Lessons Learned

On reflection, I learned that there are many open source Web 2.0 tools online that I can use in the future. Randy helped introduce me to Animoto. I got some experience in VoiceThreads. But, my other classmates helped me to see the vast possibilities in such online tools as Garage Band authoring software (Tracee), http://www.weebly.com (Peggy), http://www.teachertube (Peggy), Jing & Moodle (Jason), http://prezi.com/34727/ (Randy), AuthorStream (Jonathan), and Movie Maker (Jolandra). Through my classmates, I learned that we can combine multimedia writing in audio, video, music, text, and photos to produce powerful interpretations that show mastery of a given online Web 2.0 tool or subject area. (Richardson, 2006) I hope to learn to use many of these Web 2.0 authoring tools in the future.

I learned about the future classroom and its pocket computers, small personalized learning groups, and multimedia contact with experts to connect theory to actual practice. I really loved Dr. Sugar’s reference to Alvin Toffler (Daly, 2009) because Toffler believes education should be contextualized around themes of what students have a personal interest in such as sports, or English for Toffler himself. I like the idea of transforming schools from the holding cell concept, or custodial place concept, to a place of creativity that maximizes each student’s potential. I will use Toffler’s point of view when formulating how education should change in the future.

I learned that it is alright not to know the right answer, but you must know where to find the right answer online. (Richardson, 2006) I learned that we must now be more critical consumers of information online because of the ease to publish without review. I agree with Lick (2001) that we must learn before we can change. We must learn how to find, use, and assemble Web 2.0 blog and wiki techniques before we can change in creating our own blogs and wikis. The three R’s of learning have transformed to the three C’s of connecting, content creating, and collaborating. Our ability to publish and interact on the web using reading, reflecting, writing, and participating will produce different kinds of relationships on the web that are more enduring and assuring of new opportunities to become global change agents. (Richardson, 2006) In the future, I want to use my new multimedia skills to become an effective global change agent.

References

Daly, J. (2009). Future school: Reshaping learning from the ground up. Retrieved March 7, 2009, from http://www.edutopia.org/future-school

Lick, D. W. (2001). Leading change: Creating the future for educational technology. Retrieved May 17, 2009, from http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2001/12/Leading-Change-Creating-the-Future-for-Education-Technology.aspx?p=1

Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Simulation Games in Education (Edutainment)

I chose to respond to Jerry Seay’s blog at http://www.cofc.edu/~seay/cb/simgames.html.

Jerry, I agree with you that if students are not entertained when learning (Edutainment), we lose many of them because they have limited attention spans and a more visual learning style than their predecessors. But, your clarification is on target that students may not need entertainment so much as they need interaction, or interfacing with information. You call this an interactive learning style that is more complex than a visual learning style. And, I think you are right that simulation gaming will reach students with an interactive learning style.

I think that you are absolutely correct that simulation games provide students with a simulated environment so students get insight into the process or event from the real world which is being simulated. I agree with you that there is much promise in these types of games as educational tools. I like the idea that gaming is considered a new language with which to educate. I agree with your two propositions that people learn better through active experience rather than passive listening; and people learn better through interacting with one another rather than working alone.

For your Library 101 class, I think it would be a good move to use simulation gaming, or interactive experiential training to form student teams, to diversify how they research topics of interest, to emphasize continuous learning that follows certain trends in their fields of interest, and to use computers to design and deliver interactive, not passive, training. Interactive instruction is better than data-dump approaches.

I would use simulations in biology and physics for sure. I like the Biopac Science Lab handheld device. It shows how students can make electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings of their occipital lobe while performing a number of different tasks to demonstrate how the brain’s electrical activity varies depending on the task. The software filters the raw EEG signal to separate and display alpha, beta, delta, and theta rhythms. This is part of a biomedical engineering lab on human physiology and health science. It correlates to the National Science Education Standards.

This Biopac Science Lab (Biopac Corporation, 2009) allows students to explore the inner workings of the human body inexpensively. It displays, records, and analyzes students’ heart signals (ECG), brain waves (EEG), muscle activity (EMG), and eye movement (EOG). Students stick on the snap adhesive electrodes, connect the leads, and follow their software prompts to perform exciting lab experiments. Students are excited about seeing their own physiological data live on screen. The handheld Biopac Science Lab works with a computer’s sound card or USB audio adaptor and is as easy as connecting headphones. It runs on Windows and Mac.

Of course, students can’t really jump inside their brains to see the electrical activity. But, the handheld Biopac device simulates brain activity so students can analyze and theorize about electrical responses to certain activities. I wonder if higher order thinking skills could be simulated in brainwave patterns to show the difference in strength or area(s) of most activity when doing mathematical equations in comparison to language arts activities or playing a computer game. Does the brain pattern have a different signal when the answer is correct than when the answer is not correct for a mathematical problem? Does doubt about a procedure in math generate a different brain wave pattern or fuzziness from frustration than when the mind is sure of how to process an answer? Does the brain wave pattern differ in Web 2.0 social networking, typing in live chat, or texting, as compared to verbal talking on the telephone? Does simulation game playing have as high or higher brain pattern electrical activity as performing mathematical calculations? The Biopac site is at http://biopac.com/SecondaryEducation.asp?Cid=437&Level=3.

Reference

Biopac Corporation. (2009). Secondary education: SO5 EEG 1 brain rhythms. Retrieved May 11, 2009, from http://biopac.com/SecondaryEducation.asp?Cid=437&Level=3 and http://biopac.com/SecondaryEducation.ASP

Educational Repositories

Ten years from now, educational repositories will form a global hub that will connect learning objects, Learning Management Systems, and Learning Content Management Systems. The mission of educational repositories will be to personalize educational content and delivery. Personalized content will include embedded learning objects for wearable technologies, pervasive learning using new-wave broadband technologies, virtual learning environments, home schooling, and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Systems as part of the Smart School concept. (Multimedia Development Corporation, 2005)

Potentially, the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) will take on new meaning to ensure that learning object content and Learning Management Systems (LMS) are interoperable. (Multimedia Development Corporation, 2005) This means that re-usable learning objects can be used across LMS irrespective of the platforms they were developed on.

Potentially, education can begin at birth with embedded learning objects. Cradle mobiles or other Intelligent toys can have embedded objects which capture and record the learning preferences of the child as the child plays. (Multimedia Development Corporation, 2005) Embedded objects create learning profiles of the child so teachers and parents can personalize and enhance the learning experience of the child early in life. This type of tracking positions the child into specific skill groups early in life. These profiles can emerge in educational repositories as lifelong learning profiles and tagged as metadata of childhood preferences that can be matched to local or global peer-to-peer features, as well as career and occupational potential. If there are problems, they may be correctable or accommodated before entering the public school systems. After entering public school systems, body area networks may also be part of educational repository holdings.

Potentially, body area networks can allow people to wear nano-engineered smart fabrics or carry implanted chips that aid in the exchange, collection and communication of information. (Multimedia Development Corporation, 2005) Students can collect information from peers, teachers, and other learning sources on the fly. Information collected is automatically mapped to the learning objectives of the skills group that he/she belongs to. This emphasizes collective learning that share experiences and inferences. This environment guides the learning process, querying the student, and prodding them into the right direction. (Multimedia Development Corporation, 2005) Teachers become virtual mentors in the learning process with a presence in educational repositories.

As virtual mentors, teachers can be accessed anytime through the educational repository. (Multimedia Development Corporation, 2005) Mentors monitor the online activities of their students to offer advice, and suggest actions and feedback. As virtual mentors, teachers continuously map performance goals with student activity, to offer real-time course corrections and replace evaluation through periodic formative tests.

Educational repositories permit pervasive learning to shift from school as the centre of teaching and learning to the home. As a result, self-paced learning, continuous learning, and life-long learning will become distinct possibilities in the home environment. The Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (Wi-Max) would bring e-learning to remote places to help the rural poor access rich multimedia content over metropolitan area networks. (Multimedia Development Corporation, 2005) Tele-immersion would allow a three-dimensional virtual image of the teacher to be projected into a student’s home while the teacher and the student meet and interact online in real time, verbally or textually. Educational repositories can document tele-immersion profiles for future reference and learning object content.

Educational repositories can also include Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Systems. RFID systems track, monitor, and manage student attendance, for example. (Multimedia Development Corporation, 2005) RFID tags are microchips with tiny antennas that broadcast a specific ID to the reader unit connected with a database to track down relevant data and update information accordingly. RFID chips track students to ensure their safety during school hours. It is a student management system device that can track disciplinary records, library loans, punctuality in attending classes, loans of other school assets, and visits to nursing stations and cafeterias. (Multimedia Development Corporation, 2005) The educational repository can house information from Radio Frequency Identification Systems. There may be a greater need for confidentiality for these types of social records. Administrative duties are decreased so that knowledge-based activities can be maximized.

Socially, embedded learning objects have the potential to change education for the local community where everyone has free and equal access to education materials housed in the educational repository. Students, teachers, and community members will be able to customize learning objects to scale them down for use in mobile handheld devices for anytime, anywhere learning and real-time sharing of information. (Multimedia Development Corporation, 2005) Embedded learning objects can instruct the user how to build a car, assemble a household electrical circuit, or construct a building. Embedded learning objects will help create learning environments never before envisioned in the community domain. Where the school day can be extended to instruct users how to build a car or home, for instance, whole family groups can come together in the learning and sharing environment to build and produce something that is of mobility and stability value to each family member. Educational repositories with embedded learning objects can make learning a family and community matter.

Reference

Multimedia Development Corporation. (2005). The smart school roadmap 2005-2020: An educational odyssey. Retrieved May 3, 2009, from http://www.msc.com.my/smartschool/downloads/roadmap.pdf

Difference Between LSM, LCSM, and Learning Objects

I responded to Mousumi Ghosh’s blog at http://mousumi-randomideas.blogspot.com/2009/01/difference-between-lms-and-lcms.html

Mousumi, I like your description of the difference between LSM and LCMS. You are not alone in your confusion over the two terms. I think the similarity in abbreviation with only a “C” to distinguish the two is part-and-parcel the reason for much of the confusion. It may be better to have called LCMS a “course design system,” or “CDS” to better differentiate it from the Learning Management System, or LMS. As an instructional designer yourself, this may have made a bigger distinction to you than most.

I agree with you that creating, maintaining, reusing, and delivering learning material is more of the nuts and bolts of teachers. I also agree with you that LMS delivers the learning material in the form of online modules within an organization. Online modules, for me, would have fallen under the category of learning objects within Learning Course Management Systems.

I would have said the primary users of the LMS would be administrators versus the learners. But, it is possible that learners are primary users of LMS and administrators and teachers are secondary users of LMS. I definitely agree with you that course developers and subject matter experts are the primary users of LCMS. LMS do actually track student interaction and performance. But, I think LMS are forums along with LCMS for content authors to collaborate. I agree with you that LCMS is a software package with an intended mission of reusing e-learning content to reduce duplicated development efforts.

However, I believe this is also a LMS mission. As an instructional designer, your position brings you into the realm of course creation, maintenance, reusing, and delivering learning material. But, you do have concerns about LMS planning, delivering, and managing your learning events and instruction within your Hyderabad Central University. Do you collaborate with those assigned the duties of the LMS or are these technically-separate specialty events? Is management of course content considered a higher priority than creation of course content at your facility, or does management and creation of course content carry equal weight in priority status? Does it cost more to manage course content than to create course content?

Reference

Ghosh, M. (2009). Difference between LMS and LCMS. Retrieved April 26, 2009, from http://mousumi-randomideas.blogspot.com/2009/01/difference-between-lms-and-lcms.html

Wireless Technology in Support of K-12 Environments

The implication is very promising for wireless technologies to widely support K-12 environments. School districts are finding that it is more cost effective to use personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile handhelds, as a flexible alternative to expensive computer labs, classroom computers, and laptops. (Futurekids, 2008) PDA’s are versatile, compatible with most mainstream software, and other wireless connectivity. Mainstream software includes Pocket Word, Pocket PC, Microsoft Reader, and Media Player for Pocket PCs. Wireless connectivity includes MSN Messenger, Microsoft Outlook email, and Pocket Internet Explorer. Mobile wireless technologies include PDAs, iPhones, iPods, iPodTouch, or palm or pocket PCs. These mobile handhelds positively impact curriculum design, students, teachers, and infrastructure requirements.

Curriculum Design: As far as curriculum design, many schools are using Studywiz Spark, a virtual learning environment, to redesign K-12 curriculum so teachers get a multimediarich, technology-infused setting. (Rama,2008) Studywiz Spark is customized for iPhone, iPod, and iPod Touch. (Rama, 2008) Studywiz Spark provides access to a Dynamic LearnSpace using any device, from any place, at any time (Studywiz Spark, 2007)

Another example of curriculum design is Seaford School District’s (2005) integration of mobile Palm or Pocket PCs in 2004. Their intent was to attach various science probes to conduct in class science experiments. Students learned to use the graphing software to analyze data and interpret it immediately. They could attach the keyboard and use the word processing applications to complete reports, journals, and lab reports. Students could also create spreadsheets, compose stories in class, and illustrate them via the mobile handheld with drawing programs. Students could use their mobiles to do research from Internet sites, and utilize 3rd party software for curriculum instruction and assessment.

Impact on Learners: Mobile handhelds had a positive impact on student achievement. (Seaford School District, 2005) Handhelds are more easily used in the flow of instruction than desktop computers. Seaford School District (2005) had an implementation component that made available handhelds to be checked out for home use by students. This policy helped bridge the digital divide for students who did not have Internet functions of mobile handhelds from home. Students could use handhelds as a reference tool to access encyclopedias, create Microsoft Word documents, complete spreadsheet functions, and access 3rd party software for assessment.

Impact on Teachers: With mobile handhelds, teachers got a new assessment tool called the Quizzler (Seaford School District, 2005) that allowed teachers to create assessments for students to complete on their handhelds. Students beam their answers to the teacher and the computer grades the assessments instantly. (Seaford School District, 2005) This software allows for immediate feedback for classroom questioning, warm up activities, and tests.

With Studywiz Spark, teachers do not have to patch together solutions. Teachers can incorporate RSS fees, podcasts, real-time polling and multi-media components into their teaching, with one place to organize it. Teachers can invite parents to be more in touch with their student’s day-to-day educational experience using Studywiz Spark’s (2007) LearnSpace environment.

Infrastructure Requirements: Seaford School District (2005) formed learning communities or peer groups of 4-5 teacher or staff participants. These groups met formally four times per year to complete activities and share new handheld ideas. Learning communities documented usage on the project web site, read and reacted to a new piece of research, and participated in the technology discussion group. Teachers and staff then had a support group within their schools to have informal access to questions and sharing. These learning communities had nurturing and supportive environments to allow teacher and staff mentors and mentees to exchange ideas, share experiences, and learn together to accommodate individual learning styles. (Seaford School District, 2005)

I particularly like learning communities for mobile handhelds because it refocuses integration from a focus of the same routine tasks (known as teaching to the test) to get higher standardized test scores that hold teachers and students accountable. Mobility and flexibility of mobile technology focuses on how to encourage teachers to be thoughtful and creative problem solvers in the design of learning environments for students. Students learn to model teacher activities of thoughtful and creative problem-solving and constructive, independent thinking as lifelong learning goals using mobile technology. Thoughtful and creative problem solving, and constructive, independent thinking are more enduring qualities and values than focusing on how to make higher scores on one-shot standardized tests. (Seaford School District, 2005)

References

FutureKids. (2008). Infusing PDA technology. Retrieved April 20, 2009, from http://www.futurekids.com/links/srvcs_pd_infusing_pda_tech.html

Rama, R. (2008). Fill’er up! What to do with all those cell phones, PDAs, and iPods tucked away in students’ backpacks? Forward-thinking administrators have found a ’smart” solution: Load them with educational content and welcome them into instruction. Retrieved April 19, 2009, from http://www.articlearchives.com/education-training/education-systems-institutions/251592-1.html

Seaford School District. (2005). Building learning communities: Pocket portal. Retrieved April 20, 2009, from http://www.seaford.k12.de.us/it/pda/pocketportal/home.htm

Studywiz Spark. (2007). Studywiz Spark launches learnspace for students, teachers and parents. Retrieved April 21, 2009, from http://weseepeople.blogspot.com/2007/11/studywiz-spark-launches-learnspace-for.html

Asynchronous Tools

I responded to Sara Gorlewski’s blog entitled “The asynchronous tool that I explored” at http://gorlewski.blogspot.com/2008/10/asynchronous-tool-that-i-explored.html.

Sara, I like your Voice Threads blog and how you applied it to your class by adding photos from your last trip to Spain with a topic for each picture. As a Spanish teacher, you have found a way to integrate Voice Threads into your class by using videos and photos to teach culture. I like your idea of using your own experiences as spring boards for your students to compare and contrast how they see the same picture online and how you sensed the site in person. Would it be possible to do a survey of how many students shared the same responses to the same pictures as compared to opposite responses to the same pictures to see how the lived experience compares with the web experience? It is possible that the lived experience has more positive engagements than the web experience.

However, the ability to reflect on pictures after viewing them the first time may give learners a different perspective when the mind has an interval to compare different angles and different research that may show levels of understanding and language development that is more developed and on target. I like the idea of helping students develop speaking skills by encouraging them to post a speaking vignette on Voice Threads to explain the picture. This gives an interactive response that is engaging and collaborative at the same time. It also builds student self-confidence in speaking Spanish more fluently.

I have just had my first experience creating a Voice Threads assignment for class. I enjoyed the learning experience. I am still learning and hope to understand several more features.

Edutainment--Instructional Television

As far as Instructional Television in edutainment, I agree with Chan (2007) that movies about eras in history stimulate discussion and enhance the relevance of material covered by high school students. Movies about how things are made are good reference points about how the manufacturing process works. Movies about trades and construction are starting points for moving students into careers and occupations with promise.

I would like to see students move from initial movie watching to actually participating in the manufacturing process, the construction process, the trades process as part of the learning to work episodes of education in the future. Learning to work in the partnership and collaborative real world context is not merely a spectator sport but a hands-on lived experience that gives students the tools to reflect and make changes to how careers and occupations benefit the human society as lifelong activities versus mere discussion activities or test activities in the class.

The classroom should expand to the workplace where learning is transferred as an adult to give students the necessary 21st century skill sets to make a difference in their chosen occupations and careers. Experience is not something that should be lived after school. Experience should be an indelible part of school life that gives students context and comfort in how to handle day-to-day strife and stress of the real world.

Students should be able to document experience in movie form to add to their eportfolios while still in school. Internships, externships, and outside jobs help. But, they should not be the only focus. School must transform to pattern learning, occupational learning, that is a lifelong paradigm model to develop expertise not only for students but to create professional development opportunities for teachers to work in the real world and analyze real world problems in an effort to make the world a better place.

I like the idea of Instructional Television (University of Idaho, 1995) being used to take students to new environments like the moon, a foreign country, or through the lens of a microscope. What I like even more is the teaching of how to televise these new environments being taught to students and teachers in a collaborative environment. I like the idea of students and teachers training in sophisticated production facilities and equipment as part of the educational process. To watch Instructional Television and to produce Instructional Television are two different paradigms with two different experience portfolios that lead to two different outcomes.

Passively watching or even interactively watching Instructional Television is quite different from the complex mechanism of producing Instructional Television. I would like students and teachers to become producers more so than consumers of Instructional Television. In the production phase, the learning process is quite different and more complex in terms of collaboration and tweaking out effective instructional practices that work for all students. Students and teachers have the creative tone of how to convey ideas that will make a difference in other students’ and teachers’ lives. The skill sets are lifelong learning and discerning capacities that are nurtured from the context of learning “how to do something” rather than merely learning “about something.” The emphasis is on performance and demonstration, not on memorization and regurgitation. The skills are more transferable to other domains outside the Instructional Television setting.

Interactive TV (ITV) (Skelton, 2001) presents a more dynamic innovative and creative medium where viewers can be engaged in sophisticated ways. Discovery and National Geographic takes viewers throughout the globe in search of different species and phenomenon that harmoniously work in relation to other species and environmental factors. As part of the chain of life, we need to know how our actions mitigate or invigorate the life patterns of other species, the biosphere of our habitats, and the atmosphere of our health and physical well being. Interactive TV can help trace this chain of life and document its course and transformation.

References

Chan, S. (2007). Edutainment. Retrieved April 8, 2009, from http://design.test.olt.ubc.ca/Edutainment

Skelton, S. (2001). Edutainment—The integration of education and interactive television. Retrieved April 7, 2009, from http://www.naccq.ac.nz/con02/proceedings_2001/127.pdf
University of Idaho. (1995). Instructional television: Distance education at a glance, guide 5. Retrieved April 7, 2009, from http://www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/eo/guide5.pdf

Open Ended Learning Environments

I responded to the professional blog (Davidson, 2009) on open-ended learning environments at
http://hub.dmlcompetition.net/forum/topics/digital-media-learning

Cathy, I think your move to help students become social change agents is a great concept and one that must be emulated the world over. Your Black Cloud Environmental Studies Game (Davidson, 2009), that helps student teams role play as either real estate developers or environmentalists using actual air quality sensors hidden throughout Los Angeles to monitor neighborhood pollution, is an open ended learning environment that hits home in many urban communities across the nation.

Air conservation and community development projects are always concepts that students have no real interest in unless presented in a context of health, safety, and quality of life factors that impact personal and family well-being and survival. Air quality in our classrooms is not a subject that is ever mentioned in the course of a day unless put in the context of educational change and better study conditions. I never considered that plug-in air fresheners and some plants could cause some students to trigger an asthma attack (Branch ISD, 2009). Fabric furniture can also hold dust, animal allergens, viruses, bacteria and mold that adversely affect air quality in the classroom. (Branch ISD, 2009) Refrigerator drip pans and microwaves in the classroom that are not properly cleaned cause air quality problems in the classroom. (Branch ISD, 2009)

The concept of integrating scientific data with human experiences help students better collaborate, share and analyze their findings in a cross cultural environment that make teamwork a best practice of choice for now and in the future. These connections many times can transcend the school environment into the community environment and lead to further connections that benefit health and safety on a global front. In other words, transfer is greater from classroom to other world contexts where real-life problems are the target of collaboration.

The self-advocacy role that students learn to foster and emerge will be lifelong skill sets that can make a difference in how schools of the future are designed and maintained to secure the health and safety of future generations of learners. The fact that the Black Cloud Environmental Studies Game project is demonstrated as a winning project for the 2007 Digital Media and Leaning Competition is a great boost for change in how social studies as a theme can have a community based response that touches the lives of so many students in a geographical area.

References

Branch ISD. (2009). Teams tools for school. Retrieved April 1, 2009, from http://cfbstaff.cfbisd.edu/CFBEnergyAwareness/TEAMS.htm

Davidson, C. (2009). First annual digital media and learning winner’s showcase, April 16-17. Retrieved April 1, 2009, from http://www.hastac.org/node/2047

Standardized Tests: High School Exit Exams

Standardized tests have become the benchmark of 21st century educational reform in the United States. The anxiety and fear of not passing high stakes tests, especially high school exit exams, have put many students in the position of dropping out of school, truancy, drug and violent gang activities, and unplanned parenthood. Students who have been traditionally underserved (i.e., minority, English language learners, lower socio-economic status students, and special education students) have the most problems passing their high school exit exams.

Many reasons are given for students’ failure of high school exit exams that include: 1) inadequate test taking skills, 2) inability to understand and use higher order thinking skills, 3) poor or no family support, and 4) behavior problems on and off campus.

The argument against students who fail their high school exit exam is that if students cannot pass a high school competency test for English, math, and science, written at an 8th grade level, then students do not deserve a diploma. They do not deserve to work in good paying jobs. They do not deserve a secure future for themselves and their future families.

The argument for students who fail the high school exit exam is that where test questions are not aligned with what is actually taught in the classroom from day-to-day, students who fail the test are wrongfully denied their high school diplomas.

As far as prep tests, students argue that where prep tests are given in 10th grade, but failing results are not used to drive instruction to help students understand concepts missed on the test, failing high school exit exam scores are unfair and unjust because they examine what has not been taught. Hence, they are barriers to a student’s lifelong educational, working, and earning potential.

Problems for not passing standardized tests are linked to students and teachers as the responsible or irresponsible parties. However, blame never reaches those test taking companies who contract to design standardized tests without the input of student, teacher, and parent stakeholders in the process.

What types of educational school models best help students-at-risk to understand concepts and principles on standardized tests to get higher test scores? Career academies link English language arts, math, and science classes to careers and occupations (vocational curriculums) like healthcare, engineering, business, and agricultural skills to help students at risk earn higher exit exam scores when compared to traditional public school models.

Career academies build partnerships with local employers, community organizations, and colleges to create stable and long term relationships with school and work so students get a range of professional opportunities. Opportunities include mentoring and job shadowing so students can observe workers and emulate their success patterns. Students learn to set goals and reach professional objectives that may not be obtainable in traditional school settings.

Are career academy school models a better fit than traditional public school models for students-at-risk of dropping out of school?