Distance learning can be disruptive

According to the Springdale Morning News’s article “Distance learning takes off, hits political arena”:

An Arkansas high school student conceivably could earn almost all credits to graduate without ever meeting a teacher, a surprise to some legislators who believe face-to-face interaction is an integral part of learning.

Last school year, more than 10,000 students in 40 percent of the 251 public school districts across the state received at least a portion of their instruction through what is called distance learning. Students unable to get the courses they needed at their own schools were taught history, foreign languages and advanced placement courts through Internet correspondence courses or interactive video hookups where students and teachers can actually see and talk with each other.

These issues have become contentious in the Arkansas gubernatorial race, and also will likely hit home with anyone living in rural America where populations continue to decline and schools struggle to remain open. Also according to the article:

Bryant officials contend, among other things, that it would cost more than $1 million to keep open the Paron campus, which has struggled to meet state curriculum standards. State law requires that every high school teach all required units every year. The district says it has the money to pay teachers but has had problems hiring instructors to work in Paron, located in rural northern Saline County about 30 miles northwest of Bryant and 30 miles west of Little Rock.

In this current debate, I agree with Asa Hutchinson, the Republican gubinatorial nominee, who:

…described distance learning as “an important tool that can help our rural schools survive, be strong and meet the important standards of a quality education for all our young people.”

He said he wants distance learning available to all schools, including those in rural or isolated areas and in the Delta where getting qualified teachers to teach some courses might be difficult.

Is distance learning a panacea to the challenges which face public education, and specifically those which are unique to rural schools? Certainly NOT, anymore than just giving laptops to all students and teachers would solve all of education’s ills. We have issues with headware and mindware, more than software and hardware. The real challenge in all this is helping the digital immigrants– teachers, administrators, board members, legislators, and others– understand the potentials, powers, and uses of technology to help TEACH DIFFERENTLY and engage students authentically in the learning process. This is the sea change we need in our educational culture, and the one I think many of us are actively supporting.

The other Arkansas gubernatorial candidate, Mike Beebe has stated:

“We don’t need any more consolidation, but everyone should meet the standards and distance learning is a tool but should never be utilized to take away from what the standards are that the Legislature, the court and Gov. Huckabee have already determined are essential for an adequate education,”

Certainly consolidation is a very politically sensitive issue, but that fact is that more IS needed in many rural areas where adjacent districts with less than 200 students are both paying around 70K (at least) for different superintendents, and also duplicating many other services.

Two other quick thoughts this raises:

Just what is “an adequate education” these days, anyway? This is an essential legal question in the ongoing political fights in Texas over school finance. That would be a good title for a book, btw. “An Adequate Eduation for the 21st Century.” You can bet that looks a lot different than it did in the 1800s, yet I think many in our society today are in denial of this.
This article is a clarion call for statewide, national, and international collaboration via distance learning. Kids in Arkansas need a Spanish teacher? Someone across the state or across the nation can and should be able to teach them. Are we setup in all states for those types of collaborative coordination? I don’t think so, but that’s another goal we should collaboratively seek to achieve.

These are conversations we need to be having, and the role of distance learning in this context is and can be powerfully constructive. The essential question should be, however, not “How do we use distance learning to help kids consume and regurgitate all this content so they can get the high school credits then need?” but rather “How can distance learning technologies be used to engage students in an authentic learning process EVEN BETTER than the traditional, face-to-face educational experience in which all the participants in this debate are steeped?”

How many of these legislators have taught a class online, or even been a student in an online class? Just teaching once online or taking one online class does not make someone an online learning expert, but it certainly helps develop an intelligent and informed perspective about these things. Like it our not, distance learning (or as Dr. Chris DeDe prefers to call it, “distributed learning” is here to stay, and we need to embrace the change rather than hide or reject it.

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