The goal of this paper is to talk about some of the educational trends like mobile learning and how it plays a part in education. It will also talk about the homeschooling, public schools and charter school trends and the difference amongst the three., as well as the benefits to attending them.
Mobile Learning is a trend that you see more and more of these days. You see more adults taking online classes now, because it is more convenient for them to do. By doing classes online, they can spend more time with their families. Mobile learning has been around since the early 2000’s. It has its advantages and disadvantages to it. A few advantages would be, not being confined in one classroom, you basically set your own schedule, you can learn at a pace that works for you, and it makes your life easier. Disadvantages would be, it increases your screen time, and it doesn’t really give you a chance to take notes with a pen and paper. By students doing mobile learning on mobile devices, makes the internet companies receive more money.
More and more schools are now using these devices for students to do their work on, and turn it in. The phones are not used at all in our elementary schools. Most schools use the Chromebooks and tablets for their learning. They are used for I-Ready (Interactive Online Learning), Technology class, and their Interim Testing. Mobile Learning can provide some flexible learning, digital assignments, and interactive lessons. It seems that mobile learning is growing more and more.
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An interesting article shows that the e-learning market worldwide is forecast to surpass 243 billion U.S. dollars by 2022. In 2015, 49 percent of students stated that they had taken an online course in the last 12 months. This share is slightly higher than 2013 and 2014 figures, when 46 percent and 47 percent of the students stated taking this type of course (Erin Duffin, Feb.6, 2020).
In “Safe at Home”, Billy Gage Raley states that “there were about 2,000,000 children that were homeschooled in the United States in 2011. It is also predicted that there will be an increase of children being homeschooled, as well” (Billy Gage Riley (2017) P2). In some states the parents do not have to have a diploma/GED to homeschool their child. In Ohio, a parent needs to have their diploma/GED for them to homeschool their child. The child also needs to have a total of 900 hours of instruction in the required subjects.
Modern day homeschooling began in the 1970s by two main groups of people: the intensely religious and those of an exceptionally high academic philosophy (Isenberg, 2007). In the 1970s and 1980s, states treated homeschooling as a type of truancy, claiming that children, by law, must be in school. Initially, relations between homeschooling advocates and school authorities were very strained and often hostile. During the 1980s, advocates of home-based education came together as allies to legalize homeschooling at the state level (Geary, 2011).
Parents choose to homeschool their children for several different reasons. Thirty-six percent do so to provide religious or moral instruction, 21 percent have concerns about the school environment, and 17 percent are not satisfied with the academic instruction (U.S. Department of Education, 2007). Other reasons include family time, finances, distance, and caring for a special needs’ child (Geary, D 2011, P1).
Minnesota had established the very first charter school law in 1991. In the next few years, almost half the country would have charter schools. According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, in 2013-2014 there were 6,440 charter schools in the U.S., comprising more than six percent of public schools (Tell, S. (2015) Pg.5).
Ohio’s first charter school was open over eighteen years ago. As of 2017, there were 381 operating charter schools located in Ohio alone. Some key number facts about Ohio’s charter schools is shown below (Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools (2017).
Not all charter schools are required to give the same state testing. Most public schools give SAT’s, ACT’s, and the AIR test. Pathway School of Discovery gives their students the Interim test. It covers Math, Science, Social Studies, and English. All these tests are given on a computer. Each student is given a Chromebook at the beginning of the year. They work on these throughout the school year. The subjects that they do on them are I-Ready, ELA, and Math. In some schools the test results are what shows the state whether the student should go to the next grade, or not.
Pathway School of Discovery in Dayton, Ohio currently serves 789 students. Minority enrollment is 40% of the student body (majority Black), which is more than the Ohio state average of 29%. The grade that has the most students is Kindergarten. They currently have 95 students enrolled, just in Kindergarten. Pathway of Discovery School District, which is ranked within the bottom 50% of all 842 school districts in Ohio (based from combined Math and Reading proficiency testing data) for the 2015-2016 school year (Pathway of Discovery School District 2003-2020).
We know that all schools are not alike and have different curriculum standards. Some schools are funded by the government, and most charter schools are not. We also know that there are different types of technology for students to use in the classrooms today. The number of children participating in homeschooling is on the rise.
The vision that is possible would be, a classroom full of students being taught using mobile devices. There would be an instructor to assist in their learning, but all the teaching would be through computer or through an interactive board. The challenges to this type of learning would be:
- No hands-on teaching.
- Learning to be self-disciplined.
- Taking accountability
- Not being motivated.
- Technical device difficulties, such as internet loss
Some of the benefits to this type of learning would be:
- Interactive learning.
- Freedom to control their learning process
- Hands on
- Can be more engaged
This type of learning could be beneficial for students, if there is an instructor in the classroom. By having an instructor in the classroom with them, it could prevent interruptions.
Ways to prepare others for incorporating the interactive learning would be to make a presentation on showing how it would be setup. Tell the story of how it would benefit the students. I could set up a session with other educators, showing them hands on of how this would work. Then, we could have a Q&A. To begin this vision, the steps we would have to do are.
- First see what our budget is, that we must work with.
- Subscribe to a well known and very dependable internet subscriber.
- Purchase the interactive whiteboards and computers, if needed.
- Be sure to have a stimulated learning environment.
- Have the necessary curriculum, books, etc. for the students.
- Have the printed materials, just in case there are electronic issues.
In 1959 the desegregation of schools began, in Virginia, Supreme Court’s 1954 decision Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, mandating the desegregation of public schools. The segregation of public schools went beyond issues of black and white. Members of Virginia’s Indian tribes were also largely excluded from public education. While many tribes established mission schools early in the twentieth century, these schools often only went up to the seventh grade. Meanwhile, many Indian children, whose help was needed at home or in the fields, never made it past elementary school. Public high school was available only to Indians who were willing to attend blacks-only schools, and most refused. They did this in an effort to maintain their cultural identity in the face of the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which had deemed almost all Indians, for legal purposes, to be black (Brian J. Daugherity, (2014).
References
- Daugherity, B. J. Desegregation in Public Schools. (2014, May 30). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Desegregation_in_Public_Schools.
- Erin Duffin, Feb 6, (2020). E-learning and digital education – Statistics & Facts, Statista. https://www.statista.com/topics/3115/e-learning-and-digital-education/
- Geary, D. (2011). Trend and Data Analysis of Homeschooling. Academic Leadership (15337812), 9(4), 1–4. https://scholars.fhsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1717&context=alj
- Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools (2017). Key Facts About Ohio Charter Schools http://oapcs.org/about-ohio-charter-schools/
- Pathway of Discovery School District 2003-2020). Public School Review. https://www.publicschoolreview.com/ohio/pathway-school-of-discovery/3900129-school-district
- Priyanka, G. (2018, November 23). What the advantages and disadvantages of mobile learning are. eLearning Industry. Retrieved from https://elearningindustry.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-mobile-learning
- Raley, B. G. (2017). Safe at Home: Establishing a Fundamental Right to Homeschooling.
- Tell, S. (2015). Can a Charter School Not Be a Charter School? Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 13(2), 315–347.
