Last week Ohio celebrated Digital Learning Day with a proclamation from Governor Kasich, testimony from Ohio students, and a visit from a high-profile digital learning expert.
Governor Kasich’s proclamation hit on a key reality: “Education has yet to realize the potential of effective use of technology in delivering personalized learning to every child.”
Part of the process of tapping in to this potential is to understand more about this new frontier. Digital Learning Day was an important step forward in this regard. Thanks to the work of state leaders, including the KnowledgeWorks Foundation’s Lisa Duty, we heard wonderful stories, national trends, and data sharing.
These presentations got us thinking about the possibilities of digital learning. We could look back one day and chuckle at the ways things used to be. I imagine a conversation something like this:
Remember when …
… students all had to move at the same pace in all their classes even if they were way ahead or way behind?
… teachers learned Spanish from teachers who barely knew Spanish themselves and couldn’t take classes from fluent, native speakers?
… “World Studies” classes didn’t involve any video chats with classes in other countries?
… students couldn’t take 2 classes they really wanted if the schedules conflicted?
… students went home for the summer and then had to spend the first 25% of the next year re-learning what they forgot during the summer?
… teachers had to do professional development en masse, even if it wasn’t relevant for them?
… schools had to buy all new history textbook sets after major historical/geographic events?
… students would pass a grade based on their age instead of what they knew? And when passing to the next grade level was all or nothing?
… the state had to wait 3 months to process students’ standardized tests? And teachers didn’t find out their test scores until the next year when the new students had already arrived?
… teachers had to be in the same state as their students and the best teachers could only teach 25 students at a time?
… students couldn’t get personalized attention because the teacher had to teach 25 students at a time?
One of our top policy priorities as an organization is to advance flexibility for students to access a range of high quality digital learning options. KnowledgeWorks lays out some of the barriers we face here in Ohio – we have some work to do.
We are looking forward to working with other innovators to knock down some of these barriers to help schools begin building the next generation of learning.