Warren New Tech High School

Warren New Tech High School
Taken from http://www.warrenk12nc.org/schools.php?id=12

This weekend, a few coworkers and I traveled to Lake Gaston. On the way, we passed a school called Warren New Tech High School One of my coworkers mentioned that her nephew had gone there, and that the students spent their days in computer labs taking web-based classes. After we arrived at the house and got settled in, I noticed a book sitting under one of the side tables called Ferry Tales and Other Lake Gaston Folklure, written by the students of Warren New Tech High School. The students interviewed lifelong residents and compiled a history of the area. I knew that I needed to do some more research about this school when I got home. I had a few questions about this school that I wanted to be able to answer.

The first question that lingered with me for most of the weekend was why these students went to a physical building to do mostly web based learning. There are only 14 teachers at this school for more than 200 students. Surely these classes could be to the students at home. Did they really need to come to the physical building 5 days a week? I did not need the internet to answer this question. On the way home, I looked at the environment a little more closely. This school is situated in a very rural, high poverty area. Chances are that many of the students attending this school do not have a computer at home with a fast enough internet connection to stream video and participate in online class. This also means that these students have likely not had some of the same experiences with technology as their age group peers living in more affluent areas. Clearly this building is no waste of space, rather a valuable resource for students who want to be able to compete in a world that requires use of technology to be successful, but might not be able to afford to do so on their own.

The cover of Ferry Tales and Other Lake Gaston Folklure
Taken from lulu.com

My next question was about how the classes are taught at WNTHS. My coworker knew that it was mostly computer-based, but did not know much more about this. While the school's website does not describe the classroom or computer lab settings, it does describe the school as using Project Based Learning (PBL) to help students learn 21st century skills including early college coursework and leadership. This is where the book really started to make sense. While writing this book, students must have learned to use and apply a wide variety of the 21st century skills that the school seeks to instill. For example, the students must have learned to ask appropriate interview questions and edit the responses in a manner that fit the stories in the book. The students also needed to use publishing software to both compose and format the book for publishing. The book is available in a few online sources and also in local businesses, which means that students had to work with these businesses and websites to sell the book that they had created.  Other projects the students do include creating and presenting business ideas and models. All of these projects teach students how to use these skills they are learning in contexts which they may encounter in their later careers.

This idea of PBL reminded me of the Participatory Learning Culture (PLC) that Curtis Bonk mentions in the introduction to The World is Open. These students are learning these skills by using them, and this is one of the trends in education that has resulted from the use of technology. I think that WNTHS is a great example of implication of participatory learning at the high school level. I wonder what Bonk would think about this school?

WNTHS is a very interesting school, and I'm glad that we drove past it. I do, however, still have a few questions about this school. I don't think I will find an answer to these questions, but they are interesting to think about, so to close I leave you with this:

1. I could not find any data about the demographics or performance of the students at WNTHS high school or in Warren County Schools. These students may be succeeding at their projects, but are they succeeding on EOCs or SATs? Are they getting into college after graduation?
2. Does it really matter whether these students have good test scores? They're clearly learning valuable skills, and as much as that should be enough, is it?
3. How are the classes administered? Do the teachers simply used web-based instruction resources such as blackboard, or do the students also participate in online classes through other institutions?

The World is Open

Reading the supplementary materials to the book The World is Open: How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education by Curtis J. Bonk has given some interesting insight into the book, and has created an interesting framework. I have not yet had a chance to read the entire book, but will definitely keep these things in mind as I continue to read. A few thoughts and questions I have after reading the supplementary materials and introduction to this book:

1. Regarding the rights and responsibilities of all learners: What role does the teacher have in facilitating these rights? For example, one of the rights of all learners is to learn when and how you want in a comfortable environment. I took this to mean that while a student may not learn exclusively in this way in the sense that he or she must still meet educational standards, he or she should have the right to do as little or as much additional research as he or she would like. Does the teacher need to provide the time for students to learn in any way they want from anyone they choose or should it be up to the students to find this time? If a teacher knows that the student has no access to a computer or the internet at home, is her or she obligated to find a way to give the student this opportunity? Students must take responsibility for their own learning, but how much should teachers help them in finding the means to take that responsibility?
2. In the postscript, Bonk assesses the role of of formal and informal learning and predicts that in the future there will be more of both. He goes on to say that while people will likely seek more formal learning for a longer amount of time, informal learning will take on a more important role. He suggests that these processes will feed each other as more formal learners will share their learning with informal learners. I can definitely see and understand this conclusion, but what role will this informal learning take? While I may be able to find nearly any information online, what use will it have. I wonder if this will affect the role of formal instruction. Will a company be more likely to hire a person with a degree if another person has studied all the same information and demonstrated the same aptitudes? This would be a difficult question to answer absolutely, but I think it would be interesting to hear Dr. Bonk's predictions.

To close, I would like to share one quote from the introduction to the book that really spoke to me:

"What is interesting today is that with the emergence of the Web, we can go from a live experience during the day, and a few hours later record it for near-eternity in a blog posting or Web site entry." 

While this quote didn't raise any specific questions for me, I find that it really sums up how large of an impact the internet has had. I can't even begin to estimate the blogs I have read or youtube videos that I have watched and learned from. Without the internet, these people would only be able to share this information with people they had direct contact with, and I almost certainly would have never learned this information. As Bonk says later "Anyone can now learn anything from anyone at anytime." I believe that he is right. Learning is no longer confined to the school you live closest to, or the teachers who are on staff at that school, or even the books which that school can afford. For better or for worse, learning is becoming more available and more global, and to be effective teachers we cannot ignore this fact.