Digital Learning as a Catalyst for Education Reform

In a previous post, I criticized holding schools accountable for learning results in a system designed around time. Some may have misunderstood my position, believing I don’t think schools should be held accountable. Nothing could be further from the truth. However, if schools are going to be held accountable for learning, then it seems to me the system should be designed around learning.

I would argue that our current system is not designed around learning, but rather has been organized around time. Think about it. We have mandatory attendance and truancy laws. Funding is based largely on the amount of time and the number of students in attendance within a predetermined window of time. Schools have a minimum number of days or hours in which they must be in operation. Classes (at least at the high school level) receive the same number of hours each work for instructional purposes. Students attend the same number of hours and the same number of days regardless of their life experiences or previous knowledge base. You get my point. Schools are very much organized around time.

If they get their way, the recently commissioned Digital Learning Council will attack some of the long-standing traditions in our current design. They go as far as suggesting that major changes to state education policies that include abolishing seat-time requirements, linking teacher pay to student success, and overhauling public school funding models need to happen. In their report, the Council shares 10 Policy Suggestions as well as their vision for using digital learning to drive the proposed changes.

If fully implemented, the plan would drastically alter the manner in which education would be structured and without a doubt the Council challenges some of the ‘sacred cows’ of education, not the least of which is the role schools play in providing custodial daycare. As quoted below, the commission clearly recognizes how difficult it will be to implement the wide-sweeping changes they are recommending.

Altering educational pathways, funding structures, and pay structures could be the most difficult proposals for the council to sell. Abandoning seat time would take complete overhauls of state educational codes, while shifting funding and pay structures could draw opposition from teachers’ unions and public school advocates.

For all it’s flaws, No Child Left Behind was the first law to truly focus on learning, but it failed to address systemic issues hampering learning results. The recommendations of the Digital Learning Council actually focus on the need to redesign the educational system, as opposed to tweaking within the current systemic confines.