The ETSC program is partnering with Verizon Thinkfinity to offer professional development opportunities for Washington educators. The first 10-hour online course, Introduction to Thinkfinity, starts November 16. Other courses to follow:

• Thinkfinity Science Resources
• Thinkfinity and the Arts
• Thinkfinity and Science
• Thinkfinity and Reading
• Thinkfinity and Social Studies
• Thinkfinity and Elementary Music

1. Search for “Thinkfinity” and click on the course.
2. If you are a new user, you will be asked to create an escWorks account.  If you already have an account on the ESD 112 escWorks site, you will need to login.
3. Once you are logged in, you will be taken to the registration page.

ESD 112's Ed Tech Director, Debbie Tschirgi, discussed the importance of choosing technology that supports a school's mission and vision in EDTECH: Focus on K-12. There are five factors to be considered when making these choices: Budget considerations, equitable access, classroom conditions, and sustainability. Read the entire article at http://www.edtechmag.com/k12/issues/april-may-2009/choose-but-choose-wisely.html

The Teacher Leadership Project, a nationally recognized, award-winning professional development model that is used in 18 states by 4,200 teachers, is a prime example of the good work being done in technology-infused teaching. Becky Firth, director of NWESD's Technology Leadership Center and one of the former technology coaches, says the skill-based training was done with a “just in case” attitude, not a “just in time” philosophy. Teachers forgot what they’d learned, and enormous energy was spent retraining them again and again. Read the entire article at http://www.districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1988

Forget tests and papers - these students are doing documentaries and books.

SAN DIEGO - Chandler Garbell got straight A's but was still restless at suburban Rancho Bernardo High School. She was tired of textbook exercises, even in Advanced Placement courses. "I realized there was something missing in my education," she said. So, in her junior year, she transferred to High Tech High. Brandan Johnson had a different kind of restlessness. A black male living in a rough section of town, he knew too many kids who wound up in prison or working at McDonald's. With a push from his parents, he, too, signed up for High Tech High.

In this innovative charter school, in a converted warehouse, students don't take tests or write papers. Instead, they use the latest technology to produce documentaries, books and presentations. The brainchild of lawyer-turned-educator Larry Rosenstock, High Tech High is one of many attempts nationally to reinvent high schools. The burgeoning movement is fueled by growing alarm over dropout rates - especially among blacks and Hispanics - disengaged students, and a decline in American competitiveness in science and math.

The quest is attracting millions of dollars from entrepreneurs and philanthropists, led by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, who earlier this year told the nation's governors that the traditional large urban high school is obsolete. High Tech High is one of the models attracting the most attention and support. Gates' foundation has given Rosenstock more than $10 million to expand, and San Diego real estate magnate Gary Jacobs gave $6 million for startup.

"This is a very impressive school," said Betsy Brand, director of the American Youth Policy Forum, which promotes initiatives that benefit adolescents. Brand is taking state legislators from around the country on a tour of the school in February. "It's very youth-oriented, and students who have a lot of interest in an area can pursue it." High Tech's model is to locate small schools with no more than 450 students each on the same campus. In San Diego are High Tech High, two other specialty high schools, two middle schools, and an elementary school. The schools are more like college than high school, with students taking responsibility for their own learning through interdisciplinary projects and internships.

Unlike many charter schools that target low-income students or minorities, High Tech High seeks students of all backgrounds on the conviction that they learn best together. Its student body is about 55 percent white, 15 percent each black and Hispanic, the rest Asian and Filipino. About 15 percent are poor enough under federal guidelines to qualify for free and reduced-price lunches. And while it's nontraditional, it delivers on traditional measures. There's no test prep, but it scored in the top 10 percent among high schools in the California academic improvement index, which includes test scores. That's among all high schools, not just those with similar demographics. Higher percentages of students of all ethnic groups at the school passed the state's graduation tests in English and math than in the state as a whole.

What impresses philanthropists and educators most is that all of its graduates in three classes have gone to college - more than half were the first in their families to do so - and 80 percent to four-year schools. High Tech High, with its high ceilings, exposed ductwork, and glass-walled offices, doesn't look like a school. Student work clogs the classrooms and hallways, everything from computer-altered photographs to a human-powered submarine, the work of a physics class. While every moment is abuzz with activity, there is very little disruption. The curtained, gray-carpeted oval in the center of the one-story building, called the common space, sometimes is used as a classroom, sometimes as a meeting place, sometimes for quiet study. It is "high tech" not because it trains students to fix computers and write software, although some do, but because technology is infused throughout the curriculum. Students work on networked laptops and maintain digital portfolios.

Some travel; this year, 12 seniors went to Baja California for eight weeks to study marine life, including plankton, whale sharks and sea turtles, as well as the area's history and culture. They not only collected specimens but also created poetry, a documentary, a mural, and a novel. In the last two years, Jay Vavra's junior biotechnology classes designed, wrote and photographed a field guide to wildlife in San Diego Bay, with a foreword by anthropologist Jane Goodall. This year, Vavra's class is compiling a book and DVD on the history and changing ecology of the bay, covering such subjects as abalone and kelp farming, the salt industry, and the role of Native American and Chinese fishermen. They tracked down original sources - former saltworks managers, fishermen, and scholars. Each group of six students divides the duties: interviewing, research, computer design, video, and devising a timeline. Teachers make sure each group has students with different skill levels. Chandler Garbell helped edit the field guide. "We delve into it, we learn all the facts of a particular project. That's where true learning comes from," she said.

Brandan Johnson isn't sure he'd be applying to college if it weren't for High Tech High. "The transition was difficult," he said. "I didn't do that well in ninth grade. I was used to just 'study this, do this.' " Now he wants to be a psychologist. Most of the teachers come from nontraditional backgrounds.

Erika Page, a lawyer who spent a year with Teach for America, will be a founding faculty member at High Tech High-Austin, Texas, when it opens in September. "This is a teacher's dream," she said. "The students are much more invested. I won't say there are no behavior problems, but that tends to go down because every type of learning modality is used. I don't know anyone who wouldn't want to teach like this unless they were invested in the traditional classroom."

Rosenstock, the former principal of Cambridge Ridge and Latin High School in Cambridge, Mass., plans to open more school campuses in California as well as Texas. He formed a charter-management organization to control the design of future schools. Mastery Charter in Philadelphia was affiliated with Rosenstock's original network but broke away so it could group students by skill level. That concept is verboten to Rosenstock, who doesn't want to duplicate the tracking that he said consigns many students in urban high schools to low standards and expectations.

"We felt so strongly that was the way to go, especially for students who were significantly behind, that it didn't make sense to affiliate," said Scott Gordon, CEO of Mastery. Mastery, which is seeking to open another school in Philadelphia and one in Chester, has shown success in its own right. It serves a much poorer population than High Tech High - 75 percent qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch vs. High Tech's 15 percent - yet has graduated more than 90 percent of its students and sent three-quarters to college. In California, High Tech High has won the state's backing. It now has the right to train its own teachers and open charter schools anywhere in the state without local approval. Rosenstock first opposed charter schools, but came to see them as the only way to force change.

"If something is not working, we have to be intellectually honest and change it," he said. "Here, teachers meet one hour every morning, 180 days a year. In a typical school, they may meet a few afternoons a year. They have no capacity to work for change." It's not easy to break the mold in creating a school, with parents are wary of a school different from what they remember. "When I first opened up, people said I was crazy," Rosenstock said. "Usually parents will tell me that their high school experience is alienating, but still they want the same for their kids. But now that we're getting all our kids into college, they feel more comfortable."

Contact Dale Mezzacappa at dmezzacappa@phillynews.com or 215-854-5112.

How is High Tech High Different?

• Design principles: "Personalization, adult-world connection, common intellectual mission."
• Technology is not a subject, it is the primary mode of learning.
• All students have access to a laptop computer for at least half a day.
• No more than 450 students in any school.
• Assessment is through presentation and performance, not tests.
• Final senior projects are graded by committees of adults from the school and community.
• No formal sports, arts or music, although there are student-run activities in these areas.
• There is no tracking. Students of all abilities learn together and are often on the same project teams.
• Admission is by lottery.
• Student-teacher ratio is 20:1. Each student has the same adviser for all four years.
• Less than 1 percent of students are suspended. While some students transfer to different schools, the dropout rate is negligible.
• All graduates have been admitted to college; 58 percent of those are the first in their families to go.
• It is a charter school. In addition to taxpayer dollars, it is supported by grants from corporations and foundations.

By Dale Mezzacappa, Philadelphia Inquirer

By David Sharp, Associated Press Writer  |  October 23, 2007

PORTLAND, Maine --Maine's program to give every middle school student a laptop computer is leading to better writing. 4real!

Despite creating a language all their own using e-mail and text messages, students are still learning standard English and their writing scores have improved on a standardized test since laptop computers were distributed, according to a new study.

And the students' writing skills improved even when they were using pen and paper, not just a computer keyboard, the study says.

"If you concentrate on whether laptops are helping kids achieve 21st century skills, this demonstrates that it's happening in writing," said David Silvernail, director of the Maine Education Policy Research Institute at the University of Southern Maine.

The study authored by Silvernail and Aaron Gritter is the first in a series in which educators aim to evaluate Maine's first-in-the-nation laptop program.

The laptop program, which seeks to eliminate the so-called "digital divide" between wealthy and poor students, kicked off with distribution of more than 30,000 computers to each seventh- and eighth-grader in public schools in 2002 and 2003.

The study focused on eighth-graders' scores on the Maine Educational Assessment to see if the standardized test results backed up the perception of both students and teachers alike that laptops have led to better writing skills.

Education Commissioner Sue Gendron said it represents the first concrete evidence that backs up what most educators already feel -- that the laptop program known as the Maine Learning Technology Initiative is working.

"It's about enhancing learning opportunities, and the evidence and the data we've received in this report substantiates that this is the right approach," she said.

Maine Education Assessment scores indicate 49 percent of eighth-graders were proficient in 2005 in writing, compared to 29 percent in 2000.

And it wasn't just a function of taking the writing portion of the test using a computer and keyboard. Students who used pen and paper and students who used a computer keyboard showed similar improvements on the test, Silvernail said.

During the same period, math scores were unchanged and science scores grew by 2 points, while reading scores actually dropped 3 points, Silvernail said. Writing showed the biggest improvement of 7 points, from 530 to 537, he said.

Silvernail said it's unrealistic to expect big increases on standardized tests tied to laptops, but writing is the exception.

Laptops make it easier for students to edit their copy and make changes without getting writer's cramp, he said. And it was important, he said, that those skills translated when the test was taken with pen and paper.

Virginia Rebar, principal at Piscataquis Community Middle School, was not surprised by the results because language skills are being developed every time the computers are used, in social studies and other subjects beyond language arts.

"It's just a lot easier to edit, to self-critique. Our teachers engage students in a lot of peer-editing. Not only are they helping themselves but they're helping each other as they get to their final projects," she said. 

From eSchool News staff and wire service reports.

A new report commissioned by the College Board recommends several steps for the board to take to ensure the kinds of scoring errors that plagued the SAT last fall don't happen again, including the use of better scanning software and even the possibility of offering the test online. Though there is room for improvement, the report notes, researchers say the scoring of SATs overall is reliable. Some critics, however, question the report's objectivity. 

July 24, 2006-Ultimately, the College Board should consider having students take the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) online, says a new report. The report was requested in the wake of highly publicized scoring errors that occurred last October. But until the test goes online, steps ranging from better scanning software to more training--and even providing proper pencils and erasers at test centers--could improve the reliability of scoring the SAT exam, according to the report. The report, commissioned by the College Board and released July 20, says the scoring system for the college entrance test has improved since more than 4,000 SATs taken last October were given incorrectly low scores. On the whole, scores are reliable, according to the report.

But the report by consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton identifies a series of continuing risks, such as scanners affected by debris or misinterpreting erased marks, and suggests a range of mostly technical steps to provide further safeguards. Overall, the report paints a picture of a less-than-infallible exam, noting several areas where current controls fall short of providing perfect reliability. The College Board and Pearson Educational Measurement, which scores most of the exams, had previously blamed the October errors on the misreading of "marginal marks" and on answer sheets that expanded because of humidity. Some of the recommendations would address those problems, including additional "anchor marks" on the sheets that reveal whether they have expanded. In the long run, the report suggests the College Board consider moving the SAT online, something the organization says it has discussed in the past and will consider again, though such a move would raise security concerns. The report was delivered to the College Board, which owns the SAT, in late May.

But the board then backed off a pledge to make the report public, citing litigation on behalf of students whose tests has been misgraded. The College Board changed course after receiving a subpoena from Sen. Kenneth LaValle, chairman of New York's state Senate Higher Education Committee. Robert Schaeffer, a College Board critic with the group FairTest, attacked the report for failing to provide any new insight into what went wrong with the October exams. "After all the noise and all the promises, they still haven't answered those questions," he said. "It's going to be another arena where they're answered--presumably the courts."

Other critics of the College Board questioned the independence of Booz Allen, which received $5.2 million in consulting fees from the board in the year ending June 30, 2005, according to a report in the New York Times. "This isn't the outside independent scrutiny" that is needed, Brad MacGowan, a college counselor in Newton, Mass., told the Times. College Board spokeswoman Chiara Coletti said the organization already had determined that humidity and problems with so-called "marginal marks" were to blame for the October errors. She said the report was commissioned "to determine if what we put in [as a remedy] was effective, and if we needed to do anything else." "We're very pleased with the report, because it does confirm our improvements were effective," she said.

After the scoring errors emerged, the board reportedly adjusted its procedures in several ways, including having each answer sheet scanned twice and giving answer sheets a drying-out period. Coletti said some of the report's further recommendations are already under consideration, and she called it a "probability" that test centers soon would provide students with proper pencils and erasers to try to head off smudging problems. The College Board isn't the first to consider using the internet to administer standardized tests. Several states have begun experimenting with online testing for their high-stakes exams, though with mixed results. In a pilot program last year, the Kentucky Department of Education allowed some 1,200 students in 147 schools to take Kentucky's statewide assessment, the Commonwealth Accountability System, or CATS, online.

In a related program, some 457 10th and 11th grade students in an additional 74 schools were allowed to take the reading and social studies portions of the Kentucky Core Content Test (KCCT), one component of the larger CATS statewide assessment, via computer. Although considered a success, officials decided not to offer the online version of the KCCT again in 2006, owing to "hardware limitations identified during the pilot." The larger CATS Online system, however, did continue as a testing option to students who routinely used a text reader or screen reader for instruction. The students took the online assessments on a secure server, and their grades were submitted to an outside contractor for grading. At the time the pilot was announced, state officials said the goal would be eventually to move every student in the state to an online model.

Officials in other states, including Idaho, Indiana, Oregon, and Virginia, also have begun exploring the benefits of statewide online testing. In 2003, officials in South Dakota tabled a plan to conduct widespread online testing in reading and math after developing a new metric designed to better meet the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Though the online version remains stalled, officials there have not ruled out the possibility of pursuing an online model in the future.

Links: College Board http://www.collegeboard.com

Consultant's report http://www.collegeboard.com/sat/answersheetprocessing/report

FairTest http://www.fairtest.org

Technology and Project-based Learning

Technology can play a huge role in any classroom, but it is especially powerful when coupled with project-based learning. Improved Teaching and Learning Using Technology Technology (computers and other digital devices, software, and networks) contributes to teaching and learning in diverse ways, but its most crucial role relates directly to curriculum, instruction, and assessment: Technology can improve the delivery of instruction and quality of learning activities, making them more efficient, incorporating multiple approaches to learning, and providing access to curriculum and learning experiences that would not be possible otherwise. Technology applications that have produced positive results for students include computer-supported collaboration, student projects, Internet research, exposure to multimedia curriculum supplements, word processing writing assignments, and content-specific tutorials and computer-assisted instruction. 

Technology also offers unique advantages where other options don't exist, as in providing technological assistance to individuals with disabilities or delivering instruction at a distance via Internet tools or videoconferencing (Center for Applied Research in Educational Technology, 2003; Cradler, et al., 2002; Kulik, 2003).  

Technology can improve the assessment of teaching and learning by providing rapid analysis and feedback and by helping schools and teachers integrate student assessment into curriculum and instruction. Adaptive feedback that is tailored to student responses is an integral feature of tutorials and Integrated Learning Systems (computer packages that offer content, lessons, and assessment.) This is often applied to basic skills, but artificial-intelligence technology is now also facilitating the assessment of higher-order learning, such as problem-solving; relationships between facts, concepts, and processes; and even writing. (McNabb, et al., 2002). Note that these improvements are conditional. Technology can also have no effect or even be detrimental. That is because technology is not a "central variable" in educational improvement. Rather, its effect on teacher and student outcomes depends on how it is used in relation to curriculum, instruction, and assessment (Conley, 1993). 

The largest effects of technology on student achievement are observed in cases where the technology use is carefully aligned with what is being taught and with the evaluation of expected outcomes (Cradler, et al., 2002). In cases where researchers have been able to relate technology-enhanced content and instruction directly to standards and assessment, they have observed effect sizes of around .6 standard deviation units (e.g., Boster, et al., 2002). (The standard deviation is a measure of the amount scores vary on either side of the mean. An effect size of .6 means that students using technology outscored other students by an amount equal to 60% of the standard deviation. Proposed federal guidelines suggest that technology programs should aim for effect sizes of .25 to .35 [Agodini, et al., 2003, p. 13-17]). Meta-analyses that compute average effect sizes for numbers of related studies have generally turned up effect sizes for educational technology of around .2 to .4 (Blok, et al., 2002; Kulik, 2003; Waxman, Connell, & Gray, 2002). Quantitative research that provides effect size data makes up only a small part of the literature in educational technology (Fouts, 2002). 

Much of the published information consists of case studies and accounts of particular classroom experiences. While this makes it difficult to compare relative benefits of different approaches (an issue that figures large in current federal policy in the United States), it does provide information on the conditions under which technology works best. Context is critical, because the core variables of curriculum, instruction, and assessment are closely related. For instance, management of records on student achievement is both a management and an assessment issue, and using feedback from assessment is itself an instructional strategy. Poor alignment of assessment with curriculum will make that feedback less useful, as would an instructional approach that was not set up to incorporate it. 

Effective use of educational technology has long been recognized as not only a student outcome, but also a major learning challenge for teachers and administrators (Moursund & Bielefeldt, 1999; Office of Technology Assessment, 1995). One function of standards, such as the National Educational Technology Standards and its list of "Essential Conditions" (International Society for Technology in Education, 2000) is to make explicit the multiple factors that need to be aligned for educational success. For additional information contact Forrest J. Fisher, Educational Technology Support Center @454-3134 or forrestf@esd105.wednet.edu

Ten superintendents who are among the nation’s most successful in leading their schools into the 21st century were honored in a ceremony Feb. 15, 2008.

The occasion was eSchool News’ Eighth Annual Tech-Savvy Superintendent Awards, sponsored by Promethean and eCollege. This year’s award winners were honored in Tampa, Fla., in a ceremony held during—but not affiliated with—the American Association of School Administrators’ 2008 National Conference on Education.

(Editor’s note: For coverage of AASA’s 2008 conference, see our Conference Information Center.)

“Using technology as a tool for real school reform, you’re advancing an idea of education that leaves behind the old factory model of instruction and embraces new tools and techniques that engage children fully, personalize their instruction, and empower them to take control of their own learning,” eSchool News Managing Editor Dennis Pierce told honorees. “And your students are the better for it.”

Now in its eighth year, the Tech-Savvy Superintendent Awards are intended to recognize excellence in ed-tech leadership from the very top level of school district administration, and hold these exemplary leaders up as models for others to follow.

Among other criteria, “tech-savvy” superintendents must model the effective use of technology in their day-to-day execution of the superintendency; ensure that technology resources are distributed equitably among students and staff; insist that adequate professional development is a component of every school technology initiative; demonstrate exceptional vision in leading the development and implementation of district-wide technology plans; and think creatively and strategically about the long-term challenges and opportunities that technology provides in their districts and in education at large.

Winners were nominated by the school field and then chosen by the editors of eSchool News with the help of Tech-Savvy Superintendent laureates from prior years.

Here are this year’s winners:

Randy Acevedo, Monroe County Schools, Fla.;
Ron Barlow, Tintic School District, Utah;
John Barry, Aurora Public Schools, Colo.;
Deborah Delisle, Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District, Ohio;
William Hamilton, Walled Lake School District, Mich.;
Abelardo Saavedra, Houston Independent School District, Texas;
Ron Saunders, Barrow County Schools, Ga.;
Jerry Vaughn, Floydada Independent School District, Texas;
Sue Walker, Shoreline School District, Wash.; and
Jerry Weast, Montgomery County Public Schools, Md.

“Many of you have led the implementation of one-to-one computing projects—often having found creative ways to fund and sustain these programs—to ensure equitable access to technology for all students, both at school and at home,” Pierce told honorees.

“You’ve reformed financial procedures and district-wide communications using technology, opening up the flow of information to stakeholders and making parents true partners in the educational system. And, you’ve explored the use of innovative and emerging technologies as tools for instruction, where appropriate—such as the use of Second Life as a platform for staff development and academic intervention.

“And it’s this kind of exemplary vision and skilled leadership our schools vitally need as we enter a critical period in our nation’s history,” Pierce added. “We’ll do all we can to help promote the vision of 21st-century education that you’ve embraced, and I’d ask that you, too, continue to help share that vision with your colleagues and your stakeholders.” 

Michigan became the first state in the nation to have students experience some form of online instruction before receiving a diploma when the state legislature on March 30 approved a bill to ratchet up the state's graduation requirements. Looking to improve the level of rigor in high school classrooms and better prepare students for the realities of the modern workforce, Michigan lawmakers have approved a bill that requires every student in the state to take part in some form of online instruction before they graduate. Believed to be the first of its kind in the country, the requirement--part of a larger proposal designed to hold high schools across the state to a higher standard of learning--clears the way for other states to consider online competency as a prerequisite to graduation.

As news of the bill's passage circulated late last week, advocates of educational technology said the measure underscores the growing importance of virtual learning in schools--not only in Michigan, but nationwide. "Online learning," wrote Susan Patrick, executive director of the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL), in an eMail message to eSchool News, "levels the playing field by giving kids access to more courses and opportunities to take rigorous curriculum." Patrick, who headed of the federal Office of Educational Technology before joining NACOL, added: "Michigan's follow-through on the commitment to 21st-century learning is an important first step in our nation."

Roundly endorsed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who has made education reform a central pillar of her political agenda, the larger bill is intended to ratchet up high school graduation requirements across the state. The move would give Michigan, once criticized for its lackluster curriculum requirements, one of the toughest paths to graduation in the nation.

"When we hold our kids to high standards, they will do great things," said Granholm in response to the legislature's approval of the bill March 30. "This new curriculum will help give Michigan the best-educated workforce in the nation and bring new jobs and new investment to our state." Buttressed by a national push for widespread high-school reform, Michigan lawmakers had been considering proposals that would make earning a diploma more difficult. The state's students now will be required to take four credits of math and English; three credits of science and social studies; two credits of a foreign language; one credit of physical education and health; one credit of visual or performing arts; and one online learning "experience."

Though there remains some room for debate over what constitutes an online "experience," as opposed to a full credit or actual course, advocates of educational technology say the bill likely will pave the way for other states to consider the impact of online learning in schools more seriously. "Offering online courses is an important first step to preparing students for success in a global economy," wrote Patrick. "We need to open the pipeline of curriculum and instructional offerings to include online courses to prepare students to go to college." There already is strong support for online instruction in Michigan. At the Michigan Virtual University, enrollment in its Michigan Virtual High School program has grown from 100 students in 1999, the program's first year, to 5,959 students during the 2004-05 school year, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Additional Information from earlier article: Chronicle of Higher Education, 13 December 2005

The Michigan State Board of Education is set to approve a new graduation requirement today that would make every high-school student in the state take at least one online course before receiving a diploma. The new requirement would appear to be the first of its kind in the nation. Mike Flanagan, the Michigan state superintendent of public instruction, said he proposed the online-course requirement, along with other general requirements, to make sure students were prepared for college and for jobs, which are becoming more technology-focused. "We don't want our kids left in the global dust," Mr. Flanagan said. "It's an experience we need to have." While most high-school students are adept at using the Internet, Mr. Flanagan said, few of them take courses online. But today's high-school students are increasingly likely to encounter online courses as more colleges turn to online education, he said.

The online-education proposal is included with several other proposed statewide requirements -- including four years of English courses, three years of mathematics, and three years of science. Currently, the only state-required course for graduation in Michigan is a one-semester class in civics, although many of the state's local school districts have much tougher requirements. If the state Board of Education approves the proposals, they will still need the assent of both the State Legislature and the governor. Mr. Flanagan said he already had strong support for the online proposal in the Legislature.

Most of the proposed academic requirements would help put Michigan on a par with many other states. The online-education requirement, however, appears unique. The state has a strong distance-education program for high-school students through the Michigan Virtual University, which despite its name now provides exclusively K-12 courses and resources. Many high-school students take advanced-placement courses through the virtual university, and Mr. Flanagan said those students have used online education to great success. Under the proposal, students would be permitted to count noncredit online courses, such as ACT-preparation courses, toward the requirement. But Mr. Flanagan said he wanted to encourage students to take the online courses for credit.

Kathleen N. Straus, president of the State Board of Education, said the public had welcomed the proposal since Mr. Flanagan offered it at the board's November meeting. The board is holding its December meeting today, and members are likely to pass the online requirement, she said. "People are really quite interested in it," she said. "We think we'd be on the cutting edge." Ms. Straus said that people are more likely to need continuing education in order to stay employed in the future.

Online learning is currently one of the more popular forms of continuing education, she said, so students should get some experience with it early on. "We want to foster lifelong learning," Ms. Straus said. "We know that much learning is going to take place in the 21st century online." Mr. Flanagan noted that most colleges offer at least some courses over the Internet, and that many college students -- including his own kids -- take online courses from their dormitory rooms. Although many online programs are geared toward older adult learners, he said, students should get used to taking courses that way now.

Reported by: Chronicle of Higher Education, 13 December 2005

A New Journey