Discussion Comment

Here is my next blog response:

http://blog.heritage.org/2010/09/28/leaving-children-behind-it%E2%80%99s-time-to-embrace-online-education/#comment-218769

It's from the conservative Heritage Foundation, and currently says it is awaiting moderation.

Just in case they super-moderate it (i.e. don't post it) here is what I said:

Depending on how you are defining “Online Learning” I think I interpret the Department of Education article a bit differently. The article explicitly states the one category where involving technology failed to produce any positive effects was the “Independent” category… in other words where it was not guided and there was no teacher. Additionally, immediately following the statement about online learning being more effective is this caveat:

“It should be noted, however, that this overall effect can be attributed to the advantage of blended learning approaches over instruction conducted entirely face-to-face. Of the 11 individual studies with significant effects favoring the online condition, 9 used a blended learning approach.”

So it performed better than classes where there was no technology component at all, and the instruction was 100% lecture/face to face. I think everyone agrees that technology should be better leveraged in the classroom than it is, including implementations like blended learning… but I’m not sure this equates to as broad an interpretation of “Online Learning” as I am perceiving here.