Notes from 47th International STC Conference
Orlando, Florida, May 21-24, 2000

Designing Distance Education for Florida High School Students

Debra Chamberlin and Kate Brown
The Florida High School

The speakers are specialists in the development of online curriculum as well as full-time teachers for The Florida High School.

Session Description: This demonstration covered how curriculum designers and instructors for The Florida High School developed and implemented a statewide distance education program for secondary school students.

Examples of Online Curriculum: Available at The Curriculum Showcase.

• According to Tom Peters, corporations will deliver 70% of all education by 2010.
• Value Line predicts that the distance learning market will grow from $350M to over $2B by 2003. It's an idea whose time has come.
• The video "The Farthest Horizons" presented an 8-minute overview of The Florida High School.
   
• Idea was to couple SMEs and proven teachers to design cutting-edge curriculum to launch the online secondary education initiative in Florida.
• Curriculum is keyed to Florida benchmark performance standards.
• Theme-based activities are the engines that pull the "freight" of skills development.
• Motto: "Any time, any place; any path, any pace."
• Audience is diverse.
   
• Distance education is connecting communities.
• Audience spans 66 of Florida's 67 counties, from urban to rural.
• There is a wide range of educational needs and varying degrees of proficiency in technology. Access to computer hardware/software and the Internet is essential.
• Growth rate is over 150% a year; Florida High School expects 5,000 students in fall 2000.
• Population includes public and private school students, students in labs, and students at home.
• Tuition is free to Florida residents (part of Florida public education system).
• Educational needs include additional credits, schedule flexibility, family travel, enhanced course selection, illness, and alternative learning styles.
• Future audiences include Department of Juvenile Justice, GED candidates, adult remediation, professional development, and students from other states and countries.
• Instructional delivery
   
• Delivery is primarily asynchronous.
• Synchronous components are in the works.
• All Web-based
• Highly facilitated. Constant e-mails, 24-hour teacher response time guaranteed, many teachers wear beepers, etc.
• The life of an online teacher
   
• Personalized instruction
• Flexible work schedule
• Coping with closure...scheduleis "rolling" (i.e., students are on different schedules)
• Keeping up with technology is important...learning curve is continuous
• Peer responsibilities...faculty must back each other up on vacations, etc.
• Training opportunities.
• Critical success factors
   
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Flexibility
• Course design
• Support from stakeholders
• Identifying, reaching, and focusing in on the audience
• Development process
   
• Pull teachers from the classroom to develop online curriculum
• Identify standards/objectives
• Create a motif to pull students into the learning environment
• Develop scope and sequence/storyboard /li>
• Establish a peer review committee
• Decide upon resources (note: no textbooks are used)
• Identify development milestones
• Begin course development
• Learning theories
   
• Robert Gagné: Gain attention, inform learner of objectives, stimulate recall of prior learning, present stimulus, provide learning guidance, elicit performance, provide feedback (timely feedback is essential to keeping students), assess performance, enhance retention and transfer.
• Bloom's Taxonomy: Hierarchy, working down: Evaluation, synthesis, analysis, application, comprehension, knowledge. Florida H.S. tries to engage the upper-level skills.
• Jean Piaget: Constructivism
• Howard Gardner: Multiple intelligences
• William Daggett: Real-world applications
• Key to meeting diversity is as follows:
   
• Motif: e.g., a series of theme-oriented "dinner parties" (AP English), trip to Washington, D.C. (American Government)
• Standards-based
• Begin with the end in mind
• Flexible
• Open-ended
• Integrated
• Address different learning styles
• Rubrics
• Industry partners include Orange County Public Schools, Junior Achievement, World Book, Global Datalink (now MPI), and many others.

Questions and Answers

• Are there union issues concerning salary, schedule, planning time, etc.? Pay is driven by geography (nearest school district). So far, problems have been minimal.
• What about hardware availability? IBM has donated some laptops. Libraries have access stations. FHS does not want to be in business of loaning hardware.
• Student-teacher ratio is about 110.
• Grades are administered through the student's local school district.
• Chat rooms are in the offing to allow real-time interaction among students in a virtual classroom.
• The mascot is the mouse. Could it be anything else?!
  
  
• There will be a virtual yearbook in 2000. Can a virtual prom be far behind?
• FHS is open to collaborative ventures with out-of-Florida educators.
• How can STC help? Education Committee is a natural partner.
• Has "any pace" been a problem? Not really. Three paces are traditional (by semesters), accelerated, and slower. Some discipline is imposed. "Slower" can't be defined as never!
• Online resources tend to be ephemeral, which can be very frustrating. If you have built a unit around a Web site and it suddenly disappears, you have a problem.
• Online students' grades tend to be higher than traditional students, because they have more time to work and they have the option of redoing assignments.
• Easy access to the technology is critical; experience shows if they don't have an Internet link at home, they'll wind up dropping out.
• There is a 28-day, penalty-free drop period.
• What is the biggest disadvantage? Some students need face-to-face instruction.
• Classroom interaction is important. Best solution for many students would probably be a mix...attend school half day, get some courses online.