With the creation of The Jetsons in the 1960s, Hanna-Barbera projected what 100 years into the future could look like. Set in 2062, The Jetsons lived in an automated, push-button world. Long distance conversations took place face to face through a television screen, groceries were ordered on-line and delivered to[Read More…]
Virtual Education
Digital learning helps students ‘where they are and not where we want them to be’
by Star Kraschinsky Florida Virtual School® (FLVS®) opened its virtual doors in August 1997 as the country’s first Internet-based public high school with seven teachers and 77 students. Today, the statewide, public virtual school serves more than 122,000 public, private, charter and home-schooled students in Kindergarten through 12th grade and provides[Read More…]
redefinED blog stars: Timid public school leaders, Catholic plea for vouchers and more
Editor’s note: In our third installment of “blog stars,” we’re shifting course slightly. We’ll continue to highlight posts from ed blogs. But if we stumble on a thoughtful newspaper column now and then, we’ll throw that in the mix, too. Rick Hess Straight Up: The Culture of ‘Can’t’ in American Schools[Read More…]
In Florida, school choice verges on mainstream
Some of us at redefinED will be at the American Federation for Children summit tomorrow and Friday, where there will be lots of discussion about school choice and education reform. As good a time as any, we thought, to offer a snapshot of where Florida stands. Check out these numbers, which Doug Tuthill, the president of Step[Read More…]
On virtual education, some districts are learning to adapt
Four school districts on Florida’s east coast are joining with Indian River State College and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the world’s largest publisher of educational materials, to form a regional virtual school to compete with the Florida Virtual School (FLVS). Florida recently passed a law requiring every student to pass an[Read More…]
Another Florida district goes virtual
This recent Gainesville Sun article provides another example of how public education is expanding to include private and home schooled students. The Alachua County School District, where the University of Florida is located, will soon be offering online middle and high school courses through a partnership with the Florida Virtual[Read More…]
The power of pause and repeat
The stunning success of Khan Academy, an online learning experiment that has now delivered more than 80-million free lessons worldwide, is well documented at this point. But to listen to MIT and Harvard whiz kid Salman Khan describe his journey is to appreciate the extent to which he has only[Read More…]
From the archives: The FEA on lost influence
Now that a document highlighting lobbying machinations at an AFT affliate in Connecticut has stoked another conversation about teacher unionism and parent empowerment, redefinED wanted to reach into its archives and pull out a memo from the public policy director at the Florida Education Association that also reflects on a singular[Read More…]