Investigating Student Perceptions and the Effectiveness of K-12 Blended Learning Communities

While the growth of blended learning environments in higher education and non-educational settings has continued to increase in recent years, this has not been the case in K-12 settings. Recently, in an effort to explore the viability and effectiveness of K-12 blended learning environments, Florida Virtual School (FLVS) has been piloting blended learning communities in a number of their schools, providing opportunities to explore factors that influence the effectiveness of K-12 blended learning communities. Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to report the results of a study designed to assess conditions that influence the effectiveness of K-12 blended learning communities, and to explore learner, instructor, course, and other factors important to successful blended learning communities. Findings will inform the design, development, and implementation of future K-12 blended teaching and learning environments in an effort to support and strengthen student achievement, the preparation of teachers to facilitate effective blended learning environments.

Virtual School Counseling

The advent of virtual schools opens doors to opportunity for delivery of student services via the Internet. Through the use of structured interviews with four practicing Florida virtual school counselors, and a follow-up survey, the authors examined the experiences and reflections of school counselors who are employed full time in a statewide virtual school. Findings highlight how virtual school counselors differ in their activities from traditional school counselors. This article presents implications for practice, training, and future research.

Implications of Virtual Schooling for Socialization and Community

This article discusses virtual schools. It examines reasons for their growth, and relates criticism and support of virtual schools to the purposes of schooling. In particular, the notions of socialization, values, affective objectives and the future needs of communities are examined. This article discusses the measurement and importance of values and socialization in a school system where virtual schools are valued, and concludes that more attention must be given to these issues as this schooling mode matures. Virtual schools are a variant of distance education whereby students use online computers for some or all of their schooling. Russell (2004) suggests that they may be categorized in terms of the amount of face-to-face interaction, as the range of virtual schools now available includes the following: 1. Those offering some virtual classes at conventional schools. 2. “Out-of-school” models, where there is no designated school building and students never attend a face-to-face class. 3. Mixed-mode examples, where students are expected to work online from home or elsewhere, but attend some face-to-face sessions such as sport or social activities. Variation can also be seen in the experiences offered to students in the online component of their course. Some schools, such as the Virtual Schooling Service in Queensland, Australia (VSS 2003), rely principally on synchronous interaction in the timetabled classes of conventional schools. Other schools, such as Florida Virtual School in the United States (U.S.), use asynchronous methods to enable greater flexibility. The Florida Virtual School uses the motto of “Teaching Any Time, Any Place, Any Pace” (Johnson 2004). The experiences that students will receive within the online component of their virtual schools also vary. An examination of virtual school Web sites and reports, including the California Virtual School Report (2000), Virtual High School (Kozma, Zucker, Espinoza, McGee, Yarnell, Zalles, & Lewis, 2000) and Florida (Florida High School Evaluation, 2002) indicate a range of environments. These include Web pages, chat rooms, online discussion groups and e-mail. In addition, some schools retain predecessor technologies such as telephone, post and audio and videotapes—or combinations of technologies that seem appropriate. It is difficult, if not impossible, to compare student experiences where the technological provision is so disparate

Teaching Any Time, Any Place, Any Pace

With the launch of six courses in January 1997, Florida Virtual School (FLVS) became a new resource for all students in Florida. FLVS teachers, developers of the online curriculum, experimented with innovative ways of encouraging students to be responsible learners. In the virtual classroom, teachers soon discovered that frequent communication with students and parents reaped tremendous rewards. In this chapter, the reader will see inside the teaching process at Florida Virtual School as the following essential characteristics of online teaching are highlighted: communication, teamwork, flexibility, student-centered learning, and love of students. Using technology as a tool to design and deliver curriculum and instruction, the virtual learning environment mirrors the technological world that students live in today and will work in tomorrow. Virtual education changes the way teachers teach and interact with each other, with students and with parents. Virtual educators are reshaping the routine learning modes of the traditional school day to a dynamic, interactive real-world learning environment that presents choices to parents and students and requires students to take ownership of the learning process.

Instructional Design Factors and Requirements for Online Courses and Modules

The nature of digital content and tools, coupled with the communications capabilities available through online instruction, can, if leveraged properly, provide opportunities for quality instructional delivery. This chapter proposes that — even in an environment of remote, asynchronous, web-based instruction — approaches and the best of effective classroom practices may not be sufficient to address the full range of capabilities the technology provides. Through work done by IBM and the Florida Virtual School (FLVS), principles and models for leveraging the advantages offered by the technology environment and overcoming the difficulties inherent have been worked out in ways that offer significant promise to all providers of virtual schooling.