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E-learning
Report Says More Tech Skills Needed
Mike Wendland, Detroit Free Press, September 27, 2005
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Before Michigan
high school students can graduate, they should be required to
successfully take at least one course online.
Further, before teachers can be licensed in Michigan, they
should also pass a test, proving they have skills to integrate
technology into the classroom.
Those are two of 29 recommendations made in a report from a
6-month-long Wayne State University study, issued Thursday,
examining the Internet and the potential for e-learning.
The report was written by Tom Watkins, Michigan's former state
schools superintendent, who was hired by WSU as a project
consultant.
And although the document is just now making its way to
government and education officials, Watkins' call for mandated
technology skills and testing for teachers is already getting
support from the state's largest teachers union.
"We don't anticipate that we would have any objections to adding
some extra questions to the" certification exam "to ensure these
skills," said Margaret Trimer-Hartley, communications director
for the Michigan Education Association. "We're very supportive
of more technology training and professional development in this
area."
Technology, says the report, is critical to education.
"Michigan cannot lead in the 21st Century without casting off
the anchors of attitude, archaic laws and public policies and
beliefs that bind us to 20th-Century education models," says the
report, which also suggests Michigan is losing its leadership
role in e-learning because of state and federal budget cuts and
a lack of political commitment.
"Programs must be investments for the long haul rather than
momentary political promises," writes Watkins. This appears to
be a reference to the recently scrapped Freedom to Learn program
that had planned to give a laptop to every sixth-grader in
Michigan and other high-tech education initiatives canceled or
downsized because of the state budget crunch.
"Competitors in other states and nations are leap-frogging
Michigan's early investment in e-learning," he says. "They are
exploiting technology to advance their educational and economic
edge."
Watkins says Michigan's economic woes are a direct result of the
shift from "heavy- lifting manufacturing jobs to a
knowledge-based economy."
He sees e-learning as a tool that will create new employees
prepared for high-tech jobs.
"Competitive states and nations are ahead of Michigan because
they have created widely accessible public education and skill
development through the extensive use of e-learning," he
asserts.
The recommendations were compiled after meetings with hundreds
of school superintendents and administrators, technical leaders,
teachers, business leaders and students.
The report was commissioned by Michigan Virtual University, a
quasi-official, not-for-profit corporation founded in 1998 by
former Gov. John Engler to stimulate economic development by
creating cost-effective education and training for the state's
workforce.
Under the Granholm administration, it now is focused entirely on
K-12 education and operates Michigan Virtual High School, one of
the largest such programs in the nation, with some 8,000 courses
and test reviews offered online.
No price tag was placed on recommendations. However, Watkins
proposes that teacher certification fees be raised from $125 to
$150 and teacher permit fees raised from $5 to $10 to raise some
$700,000 in additional fees that could be used for helping
teachers use e-learning to improve student academic achievement.
He also seeks a pool of $5 million from unspecified federal,
state and philanthropic funds to be used by state universities
and intermediate school districts to develop an e-learning
curriculum.
Says the report, "A school constrained by time and space is
operating in the past and will be surpassed by global
competitors."
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