Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Online learning; no more teachers necessary!


See Education As We Know It Is Finished, by Clayton Christensen and Michael Horn in Forbes:
“… others are seeing the hardship of the moment as an opportunity to transform what they do with the implementation of online learning. Pressured by not only widespread cuts but also increasing demands for accountability, these innovative leaders recognize that online learning is a key reform for doing more with less.

For example, the people who run many schools realize that they can save considerably by cutting back on traditional classroom versions of non-core courses--advanced placement, foreign language, economics and so forth--and instead offer them online, thereby aggregating demand across many school districts. Likewise they can cut back on the number of periods during which they offer certain classroom courses and still affordably meet student demand by offering those courses online.

In addition, school districts everywhere from Boston to Wichita, Kan., are seizing the flexibility of online learning to provide affordable credit recovery options for students who fail a course they need to pass in order to graduate.”


Good to hear how online learning will make real-life teachers unnecessary; and yet this guy Christensen is on the advisory board of the AFT innovation fund!

One of the new grants offered by the fund will support more online learning in Boston; as if districts needed any more encouragement to downsize their teaching force. Already, the Bloomberg administration intends to spread virtual instruction to 81 schools this year.

That's innovation, alright.

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