Jessie Woolley-Wilson, President, K-12, Blackboard
In today’s Information Age, education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity and success – it’s a pre-requisite. A communications and technology revolution has created a global economy of high-tech, high-wage jobs that can be located anywhere there's an Internet connection. As a result, countries who out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow.
Our current education climate places an increased emphasis on the need for data and the ability to interpret that data to make informed instructional decisions that positively affect student achievement. Some of the largest challenges facing educators today, such as closing the achievement gap, ensuring student mastery of standards, and preparing students for success in the global economy, require data to identify areas of strength and areas of concern, allowing classroom time to be maximized on the instruction each student needs most.
In light of these challenges, we recently collaborated with ProjectTomorrow on two reports. One report, titled "Leadership in the 21st Century: The New Visionary Administrator," focuses on our educational leaders. A second report, "Online Learning Policy and Practice Survey: A Survey of the States," takes a look at online learning and how each of the 50 states are funding, developing policy and supporting online learning from a state-led perspective.
Visionary administrators, the focus of our first report, are a new breed of school superintendents and principals who leverage Web 2.0 technologies to meet the learning goals and preferences of increasingly tech-savvy students. We worked with Project Tomorrow to identify this new type of leader using Speak Up survey results in the report, "Leadership in the 21st Century: The New Visionary Administrator."
The report demonstrates that visionary administrators recognize 21st century skills as a requirement for success in today’s knowledge economy, in school and in life. In addition, they believe seamless integration of emerging learning technologies helps to create a connected and engaged educational experience that inspires students to achieve.
As a whole, online learning helps everyone in the learning ecosystem focus teaching and learning on the critical areas that need improvement while exposing students to a wide-reaching educational landscape. Online education enables districts to draw from a larger teacher talent pool and serve students who are geographically dispersed – expanding both student and teacher learning opportunities.
The report "Online Learning Policy and Practice Survey: A Survey of the States" found states are pursuing online education initiatives to better serve their student population and meet the academic demands of millennial students. Fifteen states have taken significant steps in online education and have implemented state-led district online programs. Even states without online learning programs appear conscious of the trend and are evaluating the feasibility of implementing such programs.
During its review of online learning policy and practice, the Center for Digital Education (CDE) predicted online education will become nearly ubiquitous in the years to come, even as states and school districts continue to face the challenges of meeting student achievement levels amidst budget cuts and decreased funding, finding qualified teachers, and preparing students for careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. A technology-aided education environment provides access to real-time data, enabling teachers to quickly and easily personalize learning and reach students with the instruction they need most, when they need it.
A good education opens the door to future success. Whether delivered by an online learning platform or driven by a visionary administrator pushing the use of Web 2.0 technologies, both inform instruction to positively affect achievement results. I invite you to please visit our Web site and the CDE site to review the reports I’ve mentioned here. We hope they will start a conversation in your school or district about progress toward a 21st century learning environment.
