Barbour, M. K. (2015, June). International landscape of K-12 online and blended learning. A Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute webinar, Lansing, MI.
4. “Mike, if you were explaining
what is happening in K-12
online and blended learning
outside of the United States
to someone, what are the two
or three or four things you’d
want them to know?”
5. • There are a lot of things
internationally that are the same as
what we see in the United States, and
• There are a lot of things
internationally that are quite different
than what we see in the United States!
6. 1. The evolution of K-12 distance education from
correspondence education to various media (e.g.,
radio, instructional television, telematics,
videoconferencing, etc.) to online.
2. Many of the early K-12 online learning programs
were created through grants provided by the federal
or individual state governments, which is
consistent with the experience.
3. Terms such as supplemental and full-time, as well
as district-based and state-wide (could be nation-
wide or province-wide, depending on the
jurisdiction) are all consistently used to describe K-
12 online and blended.
7. correspondence education – United States,
Canada, New Zealand
educational radio – United States, Australia
telematics – United States, Canada,
Australia
video conferencing – United States, New
Zealand
8. state and federal funding creating VHS,
FLVS, MVHS, IVHS, etc.
federal funding to create Te Kura and VLN
(New Zealand), Open High School (Turkey),
Cyber Home Learning System (South
Korea), ScienceNet (Singapore), etc.
9. full-time / supplemental
province-wide / nation-wide
levels of control (e.g., school board,
department of education, etc.)
10. 1. In many international jurisdictions there is still a significant
use of correspondence education, audio distance education,
and video conferencing.
2. Internationally the primary driver of K-12 online and blended
learning are government forces, and corporations are largely
contractors that provide content, learning technologies, and
other services to these government-run programs. There are
few, if any, proponents of the application of free market
principles to public education through K-12 online and blended
learning.
3. In most countries K-12 online and blended learning is primarily
used at the secondary level. Even the use of K-12 distance
education in general is largely focused on the secondary grades.
4. As corporations and free market proponents are largely absent,
blended learning – and even online learning – is generally
regarded as the next evolution of effective technology
integration.
11. Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu – The Correspondence
School was first established in 1922, there were 14,000
students that were enrolled in one or more courses
through this correspondence education model
approximately two thirds of the students taking distance
education courses in Nova Scotia and Ontario, and one
third in Manitoba, were using correspondence
education
there are fifteen School of the Air distance education
programs that are still operating in Australia
12. proponents of online and blended learning tout its ability to
operate in a co-operation fashion with these competitive
brick-and-mortar schools
in Canada the proliferation of K-12 distance education has
not been due to advocates of free market principles, it has
been due to the fact that online and blended learning offers
opportunities for K-12 students that are not available in the
brick-and-mortar environment
five additional jurisdictions (i.e., Mexico, Australia,
Singapore, South Korea, and Turkey) where the primary
driver of K-12 online and blended learning are national
government forces, and corporations are largely contractors
that provide content, learning technologies, and other
services to these government-run programs
13. VISCED Project was “a transnational appraisal of virtual
schools and colleges with a systematic review at
international and national levels of fully virtual schools and
colleges” focused on students aged 14 to 21
New Zealand is comprised of approximately 20 geographic
and thematic e-learning clusters, only one of which is a
nation-wide cluster that focuses upon primary level students
in Canada the majority of K-12 distance education occurred
at the secondary level, and the majority of distance
education at the elementary level was delivered using
correspondence education – almost exclusively on a full-
time basis
14. iNACOL originally defined blended learning as:
...any time a student learns at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar
location away from home and at least in part through online delivery with
some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace; often
used synonymously with hybrid learning.
iNACOL described online learning as including:
a range of web-based resources, media, tools, interactivity, and curricular or
instructional approaches. Internationally, a variety of terms are used to describe online
learning - including distance education, virtual schools, virtual learning, e-learning,
electronic learning. In general, the common theme is that this type of learning takes
place over the Internet.
New Zealand defines e-learning as “learning and teaching that is
facilitated by or supported through the smart use of information
and communication technologies”
in Finland, online and blended learning is described as a teaching
method and content source as any other, and it had no special
standing in evaluation, quality assurance, procurement, or
otherwise
15.
16. Director of Doctoral Studies
Sacred Heart University
mkbarbour@gmail.com
http://www.michaelbarbour.com
http://virtualschooling.wordpress.com