This week’s announcement that KPBSD is one of four districts to receive state grant money for digital learning is good news. We worked hard on the grant application and are pleased that the award will allow us to grow our digital infrastructure and train our teachers in how to better use this medium of instruction. The delivery of digital content by a teacher at one KPBSD school to a student(s) at another has been happening for years. The increased level of support provided by the grant will bolster this existing practice. This expansion of how we educate our students is particularly appealing at our smaller schools that struggle to offer the full array of courses available at our larger schools. With this in mind, it is important that we are ever more critical of the quality of digital content so that we avoid falling into the trap of assuming that all such courses are equally good.
As a way to vet our digital content, we joined the Quality Matters Program. Quality Matters was formed by a group of universities over six years ago using US Dept. of Education and IES funding to establish best practices and design standards for online courses. This quality assurance not only helps us to evaluate our course offerings, but also leads to professional development to help teachers improve their instruction. As the pendulum of instruction shifts more to the digital side, it is important that we embrace the changes with eyes wide open. The grant monies will help us do this.
Grant to increase digital learning
This week’s announcement that KPBSD is one of four districts to receive state grant money for digital learning is good news. We worked hard on the grant application and are pleased that the award will allow us to grow our digital infrastructure and train our teachers in how to better use this medium of instruction. The delivery of digital content by a teacher at one KPBSD school to a student(s) at another has been happening for years. The increased level of support provided by the grant will bolster this existing practice. This expansion of how we educate our students is particularly appealing at our smaller schools that struggle to offer the full array of courses available at our larger schools. With this in mind, it is important that we are ever more critical of the quality of digital content so that we avoid falling into the trap of assuming that all such courses are equally good.
As a way to vet our digital content, we joined the Quality Matters Program. Quality Matters was formed by a group of universities over six years ago using US Dept. of Education and IES funding to establish best practices and design standards for online courses. This quality assurance not only helps us to evaluate our course offerings, but also leads to professional development to help teachers improve their instruction. As the pendulum of instruction shifts more to the digital side, it is important that we embrace the changes with eyes wide open. The grant monies will help us do this.