DIGITAL LEARNING
Harnessing the power of technology to transform
education for the 21st century economy
Next Steps for the Sunshine State
• Identify potential strategies
• More information and estimated budget
• Fully vet and refine strategies
• Governor’s Office
• Legislature
• School District Superintendents
• Others
• Convene Instructional Materials Group
• Prepare legislative agenda and budget recommendations
Issues
1. Instructional Materials
2. Internet and Access Devices
3. Blended Learning – Rotation
4. Blended Learning – Flex
5. Multiple Online Providers
6. Learning Requirements
7. Teacher Preparation
8. Digital Assessments
9. Data-Based Instruction
1. Instructional Materials
1.A.
Conduct a usability analysis of the three online tools – CPALMS, Instructional
Materials Catalogue, Florida Virtual Curriculum Marketplace.
1.B.
Create a robust array of high quality digital content that is aligned to standards
by expanding the scope of the state’s adopted list.
1.C.
Provide an array of high quality instructional materials by requiring digital
content on the state’s adopted list to be available for purchase by academic
standard cluster/domain (Common Core) or benchmark (Sunshine State
Standard) as well as in a bundle.
1.D.
Ensure innovative high quality digital content can be added to the state
adopted list by requiring an annual review process for content in core courses
that is only delivered digitally.
1.E.
Create a process for reviewing free content for alignment to state academic
standards, contingent upon available funding.
1. Instructional Materials
1.F.
Ensure a rigorous review process of material for consideration on the state
adopted list by:
• Compensating reviewers
• Requiring a virtual public forum
1.G.
Allow districts to customize learning by replacing the requirement that school
districts provide a “major tool of instruction” for each student in math, language
arts, science, social studies and literature in kindergarten through 12th grade
with a requirement that school districts:
• Certify to the state that it will provide instructional materials that are adequate to ensure
students achieve the academic standards for each course and
• Provide a list of instructional materials for each course to parents during the first week of
school.
1.H.
Eliminate the requirement that school districts spend 50% of their annual
funding for instructional materials on content on the state adopted list.
1. Instructional Materials
1.I.
Allow school districts to spend a portion of their instructional materials budget
on Internet access devices after certifying that devices are necessary to deliver
digital content for the course.
1.J.
Require school districts to provide digital content that meets the special needs
of individual students, including students with disabilities and students learning
English as a second language.
1.K.
Create a funding mechanism based on demand by:
• Allowing the Department to charge a fee for reviewing content that is available
for purchase, or
• Allocating a percent of the overall instructional materials budget, such as .25%
or one quarter of 1%, ($523,000 in the 2012-2013 budget) to fund the review
process.
1. Instructional Materials
2. Internet and Access Devices
2.A.
Develop a preliminary gap analysis by expanding the annual survey to capture
more detailed information from each and every school.
2.B.
Provide the preliminary gap analysis to school districts to use to develop a
comprehensive plan to provide devices to students.
2.C.
Raise parent and public awareness about Florida’s efforts to transition to
technology-rich, digital and blended learning by launching a website that
provides the school-by-school information gathered in the survey.
2.D.
Establish optimum standards for Internet service to implement and sustain a
blended learning instructional model.
2.E.
Establish optimum standards for Internet access devices that can be used for
instruction as well as assessment.
2.F.
Explore a public-private partnership with Florida Internet service providers to
assess every school in the state to determine the need and cost for
infrastructure improvements to provide adequate wireless, high-speed,
broadband Internet access.
2. Internet and Access Devices
2.G.
Leverage the purchasing power of the state to negotiate a contract with below
market prices to purchase or lease Internet access devices, including assistive
technology for students with disabilities, and allow school districts to purchase
off the state contract.
2.H.
Issue a Request for Information to identify available assistive technologies that
can improve the delivery of education to students with disabilities.
2.I.
Establish statewide guidance to help school districts develop BYOD policies,
which includes internet safety (such as blocking and filtering), ethical practices
(cyberbullying, plagiarism and copyright laws), security practices (password
policies and backup systems) and information/media literacy (guidelines on
judging the veracity of sources).
2.I.
Expand access to affordable Internet access devices by working collaboratively
with school districts to create a voluntary program that allows parents of public
school students to acquire Internet access devices from the state contract.
2.J.
Empower families living in or near poverty with the financial freedom to
purchase an Internet access device for their children who attend public school
to use for educational purposes.
3. Blended Learning (Rotation)
3.A.
Create a competitive grant program that develops a template or multiple
templates for whole school transformation in kindergarten through 8th
grade.
Possible framework for implementation:
1.
Convene national experts for one or more workshops on digital learning and
blended learning school models to ensure a clear understanding of the
expectations for the grant.
2.
Accept applications from schools for up to 100 Planning Grants.
3.
Award a Planning Grant to up to 100 schools.
4.
Award an Implementation Grant for up to 20 Schools.
5.
Conduct a review of the schools that implement the transition.
Station Rotation
School
Blended
Classroom
(Course)
Blended
Classroom
(Course)
Blended
Classroom
(Course)
Blended
Classroom
(Course)
Blended Course
Digital
Learning
(ComputerBased
Instruction)
Traditional
Group
Instruction
(Teacher)
Collaborative
Learning
(Peer-to-Peer,
Project-Based)
Lab Rotation
Traditional
Group
Instruction
(Reading/Writing)
Traditional
Group
Instruction
(Social Studies)
Traditional
Group
Instruction
(Science)
Traditional
Group
Instruction
(Math)
Digital Learning
(ComputerBased
Instruction)
Individual Rotation
4. Blended Learning (Flex)
4.A.
Ensure certified, in-field teachers maintain the
responsibility for direct instruction by defining the
different roles of educators and others in the school.
4.B.
Require the Department of Education to develop a
process to allow high schools to create a schoolwithin-a-school based on the Flex Model.
Flex
5. Multiple Online Providers
5.A.
Explore opportunities to expand statewide access to high
quality individual online courses for high school from
approved providers.
5.B.
Provide students with the opportunity to have an
effective, in-field teacher by adding language to current
statute, which requires parental notification that the
assigned teacher is out-of-field, that a virtual in-field
teacher with an annual evaluation of “effective” or “highly
effective” is available for the course.
5.C.
Extend the same virtual options to students in rural areas
by expanding virtual learning options by allowing
students in school districts with less than three options to
enroll in a virtual school approved by another school
district.
5. Multiple Online Providers
5.D.
Expand the availability of individual online courses by
allowing approved virtual charter schools to offer individual
online courses.
5.E.
Remove barriers to offering high quality virtual learning by
removing the requirement that virtual charter schools must
have an administrative office in Florida and that their
administrative staff be Florida residents to be eligible as a
provider in a district virtual instruction program.
5.F.
Create an online directory of approved virtual schools, virtual
instruction programs and individual online courses with
information on the quality of providers, such as school
grades, completion and passage rates and feedback from
students and parents.
5. Multiple Online Providers
6. Learning Requirements
6.A.
Continue working to identify ways to ensure the NCAA and the
military accept credits earned through virtual courses.
6.B.
Ensure Florida prepares high school students with the skills to
succeed in college and 21st century careers by:
• Requiring students to take a core course – English language arts, math,
science and social studies – to fulfill the online course requirement for a
high school diploma.
• Increasing the number of individual online courses required to earn a
high school diploma.
6.C.
Ensure Florida prepares middle school students with the skills
to succeed in high school and beyond by establishing digital
competencies that measure student achievement of
information and communication skills, word processing, and
skill in developing spreadsheets, databases and presentations.
7. Teacher Preparation
7.A.
Establish clear expectations for what teachers need to know by defining the
role and skills of a highly effective teacher in digital and blended learning
classrooms.
7.B.
Support school districts by developing an online model for high quality
professional development that supports the transition from a traditional
instruction school model to a blended learning model.
7.C.
Review the approval criteria for school district professional development plans
to identify the potential for incorporating training in digital and blended learning.
7.D.
Identify specific policies to ensure teacher preparation programs include
instruction in digital and blended learning by convening a meeting with the
State Universities and Colleges.
Potential items for consideration are:
• Ensuring all teachers experience virtual learning by requiring teachers to successfully complete
one virtual course to become certified as a teacher.
• Ensuring all teachers experience blended learning by requiring teachers to successfully
complete one blended learning course to earn a degree in teaching.
•
8. Digital Assessments
8.A.
Begin the process of requiring science assessments
to be administered digitally.
8.B.
Accelerate the implementation of digital
assessments in elementary school.
9. Data-Based Instruction
9.A.
Continue working to identify opportunities to
leverage services being developed by the Shared
Learning Collaborative.
9.B.
Identify potential opportunities to incorporate the
metadata framework established by the Learning
Resource Metadata Infrastructure into the
development of the state’s metadata tool.
9.C.
Provide statewide implementation of upgrades to the
Data Education Warehouse.