You say you want a revolution? (take two)
21st Century Education, Ed. Policy, Ed. Tech., distance learning, learning September 11th, 2008
On April 16 of this year, I wrote a post entitled “You say you want a revolution?“ In it, I wrote of true visions of the future of education, with particular reference to writing by Dale Mann and a white paper by Roger Schank and Kemi Jona. I often ask my students to read the Schank/Jona paper to get them thinking about the possibilities for the future of education. Mostly, my students have visceral reactions and think the ideas in the paper are outlandish and unrealistic.
Outlandish? Maybe. Unrealistic? Nope. In fact, I just learned that the VOISE Academy opened a week or so ago in Chicago. It’s billed as a hybrid school, combining computer-based learning with face-to-face socialization opportunities. As described, the school sounds a lot like what Schank and Jona suggest.
Well, as it turns out, one of the board members of VOISE Academy is…Kemi Jona!
It will be interesting to see how things go in that school. I’m sure someone will be studying the school; nothing happens in Chicago without somebody studying it. Some academic colleagues of mine have built entire research agendas around Chicago school reform. For now, though, I wish VOISE had a better website. It’s a little hard to believe that this particular school launched with such a basic and incomplete website.
Tags: distance learning, Jona, Mann, revolution, Schank
I’d say that site costs them some credibility for sure. Kind of like when webdesign groups make their pages in Word.
I’m very surprised at how basic and incomplete the website is! How can you have a school that is based on technology, but the website lacks technological luster! I agree with you, Tom, they have lost some credibility with me for sure. I wonder how the year will be at the VOISE Academy.
It probably has to do with the fact that that website is on CPS servers and there are probably CPS web folks gumming up the works.
But, I will say, I am almost always surprised by the lack of quality in school district websites. I am teaching my classes this semester at a technical high school, which offers computer programming and networking as well as media type classes, so I go to the website to check it out … and it is extremely unimpressive. Looks like it was made with a $2 template and provided me no new information about the school. I was pretty disappointed.