Governor's Council On Innovation and Technology and eLearning

12/21/06

News:
The eLearning Task Force created by SB1512 met for the first time yesterday. Cathy Poplin of Arizona Department of Education was elected chairperson. The development of the Request for Proposal for the three year Middle School Math Pilot program will begin immediately. The task force decided to jump start the proposal development with five meetings within two months.

The ADE web page for the eLearning Task Force (meeting dates/times, agendas, meeting reports …) is http://www.ade.az.gov/E-Learning/.

The legislature web page that summaries the bill and appointees is http://www.azleg.gov/FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/icommittee/Arizona+E-Learning+Task+Force.doc.htm.

Blog:

The Governor’s Council on Innovation and Technology heard from three speakers at their meeting this week.

Bill Harris, President of the Science Foundation Arizona www.sfaz.org, presented their plan to accelerate Arizona’s economic grow based in focused support in science and technology. The SFA is using a recent study by the National Academies “Rising Above the Gathering Storm” http://lab.nap.edu/nap-cgi/discover.cgi?term=Rising+above&GO.x=5&GO.y=9 to guide their efforts. The study elaborated on two critical elements: energy and math-science education.

Carol Peck, President of the Rodel Charitable Foundation, http://www.rodelfoundationaz.org/initiatives/lead_five.shtml remarked on the knowledge she gained on the effective way to use eLearning in the classroom as Superintendent of Alhambra district. Rodel has a major K-12 math initiative. Their Lead by Five study noted that “embedding technology in instructional programs has a significant effect on test scores…the effect of embedded technology rivals that of class-size reduction in the lower elementary grades…the (annual) cost is about $250 per student.”

Debra Raeder, Governor’s Office presented on the P-20 Council http://www.governor.state.az.us/P20/ completing their current effort to develop a number of polices to significantly enhance Arizona’s education system. The Pathway committee selected eLearning as one of means to implement many of the policies. At the public testimony section of the P-20 meeting I distributed the eSATS 12 page study that selected 16 emerging education policies and discussed how eLearning could provide efficient, effective, and accessible implementation.

During the public testimony of the GCIT meeting I noted that two years ago GCIT education sub committee under Barbara Clark created a significant set of eLearning recommendations http://breeze.ltc.arizona.edu/p88404065/ in the areas of formative data and teacher preparation and renewal. I recommended that GCIT address eLearning within the current context of both innovation and technology, the new P-20 policies, the progress made in the past two years including the K-12 eLearning Task Force, and growing support for eLearning implementation in our schools. After a goodly amount of very positive discussion the GCIT chair said they would consider this recommendation during the annual review of their study committee structure over the next several months. The eSATS polity-eLearning study paper was accepted for distribution to the GCIT members.

All in all, a very good ten days for Arizona K-12 eLearning at the policy level. Now on to the minor details, like implementation!!!

Correction: Many apologies to our friend Robert Blomeyer PhD. Here is the correct email address for Bob (rblomeyer@learningpt.org ) His MCREL - Learning Point Associates research report “The Effects of Technology on Reading Performance in the Middle-School Grades: A Meta-Analysis With Recommendations for Policy” is correct at. http://www.ncrel.org/tech/reading/index.html