Early this year, we looked at some of the problems caused by the heavy bookloads that Verona students carry home. That might be a thing of the past soon, but not because the books are getting lighter: Online learning components are being rolled out across Verona schools that could eliminate the need to bring books home at all.
It starts as early as the third grade. Elementary school students have been given access to online versions of their enVisionMath textbooks; middle schoolers have online components for math, science and social studies. In high school, usage is wider still, in some cases going so far as to stand in for advanced placement classes that students aren’t able to take in a classroom because of scheduling conflicts. The online options can be a boon for students with learning disabilities, since they incorporate audio and video in ways not possible with a printed book. And they are a godsend to any parent who has ever had to race back to school after-hours to retrieve a book left in the classroom by mistake.
The goal, says Superintendent Charles Sampson, is to enhance learning, not replace teachers. “The question,” he says, “is how do we expand the scope of the schoolhouse to give kids other opportunities?”
The move to use online teaching resources also won’t cut costs–at least not yet: Most educational book companies only now offer their Web tools bundled with the print versions of their books. When they do offer online-only versions they are more expensive, probably because the book companies want to preserve their print properties. And e-books would have to be phased in because text books are bought on a five-year cycle in Verona. One other cost wrinkle: Not every Verona teacher is comfortable using online tools, which could require extra spending on training if we rolled them out too aggressively. “Ultimately, it will be cheaper,” says Sampson, “but we’re still evolving to that.”
There’s another reason to not get overly excited about the e-learning bandwagon just yet: Most of the e-book options from the mainstream educational publishers aren’t very good. They are often nothing more than PDFs of textbook pages uploaded to a Web site, and not even writeable PDFs so kids can complete their work online. They are cumbersome to use and frustrating for even the most computer-savvy parents to troubleshoot, adding even more anxiety to homework time.
But make no mistake about it, this is where education is going. Just before Thanksgiving, News Corp plunked down $360 million in cash to buy Wireless Generation, a Brooklyn company that creates education technology for teachers. Though not a traditional educational publisher, Wireless Generation’s tools are already in use by more than 200,000 teachers and 3 million students nationwide. Indeed, many of the best options in e-learning are coming out of companies and individuals that were not traditionally in the education space. Compare your child’s online math program to the ultra-simple Kahn Academy, a math education Web site recommended by Bill Gates, or Edmodo (think Facebook for schools), and you’ll see the difference.
Over the coming weeks and months, MyVeronaNJ will be looking at what’s happening in e-learning. We’ll be talking more about what the possibilities are, and we hope you’ll give us your feedback on digital homework. In the meantime, watch the video below to see how the iPod Touch is being incorporated into lesson plans at H.B. Whitehorne Middle School, courtesy of technology teacher Andor Kish.
iPod image by Juan Pablo Olmo via Flickr
