In attendance at Studio A public service bldg.
Jim S. (SK Online), Tryna L. (OSU K-12 Online), Dave M., Camille C. (ODE), Dennis S. (COOLSchool),
Came in for the discussion of ODE distance education summit: Carla W., Vickie F.
From remote sites: Marty K. (Oregon Online), Kirk D. (NWREL), Lynn L. (Lane ESD), Rod A. (WESD)
Kirk – NWREL, Attended the Virtual High School Symposium in Anaheim CA
< http://www.eclassroom.com/vhs2003/> and thought there should have been more hands on. He also attended the meeting in San Diego that was mostly for higher Ed. One comment from a speaker “Higher Ed. can no longer pursue K-12 mentality Butts in Seats.”
A college president commented that their intent was to offer classes across K-20 to “mature learners.” Kirk was concerned about this compromising the idea of education for all students.
Seymour Hanflin and Kirk will be attending the summit session on Wednesday.
Kirk and Peggy Kinder are working on a grant to see if money is available from the feds to host a national discussion on the direction of distance education.
He also said that the “free” material from MIT is a repository of notes not classes as some may have thought. Those resources can be found at <ocw.mit.edu/>.
Lynn – Nothing to report. She did say that completion rates reported by schools is calculated in many different ways and everyone should be aware of that and should be asking the right questions to understand the statistics.
Marty – Dave Moore was contracted by SOESD to write a course that will be used to instruct teachers on how to develop an online course. He will be teaching it beginning winter semester. Over the next 6-7 months Oregon Online hopes to develop and additional 20-30 courses.
Dave – Wrote and is teaching Course Writers, for Oregon Online, a how to write an online course for the new online teachers. This is the same kind of course he wrote and taught for OSU K-12 Online. He will be facilitating a pre summit session hosted at ODE on Wednesday.
Tryna – Students have completed the 1st nine weeks. The Corvallis partnership is in place. Tryna also attended the Virtual High School Symposium in LA and got more out of the preconference than the conference. OSU K-12 Online is working more closely with the college of education to develop connections between programs. They hope to be able to offer students an opportunity to teach online as a TA. They are also working closely with the professional technical program. OSU K-12 Online is also branching out beyond campus working with districts in New Mexico, Washington and others in Oregon. They plan to offer additional courses for winter and will be looking at their development budget to see what is available for further work in the summer.
Dennis – COOLSchool is hoping to offer a Spanish course winter semester. There has also been some turn over with students enrolling and then withdrawing. It doesn’t appear to be a function of a disconnect with counselors, but more likely with home school parents not working closely enough with a school district to determine a good fit for their child.
Jim – Trucking along with the transition into Ucompass Educator progressing thanks to the help of COOLSchool staff. Math is close to ready. Their enrollments are lower than expected which is a function of economics; i.e., when you charge tuition things change. SK Online is working with Odyssey Charter School out of Los Vegas on a Spanish course, which they hope to offer out in the spring. The district’s alternative program is participating in a research study headed up through the University of Oregon. Mary Jean and Jim presented at the < http://www.nsba.org/t+l/> (NSBA) technology conference in Anaheim after the Virtual High School Symposium.
Camille – Updated the group about the presentation to TSPC. Here is an excerpt.
The Oregon Department of Education convened, during this past summer, an adhoc group of distance education practitioners, school administrators, and other interested individuals for the purpose of planning and submitting a petition for amendment to OAR 584-036-0017. The rule stated that"........any Oregon teaching license is valid for assignment to be present in a classroom
during a distance learning presentation." The group met prior to the testimony version of the meeting on Oct. 9 with the TSPC Licensure Committee to answer any questions they may have had prior to the testimony period and were well received.
During testimony in the afternoon, the OEA testified against "removing" this portion of the distance education rule. Despite this contrary testimony, the Commission will finalize the adoption of this amendment, and an additional amendment stating that out of state distance education providers are not required to hold Oregon licensure, in January, 2004!
Rod – WESD is positioning itself to bring distance education to the region and beyond. Their intent is to add value to existing programs. SK Online and Oregon Online are using the registration system developed at the ESD. They offer access to a server hosting the Blackboard CMS free of charge to their constituent districts. They also host some professional development courses.
Dennis handed out the document prepared by Mark. Jim read the main headings for the benefit of those at remote sites. Dennis faxed a copy to Kirk, Lynn and Marty later that afternoon. The document will be attached to the minutes when sent out by Jim. Decisions to implement the suggested agreements will be made at the next meeting with input expected between now and then.
Comments:
Kirk – Has there been a need to have these put in place?
Jim – The intent was not to put into place Roberts Rules, but these are meant as guidelines for meeting continuity as the chairmanship is handed from program to program.
Marty – Could we add KumbyYa!
Lynn – Likes it how it has been, some program sharing and easy going.
Planning group includes Kirk, Jennifer A., Duane J., Marty and Tina, Barry J., Seymour H., Tryna L., Mark F.
The date has been set for June 14-18 and will be hosted at WESD. The thought is to have different strands each day to include beginners through more advanced. Tryna and Duane will work to put the information up on a Web site. The price of $125 last year may have to be increased. The keynote speaker will talk on Monday night combined with dinner and vendor booths. The conference will end on Thursday with Friday and optional day for those groups that want more hands no time/support. The next planning will be in December. OETC will handle registration/logistics and once again it is planned to offer credit through SOU.
Outlined the morning for the Wednesday discussion. There will be hosts at 10 sites around the state facilitating a discussion around three central questions. There is a 175-person limit for the summit on January 26, 2003 held at OMSI.
(1) List the top 5 issues that stand in the way of a state distance education program
(2) List the top 5 issues that stand in the way delivering resources locally
(3) List 5 outcomes that you hope as a result of the summit
Pat Evanson Brady will represent TSPC. James Sager from the governor’s office was invited and planned to attend, but had to cancel.
Brainstorming around the three questions with the group
(1) funding formula, leadership at the state, independent nature of education in Oregon, utilization and support of existing structures, credit movement across district boundaries, legislation/statues surrounding impediments to move forward.
A few comments/questions:
How do you determine and support existing programs (Marty).
“To regulate or not to regulate” (Vickie)
How do you recruit teachers given the stance by TSPC regarding distance education?
In the end we want to have a system that works in Oregon. The hope of the summit is to remove barriers. Similar states have held summits and ODE gleaned from their experience (Carla)
The reason for coming together is to design a blueprint. Need to build for the next legislative session in which technology related issues had little success in the last session. We need a system to deliver professional development to every teacher’s desktop in the state. We need to have input from all levels of those that are interested. (Vickie)
Analyze what exists and move forward to begin to set up a blue print. (Marty)
CA is asking that perhaps education can’t be brought to every student in the state. Kirk hopes this question is not being asked in Oregon.
(2) role of school board in decision making around distance education – local control has both advantages and disadvantages, hw are teachers assigned since contracts are local the assumption is that control of teaching staff would remain local, local politics, contracts with unions, e-learning knowledge is lacking, counselor/admin issues, the role of special education and alternative ed and TAG support through distance education – are services provide “free”of charge.
(3) missing stakeholders be identified, expansion of the definition of e-learning, strategies to pursue funding, agreements between programs, state support for existing programs, identify the common ground between synchronous and asynchronous delivery, bring in the information from other states as well as the national movement, understanding of how e-learning functions at a funding level.
Closing comments:
Should there be representation from OOL in addition to each member contributing through his or her respective programs/channels? (Jim)
There may be strength in presenting what exists in order to set the stage for the blueprint.
There is a knowledge base within OOL that needs to be heard. (Marty)
The next meeting will be January 7 from 1-4PM.