Ken Robinson: How to escape education's death valley /

Awsome Video Post coming soon

Using Technology to Create an Alternative Education

       Education today is evolving at a very rapid pace. Some students and educators are gracefully making the transition and falling right into place with the new additions technology has provided. Yet some students and educators are ruggedly grasping on to the new concepts and innovations that technology has to provide. Ken Robertson uses the rain phenomenon that occurred in Death Valley as an analogy to describe his philosophy of the education system. He states that the education system is a human system that can only operate under conditions in which students can thrive and if those conditions don't nurture their thriving potential then student will lay dormant. He also makes the compelling statement that the whole purpose of education is to help students learn, that without learning there is no education. Many students that are entering and existing traditional school environments lay dormant and are not being stimulated to engage in learning. By traditional school I mean the student goes to a physical building and sits in a classroom in order to learn. 

        Based on the known facts of dropout rates, test scores, and title1 funding for schools with predominantly disadvantage students, I argue that these students should be presented with some form of alternative education that would better suit their learning needs. Ken Robertson’s Ted talk prompted me to research what other options are available to students who are not thriving in their current educational environments? 

Focusing on using technology to be the change and provide individualized avenues to attain the necessary academic skills to be college and career ready, I found five (5) online learning schools just in my local area. I used http://www.k12.com to discover the opportunities available. 

California Virtual Academies has11 different online schools: CAVA@Fresno, CAVA@Jamestown, CAVA@Kings, CAVA@Los Angeles, CAVA@Maricopa, CAVA@Maricopa High School, CAVA@San Diego, CAVA@San Joaquin, CAVA@San Mateo, CAVA@Sonoma, and CAVA@Sutter. 

“The network of the 11 California Virtual Academies schools is a tuition-free online public school that uses the K¹² curriculum, which is accessed via an online school as well as through more traditional methods. Materials are delivered right to the family's doorstep—including books, CDs, and even bags of rocks and dirt (for science experimentation, of course). We also partner parents and students with a state-credentialed teacher to assign and review lessons and assessments and to guide and support students and learning coaches through the program. Teachers, parents, and students meet on a regular basis in person and online. Student-to-student interaction is emphasized too, so the network of the 11 California Virtual Academy schools students in each of the 11 schools are always well educated and well socialized.” 

This is a perfect example of an alternative educational option that could be used to water the leaning seeds in students.