History of Alaska's Distance Education

Come see where we have been and why as we surge towards the future of distance education in Alaska. This multi-media presentation will include interviews from many experts in the field including past and present Commissioners of Education, the University of Alaska, superintendents, teachers and many other Alaskans. Find out the pedagogy behind what has been done in order to think about success for our future.

10 min Leadership Presentation OUTLINE:
Hook: ACSA Report - all districts using DE
Main: History timelines with anecdotal stories
Wrap-up: White Paper - Google Doc for input

1.75 min ASTE Presentation OUTLINE:
Hook: 2Revolution video
Intro: Setting the stage (who is in the room)
Parking Lot (for comments, suggestions, questions)
Outline goal for presentation
Pre-Assmt: Think/Pair/Share - Why are you here, what do you hope to walk away with.
Agenda
Meat: What's been done and why. (Prezi from Leadership Summit)
Strategies: Think/Pair/Share - What works for you and why OR what would you like to try and why.
Final: Sharing of Strategies

Mike Hanley, Commissioner, Alaska Department of Education & Early Development
I believe that the biggest stride that we have taken is not around pedagogical strategies but rather around a recognition that we can and should be offering our students so much more. As we cling to traditional techniques, our students leave us with gaps in learning strategies and knowledge that was easily accessible. I believe that a growing dissatisfaction with what our students are getting-especially in small schools, is the driver of change around distance delivery.
Interestingly, various pedagogies have gained pockets of support and have erroneously driven the efforts of individuals with good intentions around the state. I say "erroneously" because when the tool becomes the driver, we cling to that tool even though the ultimate goal is greater access and greater opportunity for kids. The right tool has to be chosen for the right situation and the right student. Curriculum companies can become those drivers.

Larry LeDoux, Former Alaska Commissioner of Education
My thoughts on digital learning began with the TRS-80 I brought into my classroom in the Fall of 1978 and have become increasingly cluttered (albeit more passionate) over the years. I have been working with technology as a tool to help enhance student learning ever since. My brain is full of great memories, some disappointments and lots and lots of students and teachers transformed by the power of digitally assisted/enhanced learning. So much has been done and so much to do!
What do you believe are the major strides that have been made in the history of distance education in Alaska?
1. New learning options for students.
2. Professional support for isolated rural teachers.
3. Professional Development
4. Access to learning resources
5. Isolation Resolution
6. Student access to content specialists.
Alaska Native Teachers and Learners
A. Increased access to language and culture bearers.
B. Increased access to age and interest peers.
C. Anonymous sharing of thoughts, concerns and ideas by students and teachers.
D. Preservation of culture projects. (i.e., Old Minto)
E. Cultural simulations
F. Increased access to professional role models, information, post-secondary opportunities.
G. Increased access to content expertise
3. Dissolution of Statewide correspondence Program (Alyeska). The bureaucracy had become moribund and driven by the momentum of past practice. While a step forward relevant to the possibility of increased innovation, the exit of DEED from direct interest, beyond the enforcement of regulations, left innovation of e-learning in the hands of a number of districts, for-profit correspondence companies and educational entrepreneurs. ALVN was designed to fill this leadership vacuum.

Rx2) What do you believe is the pedagogy behind them?

Well, the pedagogy was more of the same initially. In a way, correspondence programs, pre and post the emerging internet-based communication modalities, reflected the teacher-led, knowledge-based instruction predominant in the majority of American classrooms. The synchronous classroom teacher was merely replaced by a book.

Just as in regular classrooms, students with strong parent-support foundations were successful while students with risk factors slipped out of the system.

However, distance instruction that combines/blends opportunity for peer social interaction, synchronous and asynchronous instruction and constructivist teaching practices that allow students to learn naturally. is beginning to emerge. Commentary: While this is theoretically true, the recent national emphasis on certain strategies/assessments that deemphasize student creativity, innovation and problem-solving are at odds with the skills and attitudes necessary for students to achieve 21st century application focused standards. We take one step forward and then shoot ourselves in the other foot.

Rx3) What lessons were / could be learned?

In a nutshell, "Doing more of what doesn't work using digital learning tools will not work"

As classroom instruction becomes more student/knowledge-centric and students are granted the freedom to communicate, collaborate, problem-solve, innovate ..... digital learning assets will find a natural place in both instruction and learning.

In the late '80's I became responsible (among many other duties) for Kodiak's correspondence program. Because I had some "hippie" teachers, who were almost universally looked down upon by classroom teachers for their constructivist tendencies and emphasis on relationship-based instruction, the program was very effective. However, budget cuts were used as a reason to reduce staff to a point where they shifted papers. The program was no longer a place for traditional and non-traditions students to find success and freedom.

Later, I used correspondence as effective credit recovery option in the grant-funded alternative program I supervised. My staff and I worked to heal their mind, attitude and learning self-esteem while the courses served to earn lost credit. I always felt a bit guilty about breaking lots of rules in those days but the legacy of student success by my graduates has assuaged my conscience and validated my continued state of instructional rebellion.

John Monahan, Director, Alaska Distance Education Consortium (AkDEC)
My experience working with rural communities is that lack of bandwidth speed limits the possibilities of distance education. It used to be that we were the leaders in distance education by virtue of correspondence - cutting edge correspondence distance education was consider mailing out packages of books and materials, but really wasn't that exciting or motivating for the traditional student.
What has really recently significantly changed in Alaska, is increased bandwidth speed and the opportunities that it provides. Being able to do video conferencing, for example, using CILC (Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration) for taking virtual field trips, and accessing other institutions resources to broaden community access. . BTOP (Broadband Technology Opportunities Program), Alaska Department of Education's Ed Tech, and the things the Alaska TelCo's are doing to increase speed and capacity within the system are what have recently been instrumental in making distance education work in Alaska.

2:20 I think pedagogy changes depending on the resources available. What I can do via a fax machine is very different than what I can do via a major bandwidth with video conferencing. The pedagogy has to change with the resources and the access that you have. Even given good resources, the 'sage on the stage' has a part in good instruction. It has to be balanced with interactive and group learning. We send teachers to school to get educated and learned on their expertise not so they don't say anything, I think some of the techniques out there recently enhance the sage on the stage. For example: a flipped classroom; let a teacher do a presentation or have a guest speaker and let the student and teacher and parent observe that and then the teacher can guide the learning that follows that conversation. Things like that are changing how learning looks; not necessarily how the classroom looks; but how learning is taking place.
4:50 We have an agreement with CILC that allows for schools and classrooms to access other collaborative sites. There are currently over 300 institutions globally in the CILC consortium that allow for student to interact with each other. This is a good example of what could blossom on the Net.
6:15 One of the things that I think that we've learned in Alaska is that we have to keep the equipment as least complex as possible because we don't have the infrastructure needed for some of the equipment attempted previously. I looked at "Big Sky", "Star Schools" and lived through "RATNET." Whenever the dish got out of wack, you had to wait for someone to come out there and fix it. That could bring a site down for a long time. As I think about what keeps a program operational, it's the ability to not get bogged down with the technology and the things that could prevent it from happening.
There are also the standard actions we all know. You have to put time into training and bringing everyone together to build relationships. It takes the blended learning of face-to-face and then support via distance to build a network.

ASTE Description:
History of Alaska's Distance Education

Come see where we have been and why as we surge towards the future of distance education in Alaska. This multi-media presentation will include interviews from many experts in the field including past and present Commissioners of Education, the University of Alaska, superintendents, teachers and many other Alaskans. Find out the pedagogy behind what has been done in order to think about success for our future.


DE in Alaska - Timeline (DRAFT 1/30/14)

1840 - First distance ed course offered. Sir Isaac Pitman - shorthand by mail.
1862 - Morrill Land Grant Act - gives states and territories land for the purpose of supporting post-secondary institutions. (1922 Ak Agricultural School and School of Mines opened six miles NW of Fairbanks with 13 students.)

1867 - Alaska was purchased from Russia

1870 - Sitka opened non-native private schools
1878 - Wrangell opened a girls' home and school (until 1889).
1878 - Presbyterian mission school opened and became the Sitka Industrial Training School around 1884.
1880 - Sitka had 2 public schools: 1 for natives and 1 for non-natives
1884 - Organic Act requires all children to receive education
1884 - 1908 - Sheldon Jackson (Presbyterian Minister) was appointed as head of Alaska's education system.
1890 - As promised a public school was opened in the Pribilof Island (in an 1870, 20-year lease to
1892 - 17 government-supported schools operated. Non-native schools were at Sitka, Juneau and Douglas. Churches operated the other 14.
1900 - Organic Act of 1884 was revised to give local control of school finance and operations
1905 - Nelson Act provided for education outside of incorporated towns for whites and white-blood mix who were 'civilized' (run by the Federal Bureau of Education) 1906 - Sitka vocational school was now opened to Natives.
1906 - Orah Dee Clark began a 50-year teaching career at Kodiak, and later organized the first school in Anchorage in 1915
1913 - Alaska legislature passed a law requiring all children to attend school 1915 - Territorial Board of Education was established (composed of the governor and four senators - 1 from each judicial division) and oversaw education of non- Natives
1917 - First Territorial Commissioner of Education, Lester D. Henderson, was appointed by the Board of Education
1917-1925 - Henderson organized a 2-wk annual teachers institute (1918 they formed the Alaska Education Association)
1926 - White Mountain Vocational Boarding School opened for Natives, ages 14-21.
1930 - Ak Ed Asoc is affiliated with NEA
1931 - 1984 - Bureau of Indian Affairs took over operation of rural Alaska schools from the Bureau of Education
1933 - Board of Ed was reorganized to include 5 members (judicial divisions and one at-large) for 6-year terms appointed by the governor, with consent of the legislature exclusive hunting rights for fur seals on the Pribilof Islands included the provision that the company maintain schools on St. Paul and St. George islands for at least eight months of the year.)
1906 when instruction in the English language, writing, and mathematics was offered at the industrial school at Sitka.
1935 - Univ. of Ak was formed from the previous Ak Ag College & School of mines. Residents were not charged and non-residents paid $20 per semester.
1939 - EED opens Alyeska Centralized Correspondence School
1947 - Mt. Edgecumbe Boarding School opens with nearly 500 students.
1953 - Ak Territorial Legislature created a community college system. Uof A added campuses at Anchorage and Juneau.
1960 - APU opened in Anchorage
1969 - Comsat provided first live broadcast: Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon
1969 - Open University initiative started in the UK
1972-1976 - Molly Hootch case finally settles and the State of Alaska begins a $143 million program to comply
1974 - 1975 - NASAs ATS-6 satellite was used to transmit education and health programs to more than 20 rural villages in Alaska.
1975 - Alaska Native Magazine (NW Regional Lab's 1-year programs relevant to Alaskan villages)
1975 - KYUK-TV and Kuskokwim Community College broadcast some regional programs
1975 - KAKM-TV and Anchorage School District received 2 hours a day of instructional TV
1975 - RATNET began (The Rural Alaska Television Network advisory group (RATNET)
1977 - ETA began (4-yr funded "Educational Telecommunications for Alaska")
1977 - DOE established an Office of Technology and Telecommunications for "TV for Learning"
1977 - UACN internet statewide system established through UofA with cable connections between Fairbanks, Juneau and Anchorage and dial-up elsewhere
1980 - Learn/Alaska began daily broadcasts, with collaboration of agencies.
1990 -Star School Program: ESD 101 of Spokane, Wa awarded $9.8 million that included Alaska.
1996 - First accredited online university: Jones International University (based out of Colorado) was launched by Glenn Jones, CEO and Bernard Luskin, Chancellor
1999 - ARCS (Alaska Rural Communications Service) Feb 8, 1999 - Alascom with an appropriation made by the Alaska Legislature. RATNET dissolved in 1995 and ARCS took its place.
2004 - Alyeska Centralized Correspondence School is transferred to Yukon-Koyukuk SD (July 1)
2008 - MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) started (Connectivism and Connective Knowledge) from Canada - CCK08
2010 - EED begins statewide forums for hearing concerns and needs for K-12 distance education collaborative effort
2011 - Alaska's Learning Network begins statewide through a grant to K-12 school districts

There is a good article by Jennifer WIlke I just marked:
http://www.iser.uaa.alaska.edu/Projects/akbroadbandproj/telecomsymposium/WilkeLearnAlaska%20development.pdf