This blog entry is really only of interest to those of you who are interested in the potential of distance learning, those of you wanting to read the travelogue or the opionates rants or learn more about the Churchill fellowship, I would probably recommend you skip this entry. However If you are interested in virtual schools…read on.
The weekend was spent visiting my aunts, uncles and cousin in Bowral and the simple truth is I have had a wonderful time, I know these relations very well, they have been to the UK many times, indeed one of these Aunts is my godmother. These are people with whom I have, and always have had, a lot of genuine warmth towards. I am not going to describe everything I did, not because it was a quiet or a forgettable time, on the contrary, I could not have been happier, but because a family rendezvous is of interest only to the family itself.
I will reiterate what I said yesterday about the Sydney Opal Card. Bowral is a suburb about 2 hours by rail from the heart of Sydney, in English terms think of the commuter towns of Cambridgeshire, Surrey, Hampshire or Kent, the commute is the same here in Oz….. actually no its not the same….it really isn’t , look as you catch the 06: 50 from Leighton Buzzard to Euston, I want you to imagine a rail fare of 6 dollars using the Opal and while you are thinking about that, I want you to imagine a clean commuter train that is busy but you can still get a seat because they put on double decker trains at peak times.
But today, I am not going to Sydney, the destination is “Finnigan Virtual School” just outside Canberra. For those of you who know Canberra, it’s actually just outside the city in a suburb called Queansbyan. Also I am driving, not going by train and a note to UK readers, the Aussies drive on the left the same as us….and the roads are much quieter.
Later I am going to return to discussing the Virtual School of Victoria. That will be after today’s visit because just now I am interested to see how two virtual schools are going to compare. It’s not going to be a case of this school is better than that one, but over the weekend, I have been writing up my impressions of VSV and I have had a chance to reflect and digest what I saw. Remember the idea of this fellowship, is to look at the potential of virtual schools in England.
The initial impression of Finnigan is impressive, the first thing to strike you when you arrive at the school is just how new it is. Please don’t misunderstand me, new does not necessarily equate to impressive or attractive. I work in a new school in Peterlee and when you enter the doors for the first time, there is a “wow factor,” partly because the architects did a good job, partly because whoever was responsible for dictating the parameters of the design, (Ian Mowbray and Lesley Powell, I dunno? ) was clear about what they wanted and partly because of the inspirational art work and interior design by Alix Vince. But I have been to other new schools which look awful, one former school which I left many years ago resembled my idea of a prison. Finnigan was both new, impressive and aesthetically right on the mark, like my current school…Finnigan had that initial “oomph effect”
Sorry I am wandering off the point again, I wanted to see if the model here could be used in the UK, I wanted to see what they did, who they did it for?did it work? how was it evaluated and assessed. What unique problems and flaws were there? I have already said I want to return to discussing VSV because I am aware that I have really bought the idea, I was convinced it was good, but did I look with a sufficiently critical eye? Was I naïve in accepting what I was told? I did have questions about feedback, I did have questions about student engagement, what about the need to escape a dysfunctional family, what about loneliness and isolation, what about the pressure on carers, guardians, parents who were now obliged to stay at home because there child was home schooled.
Well lets start by looking at the student “demographic” who actually attends Finigan?
Geographic Isolation 5%
Itinerant 10%
Parents working abroad 15%
Medical 6%
Pregnant/young parent 2%
Gifted and talented 9%
Learning Support 31%
Extraordinary circumstances 4%
Transition 18%
This alone was interesting. The second interesting fact is a number of students are dual registered, they already attend face2face school but for whatever reason need to supplement their curriculum with one or more distance learning classes.
Now this is something I am interested in, indeed it looks as if 17% of all students on the role are in this situation.
I also learned that the school is not a first choice option. Attendance at Finnigan is only possible after referral from another school and medical practioner or some other officially recognised body for example sporting body for elite athletes, government school in the case of distance barriers.
Finally the figures I was given includes but does not quantify the young adults who have already left school but are trying to catch up with missing certificates.
My first question was about the students experiencing loneliness and isolation because their teaching is “remote,” The response was interesting, The need to deliver as broad a curriculum as possible and to ensure sufficient numbers of students accessed a full curriculum has led distance education schools such as Finigan to collaborate with face 2face schools and pioneer a model of dual-mode studies that a significant proportion of their students already attend a traditional bricks and mortar 4 walls institution. So the whole issue of loneliness and isolation des not affect many students. Finigan does deliver remote education but there remains an emphasis on face-to-face contact between staff and students and students and students through residential work, and pre arranged tutorials within the school.
OK so for 20% kids, there is no problem, then we look at the travellers, those who have moved abroad but want to maintain an Australian education, we find we have reduced the question to 55% of the cohort. In fact we could continue with whittling the numbers away, but at the end we have a reality that every student has the opportunity to attend this school at least part of the time, on-line forums do afford students the opportunity to hook up with their peers, that in some cases there is a clear isolation issue, but these are often school refusers anyway, and while the arrangement is far from ideal for all young people, a pragmatic compromise has been reached. Finally enrolment is not viewed as a permanent issue for every child, re enrolement occurs and in some cases, children are guided to return to face2face education. So yes there is an issue, but many of the children would not experience or flourish in a “social setting of the face2face school”
What about dysfunctional families? How can virtual school address the need to offer an escape to vulnerable children from this? To be honest, I don’t think I really got a clear answer on this, in my little note book I need this as a follow up question and will come back to you on this.
What I was really impressed with was the lesson delivery,
The School has a number of “green Screen Studios” and teachers are able to customise lessons using this technique. Now when I was being shown around, I was thinking “what is green screen?” the teachers were very excited about this …but in my ignorance I was sort of “Meh!!! so you have a green screen and a video camera?” Well if like me you have no idea what green screen is, let me explain.
Green Screen is a visual effects technique for layering two videos or photos together based on color hues . The technique is used in to remove a background from the subject of a photo or video. A colour range in the foreground footage is made transparent, allowing separately filmed background footage or a static image to be inserted into the scene. The green screen technique is commonly used in by TV weather forecasters where the weathergirl/man appears to be standing in front of a large map during live television, though in actuality it is a large blue or green background. Then different weather maps are added on the parts of the image where the color is green. If the news presenter wears green clothes, his or her clothes will also be replaced with the background video.
So what this means is someone in the studio sees a teacher standing in front of a green wall….the student watching this on their computer at home will se something very different. So in the pictures below, the top photos shows you what someone in the studio will see….the bottom photo will show you what a student watching on her computer will see. Later in this study visit I am going to watch a science lesson using this. Now believe me when I say the potential for this in the delivery of lessons is something quite amazing. It means your teacher can appear to walk inside a human organ pointing out the different cells or parts for example.
Earlier I was really excited about virtual schools, I have waxed lyrical about its potential, I have discussed how it liberates education, there are problems, I can see that, it is expensive….I suspect that it does demand a greater level of student self motivation than we would expect in a face to face classroom because th teacher is not really there with the “whip” to demand engagement. The weakness as I see it….is the domestic situation, unless the student has someone who can mentor them at home (or in the library community centre or whatever), this is going to be a difficult alternative. On the other hand the flexibility for a disaffected student could be a potential revolution in education. As I see it, a student with emotional problems or a mental or physical health may not always feel up to working or studying……but they will have purple patches where they do feel up to working.
A Churchill Fellow Down Under 