The AVI CHAI Foundation has released “Online/Blended Learning State of the Field Survey Summary Findings Report” by Anne Deeter. This quantitative report provides a field-wide update on new developments in the use of online/blended learning in Jewish day schools since the 2012 “Online Learning: State of the Field Survey.”
This report is the second “State of the Field” report on Jewish day school online/blended learning recently released by The AVI CHAI Foundation. The previous report, “Moving Forward: An Interim Report of Select AVI CHAI Blended Learning Initiatives in Jewish Day Schools,” by Dr. Leslie Siskin, is a qualitative analysis charting the progress of day schools involved in some of AVI CHAI’s funded initiatives in this area.
Both reports indicate rapid growth in the field and continued interest and acceleration. In 2013-14, as much as 79 percent of day schools report some type of online or blended learning, compared to 23 percent in 2011-12.
Key findings include:
- Providing differentiated learning environments continues to stand out as the most common perceived benefit in utilizing blended/online modes of instruction – and is a way to meet the individual learning needs of students.
- Most schools are still utilizing these modalities as supplements to traditional instruction. Only one-fifth (21%) of the 79% of schools reporting the use of some type of online/blended learning have moved beyond online lessons and supplemental online enrichment to deliver hybrid courses, flipped classrooms, or fully online courses.
- It is still too early to demonstrate cost savings results. Personalized learning via blended and online modalities is relatively new, and the full effect may take time. More and more evidence shows that the educational goals are being met, and small cost savings trends are in sight.
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Congrats on this important work! Online learning is extremely exciting not
only for day schools, but also well beyond. That is because it goes where the
kids are – in front of their screens. Studies show that American youth spend an
average of 7 hours a day in front of their screens.
There are about 1.3 million Jewish kids in North America who in theory
are ready to get engaged and educated. Currently about 250,000 of them are in
some sort of Jewish day school/Yeshiva. About the same number are in
Congregational schools. That means the fast majority are getting no formal
Jewish learning. Online learning can help fill big voids.
I was very fortunate recently to attend a JFN gathering focused on
EdTech – the future of online learning and engagement. However, what I learned
was shocking. It was immediately apparent that major online educational tools
are being developed for the Jewish world without serious regard to access for
people with disabilities. There is the issue of captions for people who are
hearing impaired, the issue of screen reader accessibility for those who are
vision impaired and the larger issue of differentiated learning styles and
skills which is not nearly deep or wide enough. This must be resolved.
Moreover, there are no online programs that really “train the trainers” for
Jewish educators and other professionals who work with children in how to be
effective with children with disabilities. This led me to consider a few avenues.
1. While there will always be a need and desire for in-person
learning, online learning has significant benefits in scope, scale, and reach.
Every year the Jewish community brings together advocates and interested
parties for training. It’s an important process and we at RespectAbility sponsor
and attend many of these events on best practices for inclusion of Jews with
disabilities. But, what if we could reach so many more people who for any
number of reasons are not able to attend in person? Why not create a top-notch
curriculum on inclusion of Jews with disabilities, taught by the preeminent
experts in the field, and host it online to be used at people’s convenience? It
could not be the standard talking heads – too boring. It would need to be
dynamic an interactive. We would like to be a part of creating this resource
with a variety of topics and modules that can train individuals and train the
trainers. Also, how can the more traditional materials be made in a way so that
they are built from the ground up to be accessible to all learners?
2. This online learning should serve as an example to other
institutions and organizations of what online accessible learning can be. As a
community we should create material that would go well beyond posting videos of
speakers on an accessible website with captions. True online learning can
create a community of inquiry, bring people together and move the whole field
of inclusion further ahead. Currently there are legal standards (508) for online accessibility. Religious
organizations technically are exempt from ADA laws. But we should have the
highest standards, not the lowest, as the Jewish community should be a
welcoming and respectful community for us all.
Soon there will be new legal standards for accessibility in online
platforms. We want to meet them so that Jews of ALL abilities can experience
the richness of our people, tradition, values and faith. We are a better
community when we are welcoming and respectful of all. Creating this means
learning from best practices already in place in online learning and then
ensuring that it works for all.
We are currently conducting research in this field, but have already
identified resources for our own learning.
a. Dr. David Rose is co-founder and Chief Education Officer at CAST in Boston and is a leading researcher in the field of universal design in learning and online learning for people with
disabilities.
b. The Online Learning Consortium focuses on best practices in online learning.
c. Coursera is an online learning platform used by top universities around the world to host Massive Online Learning Courses (MOOCS). Ideally, the Jewish community can find an
organization like Coursera that would host courses in order to use the best
learning management software available.
d. Pearson.com has a leader who is interested and committed to
inclusive online learning.
e. Understood.org provides tools for parents of children with
learning differences.
I am only just now absorbing this new data from Avi Chai and am really
grateful for this work. My sense is that it would take some time to go deep
into the learning on this front. Also, it is a quickly evolving field. As the
new standards for online accessibility will be out soon, we will be able to ensure
the Jewish community reaps the benefits from the new standards.
Over the last 6 years I have been involved to some extent with Jerusalem U in making several
films with them – Beneath the Helmet, Israel Inside etc. They do a terrific job as these films and their other materials connect young Jews to Israel and were extremely effective on that front. But much more can be done, by them and others, with some shorter and more interactive
learning programs, including gaming. But everything must be built from the
ground up to be accessible to all. It needs to be baked in, not sprinkled on
the top in a way that won’t work.
Food for thought. Thanks again for this terrific work!
Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi
President
RespectAbilityUSA.org
202 365 0787
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