: A Case Study of Georgia Number Theory: Patterns, Puzzles and Cryptography Oceans: Living Space for the FuturePáginas en la Red en Español (Spanish Web Pages) Paleontology: Exploring the Earth's Record of Life PeaceMaking Personal Finance Perspectives in Health Photography as Visual HistoryPolitical Science Honors Pre-Engineering and Design – A Problem Solving Approach Problem Solving – Fact or Fantasy Programming a Robot Arm Using Visual Basic Project SailResearch and Technology Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet StudiesSame as it Never Was: Viewpoints on What Really

Happened Throughout the Course of History Science Apprentice Teacher Scientific and Religious Perspectives on Life and

Intelligence Screenwriting FundamentalsSeminar in Women's Literature: “A Sense of Place" Southern Writers Space Technology On-Line Survey of African American Literature-History The American Music Heritage – Song and Society The Thinking You The Vietnam War There's Nothing New Under the Sun (or is there?) Three Tracks to Latin Time, Space, and Other Things To Kill a Mockingbird: Maycomb – Microcosm to the World Twentieth Century Women Authors – A Reflection of a

Changing America United States Government IssuesVisual Basic 6.0 Visual Physical Science Web WritingWebQuest: A Literary OdysseyWorld Area Studies/Current Events World Conflict – A United Nations Simulation World Literature on Film as it Reflects the Continental

Experience

VHS COURSES 1999-2000http://vhs.concord.org/Pages/Academics-Home

Page VHS-8

LINKS ON THIS PAGEMSSD—www.gallaudet.edu/~precpweb/pcpmssd.html American Sign Language—dww.deafworldweb.orgParticipating States—vhs.concord.org/Pages/About+Us-Where+is+VHS

tered were things that any VHS stu-dent might complain about: the servergoing down, having to wait for aresponse from a teacher to a postedquestion, or the cancellation of a class.One challenge for some deaf studentsis the fact that written English is like asecond language for them. AmericanSign Language is their first language.Consequently, some, but not all, mightneed help understanding the meaningof a statement or a word, much thesame way an ESL student would.

But these challenges were notinsurmountable. In fact, many studentsrelished the higher expectations.According to Ron Baldi, one of twoMSSD teachers who supervises theVHS students, “One of the most satis-fying things for me as a teacher isseeing our students succeed in a pro-gram with hearing students. The VHSprogram puts them on a fairly equalfooting as far as accessibility goes. . . .I’ve already seen carry over of experi-ences our students have gained in VHSinto the classes here at MSSD, whichhas enhanced their background knowl-edge of subject areas and improvedtheir performance in classes.”

Early on MSSD recognized that asthe first deaf school in VHS, they werethe pioneer of pioneers, and so theydecided to provide their students withadditional support: a site coordinatoras well as two supervising teachers.The extra support has paid off, andaccording to Mary Ellsworth, the otherMSSD supervising teacher, there arebenefits for everyone. “The studentshad an excellent experience with in-depth learning and real worldexpectations, which is very critical fortheir success in the future. I can think

of no better way to have them do it –connected, yet supported by the envi-ronment here at MSSD.” As a teachershe also has gained from observing thework of VHS teachers. “There are verycreative teachers in VHS modelingexcellent technique,” she says.

But there are things for VHSteachers to learn as well. An assign-ment that includes listening to musicor watching a movie can leave a deafstudent unable to participate. Ironical-ly, multimedia files, whose combina-tion of sound and visuals is generallytreated as a great leap forward inonline education, are a problem fordeaf students unless the file is alsocaptioned.

Although there have been somehurdles to overcome, MSSD remainscommitted to VHS. “The Virtual HighSchool project not only enables stu-dents to participate in an endeavor thatis reflective of future trends,” observes

Katherine Jankowski, the school’sdirector, “but allows them to partici-pate with their hearing peers from allover the United States on a level play-ing field.”

Barrett hopes that one day a DeafStudies class could be offered in VHSwhich would cover deaf culture andissues, including information on howinterpreters, TTYs, and sign languageare used. She also hopes that main-streamed deaf students, who may feelisolated in schools where there are notmany students like themselves, mightbe motivated and encouraged to par-ticipate in VHS if they knew therewere other deaf students in their class-es. “Just a thought,” Barrett says. Butthe idea of any deaf student joiningVHS was just a thought once, too.

Lee McDavid is director of communica-tions at The Concord [email protected]

TX

CA

WA

CO

PA

NC

MA

OHNJ

NH

VT

ID

MN

GAAL

MI

DCVA

NM

OR

KY

One hundred and ten schools in 19 states are expected to participate inthe Virtual High School next year. Enrollment is projected to top 2,000.

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Breaking the Sound Barriercontinued from page VHS-1

Participating States1999 - 2000HSS


LINKS ON THIS PAGEVirtual High School—vhs.concord.org INTEC—intec.concord.org

In Blueprint to the Digital Economy:Creating Wealth in the Era of E-Busi-ness, author Don Tapscott writes,“Every company will become an ‘educa-tion’ company or it will fail. If yourcompany doesn’t have plans to establish itsown ‘college,’ it is probably in trouble.”

As business becomes more global inscope, online education is being developedas a cost-effective vehicle for capturinginformation and training employees. Ascorporate teaching sites begin using net-work-based technology to deliver content,the pressure on traditional institutions ofhigher education to make similar changesincreases.

Industry is not the only source of pres-sure forcing education to adapt. Withinthe post-secondary education community,there is increased competition for stu-dents. Those institutions with distanceeducation programs have an advantage;they are not limited to enrolling studentsin their immediate geographic area. Otherchanges are reshaping the nature of educa-tion. Only one-fourth of theundergraduatepopulation fits thetraditional image:18-22 years old,attending full-time, and livingon campus. Therapidly growing stu-dent population is becoming olderand more diverse, and they are demandingflexible schedules and off-campus learningopportunities. The pressure is clearly onhigher education to change.

In an effort to respond, many colleges

and universities now require their facultyto participate in some form of what theyrefer to as “distance learning” or “onlineeducation.” These terms, which havebeen bandied about for some time, areused to describe everything from corre-spondencecourses andclassic tele-visiondeliveredlectures toemail-basedclasses andweb pages.The mostcommon online activity inhigher education today is the posting of aprofessor’s lecture notes to the Web,something which shouldn’t be calledonline education. A more appropriateterm is a “web-enhanced” course. Thismethod allows large numbers of studentsaccess to the information, but provideslittle or no opportunity for a collaborativeclassroom environment. While web-

enhancing a course canbe the first step inmoving to more inter-active distributedonline education struc-tures, there are manyhigher education facul-

ty who have yet to graspthe full potential of online

education.Change is taking place in public

schools as well. At one end of the spec-trum are virtual schools with the objectiveof providing a complete curriculum of

courses and a high school diploma to stu-dents who will never enter a brick andmortar school. At the other end of thespectrum, there are traditional schoolswho believe the role of technology ismerely to enhance traditional courses held

within thelocalschool.

Giventhe phe-nomenalgrowth ofonline edu-cation, it is

ironic thatthere is not yet a body of research

that can tell us just how effective onlineeducation is. Its detractors paint allapproaches with the same negative brush.But synchronous and asynchronous meth-ods should not be linked together anddiscussed as online education. There is asmuch variety of approach within each ofthose categories as there is across them.Nevertheless, the growth in online educa-tion will take place with or without theresearch. Those of us developing it arelooking at the anecdotal and practicalfeedback from the students and teachers asindicators of its success.

At The Concord Consortium, we runthe Virtual High School, whose philoso-phy is somewhere between the extremescurrently operating in public education.VHS, the largest virtual school in the pub-lic school arena, does not aspire tocompete with the local school curriculum,but seeks to augment course offerings with


Detractors paint all theapproaches to online educationwith the same negative brush.But synchronous and asynchro-nous methods should not be

linked together and discussedas online education.

Within the post-secondary educationcommunity, there isincreased competi-tion for students.

Speaking Up for Online EducationPressure Grows In Education to Define What It Is and What It Isn’t

by Raymond Rose


LINKS ON THIS PAGEINTEC—intec.concord.org VHS—vhs.concord.org

subjects that are not generally available inhigh school, courses such as ConnectingMathematics and Science Through Tech-nology, Environmental Ethics, andEthnobotany.

VHS students consistently report feel-ing closer to and better acquainted withtheir online teachers than with their localteachers. I have heard similar reportsfrom higher education faculty who teachonline courses. We also have had reportsthat VHS has kept potential dropoutsinterested in school. VHS teachers saythat their online teach-ing experiences havepositively affectedtheir face-to-faceteaching. On theother hand, asynchro-nous course delivery,which is the VHSmodel, consistentlyhas a 20% dropoutrate which needs to beinvestigated. Hearingimpaired students arecurrently participatingsuccessfully in VHS,but visually impaired stu-dents have hurdles to clear beforethey can join VHS. We are just beginningto explore the impact VHS is having oneducation. Clearly, the effectiveness ofnetcourses needs more research.

Another of our programs, INTEC,was proposed as an alternative to thesummer institute version of professionaldevelopment familiar to many teachers.INTEC’s development was based onschool improvement research and thedirect experience of online instructors.The resulting seminar-based modelrequires small, local teams of teachers,who participate in occasional face-to-face

gatherings, to also take part in substantialonline discussion with participants instudy groups at distant sites. Only thelocal study group meeting is synchronous(everyone meets at the same time). Theonline course segment is constructedaround the seminar (netseminar) model aswell, with participants taking an activerole in discussions. To do this, activitiesrequire participants to work on the samecontent during the same time period,something we call scheduled asynchro-nous instruction.

INTEC has been successful in pro-viding a quality professional developmentexperience for a large number of teachers.

There are significantonline discussionstaking placebetween teachersacross the country.It is clear that theproject is having animpact on teachingand learning. ButINTEC has alsoexperienced anattrition rate that ishigher than theaverage for asyn-chronous courses.

We need to do moreresearch to address this

important issue.Both INTEC and VHS

are on the bleeding edge of online coursedelivery. Many people watched and wait-ed to see what would happen, whileothers joined in. Online education is hereto stay, and we look forward to discover-ing its full potential for expandingeducational opportunities.

Raymond Rose is vice president of TheConcord Consortium and director of theEducational Technology [email protected]

million to $1.5 billion a year. Anotherway to look at that savings is that ifonly a fraction of that money wereused to research, test, develop, andadapt FOSS to education uses, thequality and suitability of softwarewould improve enormously.

If this software required less sup-port, less teacher training, and ran onless expensive computers, these savingswould be higher still. If the availabilityof quality Free Open Source Softwareincreased student, teacher, parent, andcommunity acceptance and use oftechnology, the positive results wouldbe incalculable. These gains could beimportant to many schools, but at poorschools and schools in developingcountries it might make the differencebetween having and not having ade-quate educational resources to preparestudents for the Information Age.

Robert Tinker is president of The ConcordConsortium. [email protected]

New Technologycontinued from page 7

@

@


VHS students consistently report

feeling closer to andbetter acquaintedwith their onlineteachers than with

their local teachers.I have heard similarreports from highereducation faculty whoteach online courses.


LINKS ON THIS PAGESidney Harris—www.sciencecartoonsplus.com @CONCORD Winter 1998—www.concord.org/library/newsletter.htmlStandards—www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/nses/html/overview.html#organization Genscope—genscope.concord.org

by Paul Horwitz

graphics for communication. Isn’t itodd that none of this has altered whatwe assess, or how?

Here at The Concord Consortiumwe hope to change that. Well, not all atonce, of course, but we think we maybe able to take a first step.

For years now, the folks in ourModeling Center have been creatingfun, computer-based environments thathelp students learn to “think like scien-tists” by giving them manipulablemodels of real objects. They can buildrocket ships that travel at close to thespeed of light, or fiddle with genes andwatch an organism change. They canwonder how the speeding knight isgoing to squeeze his foreshortenedlance between the doors of the barn, ortry to guess the color of an invisibledragon by observing its offspring.These puzzles are hard, but not toohard. They take a long time to do, butnot so long that kids get frustrated.They are fun, but not mindless fun –they reliably provide the “Aha!” experi-ence that is the basis of all goodteaching. They make marvelous assess-ment items.

GenScope™ is a manipulable modelof genetics. It offers students represen-tations of genetic information atmultiple levels, from DNA to popula-tions. It lets them manipulate thisinformation and observe the effects oftheir interventions. It has been usedsuccessfully from middle school to col-lege to help students reason aboutobservable phenomena in terms ofunderlying causes that are not directlyperceivable. (See @CONCORD Winter1998 for a description of GenScope.)

Imagine using GenScope to deter-mine whether a student has learnedgenetics. What would you do? Onepossibility would be to give the student

“active” assessments that engage stu-dents in authentic problem solvingactivities but can be easily scored. Todo this, we must be able to monitor,record, and react to student actions,provide them with help when neces-sary, and confront them with probingquestions in the context of a sustained,constructive task.

Technology may offer an answer.Computers are dramatically changingnot only how we teach but what weconsider it important to teach. It issurely no coincidence, for example, thatour current emphasis on cognitive andcommunication skills coincides withthe imminent onset of an informationage in which such skills will presum-ably increase in importance. Hand inhand with this “cognitive tilt” in educa-tion have come new ways of usingcomputers to teach students how toreason from data, how to make andrevise mental models, and how to use

How To Assess What We Teach

Imagine that you are a pianoteacher and you want to find outwhether your students are learninghow to play the piano. Do you (1) havethem play the piano for you, (2) givethem a multiple-choice test, or (3) askthem to write a 600 word essay onpiano playing?

If you picked the first choice, con-sider the way we decide whether ourstudents have learned science. We givethem several hundred completely unre-lated questions and ask them to pickthe “right” answer from four confusing-ly similar ones. And we require thatthey do this in a time period carefullycalibrated to be too short for usefulreflection, much less serious problemsolving.

We profess to value inquiry skills,but we test for recall of knowledge andmastery of superficial heuristics. Thisat a time when the National ScienceEducation Standards assert that “ratherthan checking whether students havememorized certain items of informa-tion, assessments need to probe forstudents’ understanding, reasoning, andthe utilization of knowledge.”

Why do we do this? Leaving asidewhatever social forces may be at workto retain the status quo, it is undeniablydifficult to assess reasoning and inquiryskills on a passive test. How do yougauge a student’s ability to think whenyour only input is the answers to anendless list of questions? How does onereward curiosity on a multiple choicetest?

What we need is a way to create

The Inquiry Dilemma


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