iZone

New York City is experimenting with new tools and tactics with its Innovation Zone, a devoted unit for trying out new approaches to learning and sharing best practices with like-minded educators. The iZone, as it’s commonly called, started in the 2010-11 school year with 81 schools, and since then, they’ve more than doubled that number and hope to reach 400 participating schools by 2014.

Schools across the system are trying out different learning approaches, including blended learning, online courses and project-based teaching. As with the most lofty aspirations of educators, the iZone’s goals are to personalize learning, provide real-world experience, change the ways staff and students view their roles and take advantage of the vast number of tools available to students and teachers.

The iZone serves as a hub for innovation taking place at school sites. Staff support schools with funding for equipment, connecting teachers to resources and one another, as well as serving as the repository for the growing body of knowledge about progressive approaches. Though the project is still young, this program has made a dent in differentiating learning, according to Deputy Chancellor for Talent, Labor and Innovation, David Weiner.

For example, in participating high schools, the 35-40 percent of students who are taking an online English Language Arts class are passing the state’s Regents test at the same rate as students in traditional classrooms.

Another example is the Global Technology Preparatory, which has been part of the iZone from the beginning. Founded in 2009, the middle school is universal title one, meaning that most kids get free or reduced lunch. About 40 percent of their students are special-ed and many are behind grade level. In this school, every child has a laptop and students have access to many outside resources to help supplement their school day.

[RELATED READING: New York City Schools’ Blended Learning Experiment]

All this tech equipment and professional development takes money, of course, and most of the funding has come from networking and fundraising by the school’s principal Chrystina Russell, who has courted high-tech companies for funds and computers, has partnered with community-based organizations, and supported her teachers through the sometimes rough process of experimenting with new teaching techniques.

“Our students have a ton of potential and also a lot of need,” Russell said. “So in my mind it’s the only way to go.” Global Tech Prep’s school day runs until 6:30 p.m. because of a partnership with Citizen Schools, an after school enrichment program in which eighth-grade students learn about networking and visit workplaces through a partnership with the Council of Urban Professionals; and all students take college trips to help build a college-going culture with support from College For Every Student.

Still, in the classroom teachers face the same challenges of bringing under-prepared kids up to grade level.

Jhonary Bridgemohan, who teaches sixth-grade Language Arts at Global Tech Prep, has been experimenting with various software programs and web tools. She uses Achieve3000, partly because she finds it helps create a culture of reading to assign an article everyday, and it gets kids accustomed to non-fiction, a big part of the common core standards.

iZone

“You do have these moments when they’re checked out, but then you have these articles that spur that ‘Wow, I want to know more’ moments,” Bridgemohan said. She thinks Achieve3000 is benefiting her students, though it is far from perfect.

Bridgemohan also uses simpler tools that she finds very effective – like Google docs. Most of the students write in Google docs, so she can easily keep track of assignments and give real-time feedback on their writing.

“Once they write something out it’s really hard to get them to go back and edit, but if they can see their work as a work-in-progress they see it more as a process,” Bridgemohan said. “And I’m part of that process with them.” The online tool also gives students a chance to innovate in their own right, something their teacher loves to watch. “Seeing them interact and be creative with the tools they have access to is really cool,” she said.

[RELATED: What Online Tools Work for Teaching Language Arts?]

Like many teachers experimenting with blended learning methods, Bridgemohan doesn’t have it all figured out yet. She’s still refining her approach, trying new software, and ditching the things that don’t work. She’s found some success with Study Island for skill review because she can give them a lesson that they go back and review as they do the work. She finds it especially useful for grammar skills like comma usage and for sentence structure and organization tips.

Global Tech Prep also has new grading software called Jupiter Grades, which has been branching into online testing. Bridgemohan has experimented with the software to give online tests, hoping to save herself some grading time. Still, her advice to any teacher dabbling in classroom technology is to take it slow.

“I think it’s important to not do it all together,” she said. “There are a lot of options and it can get overwhelming.” Various platforms have their own logins and passwords, which can be a headache. It’s a lot to get used to and Bridgemohan still uses traditional classroom techniques, like journal writing, reading out loud, and in-class discussion. She tries to use the technology when it saves time or helps a student focus, but doesn’t stress over incorporating it into everything.

SUPPORT FROM THE TOP

Russell is supportive of teachers like Bridgemohan who are trying new things, even within a cutthroat evaluation system that judges the school and its educators by limited metrics. “It can be really hard for the leader to shield the teacher from those traditional measures so that they can feel free to innovate,” Russell said. The spirit of innovation is not system-wide and thus teachers and principals still fear for their jobs if they can’t show improvement on tests.

Luckily, Russell and Bridgemohan have the support and guidance of other educators in New York. Many teachers across the country feel alone as they try to take advantage of new tools to improve their teaching, and their learning never gets shared with local peers. Perhaps one of the iZone’s biggest strengths is providing that type of community to its most forward-thinking educators.

Flickr: shersh

Online learning in K-12 classrooms has gotten some bad press recently. The articles portray low-quality computer programs replacing teachers in a short-sighted effort to cut costs.

That simplistic portrayal does not address the whole picture. “It’s a lot more complicated than that,” says Cheryl Vedoe, CEO of Apex Learning, a digital curriculum provider in both traditional and virtual classrooms.

For one thing, saving money is not the priority for more schools.

Arthur VanderVeen, CEO of New York City’s iZone, for instance said that “cost savings are not the first appeal here. They’re not that real. If student-teacher ratios are the same, then [costs are] no different.” At iLearnNYC, the iZone’s online learning program, costs are the same. That may change in the future, though. There may be other cost savings, VanderVeen says, when “digital resources become cheaper than textbooks and when users and schools can create their own content.” Also, “a school that might offer a class to a small number of students can now aggregate students from across schools” for that class.

I asked Apex Learning’s Cheryl Vedoe to talk about the specifics of online learning: the costs, when it works, and what makes it successful.

Q: Do online courses reduce costs for schools?

A: There are several different aspects to that. In a virtual school environment where students are at a distance from their teacher, it is often the case that an online teacher is engaged with an average of 180 students each semester. That sounds like a huge number, but a typical teacher in a high school teaches six class periods per day with average of 30 students per period. That actually adds up to 180 students. You have to be careful about the data a little bit. It’s true that an online teacher will be working simultaneously with 180 students, but so will a classroom teacher.

The other thing about reducing cost: Nationally, we have a dropout rate of 30 percent, and approximately 50 percent of students who go on to college need remediation. The reality is a teacher in a traditional model is challenged to help every student in the class be successful. A digital curriculum can help teachers more effectively individualize learning. Where do the cost savings come in? You don’t need remediation programs, credit recovery programs, after school, or summer programs at the same level of magnitude. So, we do think there’s opportunity for cost savings here, but it’s not necessarily by having one teacher teach more students. It’s by supporting the teacher in being more effective with a higher percentage of students.

Q: How does digital learning differ from traditional learning practices?

A: I think the most significant factor is that when students are engaged in a digital curriculum they are having an individualized experience. Teachers have a set of standards they have to cover and they have a set time period in which they must cover it. With a textbook, every student is doing the same thing every day. The teacher, out of necessity, teaches to the middle of the class. The kids who could be accelerating have to be held back, and the kids who need more time to be successful don’t have that time. Struggling students in a typical classroom just get lost. They can’t keep up. Approximately two-thirds of high school students are below proficient in reading and math. You’re going to have a number of students in your class who need more support. A single teacher doesn’t have bandwidth to do that. And if a student is capable of accelerating and can’t, they become bored.

In an online course, you can have individualized pacing. You’re able to integrate media to incorporate different learning styles, such as audio, video, and animation — multiple ways in which to learn and master a concept. For a traditional classroom teacher who’s teaching six classes a day at 30 students per class, I really question whether it’s a realistic expectation to ensure the success of all students.

Q: Is there an age that works best for online learning?

A: If you look at what’s being done in elementary versus middle and high schools, you’ll see different uses of online learning. In high school, comprehensive online courses are a good fit. At Apex Learning, our focus is on high school and on supporting middle school students in the transition from middle school to high school.

But 300,000 students enrolled full time in virtual schools last year and 80 or 85 percent of the students in full time virtual charter schools are actually K-8 students. The smaller percentage are in high school.

Q: Are online courses less rigorous than traditional courses, as the recent New York Times article implies, particularly when it comes to credit recovery?

A: Different school districts take different approaches to credit recovery. Credit recovery is not new, but in the past the only option schools had was to have the student repeat the course. This was typically unsuccessful. If they failed it the first time, they might fail it the second time using that model. But they might succeed in a different model. Online courses provide an individualized experience. Students can go quickly through the material and only take time when they need to work on specific skills.

On the question of rigor: Our courses are often viewed as too rigorous by the schools. One of the things the New York Times article pointed to was that the student wasn’t required to a read a work of literature. We do require that, but school districts don’t always choose to implement the entire curriculum. So, implementation can make a big difference.

Q: How would you respond to the assertion that online learning replaces teachers with technology?

A: I would say that it depends on the online courses and the implementation of the online courses. There are models in which that is exactly what happens. Not all online courses are the same and not all implementations are the same. For example, when we design and develop our online courses, we assume that there is a highly qualified certified teacher actively engaged with students. Our courses are in no way a substitute for a teacher. What they do is change the role of the teacher somewhat.

We once thought of the teacher as standing up in front of the class and delivering content and handing out quizzes and grading work. But what a teacher does while teaching an online course is interact one-on-one with every student, making sure each student is successfully moving through the course. And because of the data available in an online environment, a teacher is able to identify when a student needs help and provide that student with tailored support.

Flickr: fabrice caduc

Online learning is on the rise, particularly in blended learning environments, as educators find ways to leverage the specific advantages of both virtual and traditional classrooms.

New York City Department of Education’s iZone is taking the lead with iLearnNYC, a virtual learning pilot program that allows participating students to take Advanced Placement (AP) classes and recover missed credits online (using certified, NYC public school teachers certified in their subject areas), as well as experiment with digital technologies in a mix of face-to-face and online platforms.

Forty-two of the city’s public schools are currently trying it out, and that number will jump to 125 for the 2011-2012 academic year.

I spoke with Arthur VanderVeen, CEO of the iZone, who sees iLearnNYC as a key component of the iZone’s effort to “redesign schools around the needs, motivation, and strengths of individual students.”

Still, he stresses, this is a program that the New York City Department of Education is tracking vigorously. While online learning sounds convenient and exciting, it’s important that schools and districts interested in launching similar pilots do it with care.

“Online and blended learning are growing at a tremendous pace, and have a high potential for accelerating student learning through personalization,” explains VanderVeen. “They combine the ability to allow students to move at their own pace while bringing them together around engaging projects. But it’s a district’s responsibility to ensure that it’s being implemented in a thoughtful, planned way.”

Other points he made about iLearnNYC:

It increases student access to advanced courses. “In many cases, schools don’t have the staff or resources to offer many AP courses or electives, like foreign languages. This is a way for us to meet student needs more flexibly. Several schools are now sharing AP teachers, for instance. When one school has a resource and another school doesn’t, we can equalize access to quality. East Bronx Academy has a very strong AP English teacher who’s teaching about 12 students face-to-face using an online course blended model. The iSchool, in Manhattan, has 8 students who are synchronously meeting via Skype with the Bronx school twice a week.”

It creates alternatives for students to recover credits from failed courses. “The benefit of online credit recovery is that allows you to be much more flexible and proactive with students who aren’t successful in traditional models. During the school day, students are working on courses they’ve previously failed. They have regular access to that teacher for support for that course. We’re looking at ways to have online instructors support students at more than one school, and, if a student is clearly failing a third of the way into the year, putting them into an online credit recovery course to focus on their areas of need before the year is over.

Some students perform better when there’s less distraction. When we go out to schools and talk to these kids, we hear that in traditional classrooms, they’re impacted by disruptions, distractions, and how they get along with a teacher. It’s not always an environment for success. Now, they can focus, and they do — at their own pace.”

Teacher training and school support is vital to the success of these kinds of programs. “This is a significant shift in the instructional model. We have to invest in developing teachers’ abilities to use these tools effectively. Participants in iLearnNYC go through an application process; schools have to articulate how will this will help them achieve their goals for students. [Once a school has been selected], managers are assigned to networks of schools to engage with the principal and leadership team of each school to align the program to strategic goals, the professional development needs of their teachers, and identifying the right students for each course.

These programs are replicable, but not a panacea. “[iLearnNYC] is definitely replicable, especially since the technology is getting more accessible and interoperable. A big piece we’re pushing with all of our vendor partners is developing common standards for sharing content across platforms; I think that’s going to be a critical change in the industry. But districts can’t assume this is a panacea in times of hard budgets. Online courses still require strong teachers with new media instructional skills.

Cost savings are not the first appeal here. In fact, they’re not that real. The highest cost in education is your staff. If student-teacher ratios are the same, then costs are the same. But a school that might offer a class to a small number of students because they’re committed to offering a range of courses can now aggregate students from across schools. There are also efficiencies to be gained around content, as digital resources become cheaper (as opposed to textbooks).”

iLearnNYC will publish results of the pilot in order to support and advise programs like this in New York and elsewhere. “We are implementing this within a very strong evaluation framework. We are carefully tracking the students who are taking these courses, whether blended or online. We’ll be comparing their outcomes on state tests, AP tests, college-going rates, and qualitative measures, like student engagement, comfort with technology, and other impacts of the program on students, and will quickly adjust where we need to change our practice. To share more widely with the field, we’ll be publishing our results regularly. We’re committed to doing this right and understanding whats working and what’s not.”