I’ve been reading your responses from Turkey, advocating for more online education in the US for several years now. I admire your spirit and tenacity.

Since I’ve responded to some of the same pieces, you’ll probably recognize that I am also a supporter and “cheerleader” for using virtual learning environments (online education) as a way to improve teaching and learning and help The U.S.A. and our 50 States to improve educational quality, efficiency and equity in our public schools and for ALL OUR CITIZENS!

I want to agree with and affirm your point about SHARING. Sharing is something online courses materials between practitioners in many of our states is something that’s happening already and will hopefully happen more in the future.

A specific example of one mechanism that currently enables such sharing of high quality online course content for high school and college courses is the National Repository of Online Courses or NROC, at this URL: http://www.montereyinstitute.org/nroc/

NROC is a not-for profit entity supported by a generous grant from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. To access NROC’s large and peer reviewed repository of course content, schools or school district in the US (and elsewhere) are required to pay a nominal membership fee and joint their national and international educational collaborative (or co-op).

There are other online educational collaboratives and co-ops in the US; including MEROT (higher ed courses- merlot.org) and THE Virtual High School (Mass.- govhs.org) The recent increase in interest in online course “repositories” establishing interoperability standards for online course (so they can be transported seamlessly between LMS’s) is evidence that leads me to speculate that more “SHARING” is in the works for online education in the near future.

However, I must disagree with your characterization of that American private company you describe above as serving 25 States. They are a “for profit” company with a mission primarily oriented toward making profits for it’s owners.

The create and disseminate a large amount of “advertising”claiming that their courses and programs produce miraculous gains in performance for students who were previously unable to be academically successful in “traditional” American public schools.

Until I see reliable and objective evidence, from assessments and evaluations by independent and qualified educational researchers, published in refereed professional journals s affirming that company’s claims about the “effects” of their for profit online education programs, I will continue to be more skeptical about those claims that you are.

What’s more, because they are a “For Profit” company, the last thing they would ever consider doing with their courses and instructional materials would be SHARING. They strictly protect all the intellectual property.

Apparently in many of the states they operate in, that includes the grades and testing scores of students from the families contracting for their services.

I challenge you to find publicly reported AYP testing scores for students enrolled in any of that company’s school,s reported along with all the other K-12 school districts and other state-supported charter school programs in ANY of the states in which they operate.

I very much hope that you will take my challenge and be able to prove that I am wrong.

BobBl

I’ve been reading your responses from Turkey, advocating for more online education in the US for several years now. I admire your spirit and tenacity.

Since I’ve responded to some of the same pieces, you’ll probably recognize that I am also a supporter and “cheerleader” for using virtual learning environments (online education) as a way to improve teaching and learning and help The U.S.A. and our 50 States to improve educational quality, efficiency and equity in our public schools and for ALL OUR CITIZENS!

I want to agree with and affirm your point about SHARING. Sharing is something online courses materials between practitioners in many of our states is something that’s happening already and will hopefully happen more in the future.

A specific example of one mechanism that currently enables such sharing of high quality online course content for high school and college courses is the National Repository of Online Courses or NROC, at this URL: http://www.montereyinstitute.org/nroc/

NROC is a not-for profit entity supported by a generous grant from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. To access NROC’s large and peer reviewed repository of course content, schools or school district in the US (and elsewhere) are required to pay a nominal membership fee and joint their national and international educational collaborative (or co-op).

There are other online educational collaboratives and co-ops in the US; including MEROT (higher ed courses- merlot.org) and THE Virtual High School (Mass.- govhs.org) The recent increase in interest in online course “repositories” establishing interoperability standards for online course (so they can be transported seamlessly between LMS’s) is evidence that leads me to speculate that more “SHARING” is in the works for online education in the near future.

However, I must disagree with your characterization of that American private company you describe above as serving 25 States. They are a “for profit” company with a mission primarily oriented toward making profits for it’s owners.

The create and disseminate a large amount of “advertising”claiming that their courses and programs produce miraculous gains in performance for students who were previously unable to be academically successful in “traditional” American public schools.

Until I see reliable and objective evidence, from assessments and evaluations by independent and qualified educational researchers, published in refereed professional journals s affirming that company’s claims about the “effects” of their for profit online education programs, I will continue to be more skeptical about those claims that you are.

What’s more, because they are a “For Profit” company, the last thing they would ever consider doing with their courses and instructional materials would be SHARING. They strictly protect all the intellectual property.

Apparently in many of the states they operate in, that includes the grades and testing scores of students from the families contracting for their services.

I challenge you to find publicly reported AYP testing scores for students enrolled in any of that company’s school,s reported along with all the other K-12 school districts and other state-supported charter school programs in ANY of the states in which they operate.

I very much hope that you will take my challenge and be able to prove that I am wrong.

BobBl

Solutions are visions , innovations. Usually acquired in USA Universities .

Please look realities . Best regards. mgozaydin@hotmail.com from Turkey

Solutions are visions , innovations. Usually acquired in USA Universities .

Please look realities . Best regards. mgozaydin@hotmail.com from Turkey