Transforming Education
In our generation, innovation transforms the way we buy, sell, learn, and interact. Amazon.com revolutionized the retail industry. iTunes modernized the music industry. E-Learning is transforming education in America.
Access to high quality educational content via the internet now overcomes the primary obstacle to student achievement. Global Student Network, for example, provides over 95 superbly developed and fully aligned courses via the internet. No books, no pens, no papers. Education delivered anywhere an internet connection exists.
Virtual education allows students to access courses beyond those offered at their brick-and-mortar school. Students aren’t limited by what is offered at their particular school. Nor are they limited to the traditional brick-and-mortar school hours or school schedules. Global Student Network provides curriculum to public and private schools throughout the world. Many of those schools operate year round, have open enrollment, and allow students to work at the pace that is perfect for them, whether that pace is accelerated or more eased.
Economically feasible, Global Student Network’s Learning Management System’s world-wide availability enables educators to provide a customized education for each student by tailoring lessons and teaching techniques to complement different learning styles. This child-centered approach allows students to learn at their own pace, whether it is faster or slower than their peers. Success could be measured by the mastery of skills rather than time in seats.
Global Student Network is ahead of the curve. Since it was founded as a leading provider of a public school district’s online curriculum, GSN’s online curriculum has been used in over 250 school districts nationwide, and by students in 50 states and 28 countries. Despite these tremendous accomplishments, the nation is nowhere close to reaching maximum potential in the area of virtual education.
As part of the $787 billion spending package authorized this spring, Education Secretary Arne Duncan gets $5 billion to spend on projects that will transform America’s education system. Called the ”Race to the Top Fund,” the money is meant to pay for innovations that improve student achievement and ultimately revolutionize our economy and workforce for the 21st century.
These federal dollars may provide the path for jump-starting dramatic change in the way education is delivered. As Clay Christensen and Michael Horn, authors of Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns, recently suggested, let’s leverage these funds wisely by bolstering innovation in schools, increasing access to online learning environments and investing in bandwidth as school infrastructure.
The success of this bold reform will require the support of many different stakeholders with diverse and often competing interests that have a vested interest in the status quo, including content providers, textbook publishers and teachers’ unions.
For technology to truly take hold in public school classrooms across the country, state and local leaders must address issues today that could prevent this revolution of our educational system in the future. School funding formulas must be modernized from seat-time to outcome-based models. Antiquated rules, such as certain certification requirements that effectively bar high-quality teachers from educating in virtual classrooms, must be revised. Most important, all students — public, charter, private and home school — must be able to access quality virtual content.
Technology shouldn’t be merely a resource used periodically in classrooms, but the primary mechanism of transforming our education system into a 21st century model of student-centered learning. From access to customization to superior content, technology may be the key to helping us keep the promise of a quality education for every American student, but transformation must commence now.
For more information on how your school can begin this transformation to the E-Learning promise of tomorrow, go to: www.GlobalStudentNetwork.com/school