February 2007

Digital Learning Is Thriving in Washington State

Internet Academy, Ron Mayberry, Principal, and Spokane Virtual Learning, Elisabeth Silver, Facilitator

Washington State, home to many a technology company, is also active in the field of digital learning. But while competition is the name of the game for technology companies, collaboration is a more apt descriptor for technology in education.

Many of our state's online course providers are schools themselves, rooted within their school districts. Internet Academy (IA) and Spokane Virtual Learning (SVL), two such schools, are also two of the DLC's online course providers. Through partnerships between virtual schools, brick-and-mortar schools, school districts, and digital learning providers, students now have access to more educational opportunities than ever before.

Digital learning offers additional options to teachers and students

IA, Washington's first virtual school, is in the Federal Way School District and has been offering online courses for a decade. IA has been a DLC course provider since 2003, and this past fall it joined the DLC as member-school. Via the DLC, IA teachers access online teaching resources to incorporate into their online courses and students access digital library resources to use to complete their online coursework.

Although IA is new to the DLC as a member-school, students and teachers are already taking full advantage of the resources, due, in part, to the work that has been done between the DLC and IA and between teachers themselves within the school.

The DLC worked closely with a small group of leaders at the school to give an overview of the resources. Then teachers from the staff development committee dove into each resource and facilitated an in-depth orientation to the DLC's teaching and library resources during two full professional development days.

"I really can't believe that it's taken me this long to realize our program also needed to be a customer of the DLC," Ron Mayberry, IA's principal, says. "We've been a vendor from the start, and you know it just amazes me, 'Why didn't we give the tools to our students?' But now that we have, and as long as the DLC is able to offer a product that's affordable for us, we're always going to be a partner as a customer and hopefully as a vendor too."

Mayberry says that digital learning is all about providing options for students that need them, for example, students involved in sports, traveling with parents, or looking for courses their school doesn't offer. Mayberry adds: "I hope it doesn't stop at online learning as far as educators finding ways to give students options, because there's all kinds of combinations of these things, from online to regular classrooms. And I think that's what the DLC really helps leverage, a blended program that does some of both."

Online educational resources help prepare students for the 21st century

Elisabeth Silver, Spokane Virtual Learning's facilitator, points out that since SVL and IA have created their own coursework to align with Washington State's EALRs (Essential Academic Learning Requirements), these virtual schools are a big asset for brick-and-mortar schools in Washington. SVL, part of the Spokane School District, opened its doors in fall 2005 and joined the DLC as a course provider this past fall.

Silver echoes and adds to Mayberry's sentiments about online learning: "It's about a choice, an option, about giving students, and their parents, choices of how and when and where they learn…We're preparing students for the 21st century learning model."

Silver, who also works at the Enrichment Cooperative in the Spokane School District, stresses the importance of collaboration, too. She has found that just because a student generally does well in classes and is an independent learner, doesn't mean that he or she will automatically excel in the online learning environment.

"It still takes the parent, the educator, and mentor at the site to all work together collaboratively with that child and facilitate that learning for the child to succeed," Silver explains. "Students still need help with discipline and being accountable for completing tasks…And what a wonderful lesson to learn before our high school students go on to college where they will have to have that discipline."

Digital learning is an innovative, collaborative, creative way of giving students in Washington State access to an endless array of educational opportunities to help them succeed in the 21st century.

Want to read more? Browse the Success Stories page.