tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6870458664232083246.post4775990986432678578..comments2023-09-30T05:01:23.870-07:00Comments on staffroom confidential: BC's adult education program victim of "choice"Tara Olivetreehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09113322614914039292noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6870458664232083246.post-19840149516022441662012-05-18T11:26:50.196-07:002012-05-18T11:26:50.196-07:00All true, and a much longer discussion about every...All true, and a much longer discussion about everything that is wrong about how DL was set up in BC to begin with based on a model where Districts compete with each other.<br /><br />DL is great for certain students and should be fully funded and properly supported. But it is often and increasingly being used as a replacement when it doesn't make sense. In the US, some states now mandate that every student take a DL course regardless of their situation, learning style, etcetera. It is being done simply as a cost savings measure and to line the pockets of companies like K12 Inc. <br /><br />I wouldn't be surprised if the next great terrible idea of this government is to similarly contract out DL services to a private company.Tara Olivetreehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09113322614914039292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6870458664232083246.post-92134130797630757702012-05-18T09:42:29.180-07:002012-05-18T09:42:29.180-07:00Hi Tara,
A bigger issue for teachers, I would con...Hi Tara,<br /><br />A bigger issue for teachers, I would contend, is how the remaining courses are funded. By next year, as I understand it, all remaining (funded) adult courses will be supported through a "50/50" model. That means any school - online or face-to-face - will only get 50% up front, and will receive the remaining amount only after the adult student has completed the course.<br /><br />In my experience in distance/distributed learning (DL), this makes full-time DL teachers economically unsustainable. A DL school simply can't carry full-time teachers with the hope of getting half its funding upon completion. Given the historically (and naturally?) lower completion rates in DL, distance ed. schools that rely on adult learners may be forced to go back to the old ways of the correspondence school: piecemeal contract marking.<br /><br />In other words, the DL world is going to face even more pressure. DL teachers are already considered non-enrolling teachers (which is dangerous and absurd), and DL schools already receive substantially less per student FTE than brick-and-mortar schools. <br /><br />So don't blame DL. They may end up worse off than brick-and-mortar adult ed. programs.C. Welchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14494781540115065748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6870458664232083246.post-55449089112340030102012-05-09T14:56:57.426-07:002012-05-09T14:56:57.426-07:00Sickening.Sickening.Sherihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02251163142920567530noreply@blogger.com