For Openers
How Technology
Is Changing School
Whether you’re sailing around the world, homebound with the flu,
or just in the market for more flexible learning,
thanks to the Internet, schooling never stops.
Curtis J. Bonk
Sometimes it takes a major catastrophe to transform how we deliver schooling. In 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and
Rita, Web sites went up in Louisiana,
Texas, and Mississippi to help educators, students, families, and school
districts deal with the crisis. The Mississippi Department of Education (2005)
announced free online courses at the
high school level, and institutions from
38 states provided more than 1,300 free
online courses to college students whose
campuses had been affected by the
hurricanes (Sloan-C, 2006).
Health emergencies in recent years
have also caused educators to ponder
the benefits of the Web. In 2003, during
the SARS epidemic in China, govern-
ment officials decided to loosen restric-
tions on online and blended learning
(Huang & Zhou, 2006). More recently,
as concerns about the H1N1 virus
mounted, many U.S. schools piloted
new educational delivery options, such
as free online lessons from Curriki
( www.curriki.org) and Smithsonian
Education ( www.smithsonian
education.org). Microsoft has even
offered its Microsoft Office Live free of
charge to educators dealing with H1N1.
The software enables teachers to share
content, lesson plans, and other
curriculum components, while students
access the virtual classroom workspace,
chat with one another on discussion
topics, and attend virtual presentations.
Blended Learning Is Here
The focus today is on continuity of
learning, whether learning is disrupted
because of a hurricane or the flu—or
because of other factors entirely. Schools
may have difficulty serving students
who live in rural areas; reduced budgets
may limit the range of learning that a
school can offer; people young and old
involved in serious scholarly, artistic, or
athletic pursuits may find it difficult to
adhere to the traditional school structure.
In light of these developments, some
school districts are resorting to blended
learning options. They are using tools
like Tegrity ( www.tegrity.com); Ellumi-
nate ( www.elluminate.com); and Adobe
Connect Pro ( www.Adobe.com
/products/acrobatconnectpro) to provide
online lectures. Many are developing
procedures for posting course content
and homework online. Some are trying
phone conferencing with Skype
( www.skype.com) or Google Talk
( www.google.com/talk). Others are eval-
uating digital textbooks and study
guides. Still others are sharing online
videos from places like Link TV
( www.linktv.org); FORA.tv
( http://fora.tv); or Teacher Tube
( www.teachertube.com), with teachers
often asking students to post their
reflections in blogs or online discussion
forums. Many schools have begun to
foster teamwork by using Google Docs
( http://docs.google.com) and wikis.
Although some schools use e-mail to
communicate messages districtwide,
others are experimenting with text
messaging or Twitter ( http://twitter.com).
