T H E 2 0 1 4 C ATA LY S T R E P O R T Progress and Perspectives on Modern Learning

TABLE OF CONTENTS

2 Introductory Letter from John Gulla 3 Thoughts from Michael Nachbar 4 Transforming K-12 Education Together 7 Teacher Training 8 Fostering Rapport and Relationships Online 10 Professional Growth & Development 13 Blended Learning as the New Normal 15 Ways to Engage with GOA

“I BELIEVE THAT EVERY SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENT SHOULD TAKE AT LEAST ONE ONLINE COURSE BEFORE GRADUATING FROM HIGH SCHOOL.“

Dear Friends,Throughout history, people, when looking toward the future, have felt that theirs was the age of unprecedented and rapidly accelerating change. And they were right. And so are we. Many of us feel a shifting of the underlying educational plates that have been, relatively, stable for some 600 years. Whereas once students came to schools seeking knowledge, they now have dizzying access to the world’s knowledge in the palms of their hands. Students now look to their teachers and schools to help them make meaning of the sea of knowledge.

Online learning is a critically important component of our technology-enhanced set of tools. I believe that every secondary school student should take at least one online course before graduating from high school. Global Online Academy (GOA) is a leader in this world, for independent schools and for others. In my work, I travel around the country visiting independent schools and see many related initiatives. I have been especially impressed with the commitment GOA has demonstrated toward providing a quality experience for every participating student and with the emphasis it has placed on professional development. This is absolutely critical for success for those teachers courageous enough to take the leap to teach an online course, and the success GOA has had in creating Global Learning Networks for teachers from around the planet.

What I have heard repeatedly from teachers who have taught with GOA is that they initially worried that they wouldn’t get to know their students, that their relationships wouldn’t be as central. That seems not to be the case. Many digital natives are very comfortable in their digital world and have much to teach us about what is possible.

In three years, GOA has made great progress, as you will see detailed in this report. I do not see a future absent of place-based schools, schools that forge community and that rely on real-time, in-person relationships, but I do see blended learning and online courses as transformational educational developments that will play an increasingly important role in our future. I’m excited that GOA is playing such a significant part as we work together to help make this the future of education.

Sincerely,

John Gulla

Executive Director, EE Ford Foundation

http://www.eeford.org/

2.

Michael Nachbar, Executive Director michael@globalonlineacademy.org

At our summer workshop this past June I asked our 32 new teachers to raise their hand if they had been teaching for at least seven years. Every single hand went up. I had planned to stop when I got to the “more than 15 years” category thinking there would be only a couple, but there were still over a dozen hands in the air. I finally stopped when there were still several people whose hands were up with over 25 years of teaching experience. I was humbled. One of the aspects of our work with so many incredibly talented teachers is that we learn from them as much as we teach them. They continually demonstrate what’s possible as they think deeply about what happens in their online and on-campus classrooms and explore those ideas with creativity and passion. When we talk about the classroom of the future we’re not talking about paperless classrooms, or even classrooms where students are nimbly using tablets or smartphones. What we’re talking about are classrooms that are approaching pedagogy in new and dynamic ways, where students are tightly involved in curating course content and materials along with their teacher; where community is being cultivated both in the classroom and online; where students are asked to demon-strate, reflect on, and apply what they’ve learned; where experts from all over the world are brought in to engage with our kids; and where the dichotomy between classwork and homework no longer exists, but rather the question of “What is the best work?” is what guides our creativity.

By testing and iterating new ideas, our work as a leader and advocate for modern learning will continue, both for our schools and the wider educational community. We’re thrilled to be spearheading this education transformation with you – the world’s leading schools. Thank you for playing an integral role thus far and joining us for the journey ahead.

What began as an idea and concept has catalyzed into a movement. We want to serve our schools beyond just our student and teacher course offerings. Together with our member schools, we will continue to cultivate a best-in-class think tank for online and blended learning – a think tank that is continually strength-ened and advanced by

member involvement.

thoughts from MICHAEL NACHBAR

CATALYST REPORT 2014

3.

transforming K-12 EDUCATION TOGETHER

OUR ENROLLMENT GROWTH

We now offer 32 courses with 56 sections with 1000+ semester enrollments

2011 2012 2013 2014

120

250

500

1000+

GOA enrollments

+ + + + + +

+ + + + +

CATALYSTFOR MODERN LEARNING

= GOA catalyzes vibrant, global

conversations that ultimately are the springboard to modern learning

in our schools.

As we enter our fourth year:Please welcome a few of our most recent new members

African Leadership Academy

Buckingham Brown & Nichols

Gilman

Eton College

Frankfurt International School

Hong Kong International School

The Taft School

We have grown from 10 to 53 member schools in 3 years

2011 2014

GOA IS A THINK TANK OF TRANSFORMATIVE IDEAS.

Collectively we have created something special: a global community of independent schools with a wealth of expertise working together

to transform how our educators and students teach and learn.

GLOBAL COMMUNITY The GOA member community uniquely aligns with

shared philosophies and values on education and a more personalized approach to learning. These shared

values are the underpinning to the success of GOA – knowing that although we are globally diverse,

we are grounded in the same level of rigor, creativity, and quality.

EXPERTISEThe knowledge and skill that exist within the

GOA network make innovation possible. Whether it’s exploring technology integration, interdisciplinary digital content, novel class

structures, or new pedagogies, GOA is a think tank of transformative ideas continually

strengthened and advanced by member involvement.

COLLABORATION GOA magic occurs when we connect

like-minded or complementary educators and provide them with the tools and

resources to work together to stimulate creativity, innovation, and growth.

4.

access to a GLOBAL CLASSROOM

76% Students said their technology skills improved from taking a GOA course

GOA courses allow all of our member schools to expand their course offerings in a global context and help our students test their passions and perspectives in ways typically unavailable on a single campus. We currently offer 32 courses (with 56 sections) ranging across all disciplines. Interdisciplinary electives and courses not offered at member schools have evolved to be the most popular, with almost all courses in 2014-2015 being multi-sectioned and collaboratively designed.

“GOA is causing positive change, with each teacher and student engaged with GOA opportunities. To a person, they talk about the quality of these opportunities, and they create a growing network of folks using a broader range of tools in blended classrooms. It is the perfect complement to the initiatives that we are implementing on campus.”

- Andrew Watson, Head of School, Albuquerque Academy, New Mexico

“GOA offers a way for people to tailor their own education and have more power in choosing what they’re learning. I see the online learning space as a real opportunity for students to have more access to things that are of personal interest to them.” - GOA Teacher Jen Neubauer, Fiction Writing, The Dalton School

Please go online to review our full course catalog: www.globalonlineacademy.org

CATALYST REPORT 2014

5.

Big History, Big Collaboration.My colleague Susan Fine and I, along with three History teachers – Beth Calderone (The Blake School, Minnesota),

Ben Watsky (King’s Academy, Jordan), and Tim Morford (Columbus Academy, Ohio) – met together in July to plan

an interscholastic version of ninth-grade Big History.

Big History is a modern origin story – a compaction of 13.8 billion years of history, from the Big Bang to the present

day, woven together by principles and theories from many disciplines. The Big History Project, started by David

Christian and Bill Gates, has made its curriculum freely available online to anyone who wants to use it. We have

been working with our teachers and the leaders at the Big History Project to create a version for GOA.

“King’s Academy is very excited about the blended Big History option, not only because it’s a fantastic course, but because it’s a way to bring GOA to younger ninth-grade students. It represents innovative collaboration between colleges and universities and independent schools in GOA. This has the potential of creating new, amazing courses in GOA that can span a wider student audience.” – John Austin, Head of School, King’s Academy, Jordan

Our time together in Seattle, USA, allowed us to think deeply about how our three-school collaboration would work

over the coming year. In this course, each teacher will run their classes in sync with one another, teaching the same

lessons and using the same assignments for the duration of the school year. As the year progresses, collaborations

among students will increasingly take place online in mixed-school cohorts. By the end of the first semester, once

students have had time to develop their online learning skills, about 50% of the course will happen online: reading,

writing, watching, researching, and interacting with teachers and peers.

These cross-school interactions will help students become more observant global citizens while deepening their

online learning skills. It will be modern learning in action and we can’t wait to share the experience as it unfolds.

Going forward, our hope is that this multi-school learning model can be utilized with other classes and other schools.

Jake Clapp, Academic Dean

GOA Staff Highlights

TO READ MORE ABOUT BIG HISTORY: http://globalonlineacademy.wordpress.com

/2014/09/15/the-goa-big-history-blog-issue-1/

Please contact Jake:

jake@globalonlineacademy.org

if you’re interested in becoming a

Big History partner with us.

6.

This past June, GOA hosted 32 teachers at our annual training workshop on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, USA – the culmination of our teacher-training course. Each year we make adjustments to our five-day agenda, given how rapidly technologies, and our understanding of how to use them to support learning, evolve. We were impressed by the creativity and diligence that our GOA team put into preparing the training, and equally impressed by how wholeheartedly this cohort of teachers jumped into this challenging work. New programming this year included:

Six workshops focused on designing and facili-

tating excellent online courses, with titles such

as Making the Most of Discussions, Considering

Course Infrastructure, and Leveraging Video in

an Online Course.

Nine General Sessions focused on empathetic

communication online, teaching in a global class-

room, and a first-week checklist. To learn from

past GOA teachers, we Skyped with three veter-

ans to field questions from this new cohort.

Frequent 1:1 contact between instructional

designers and participants allowed for each

teacher to meet with his or her assigned

instructional designer throughout the week

– providing the opportunity for individualized

attention as teachers worked on finalizing

their course curriculum.

teacher training ISLANDWOOD 2014

“This has easily been the most edifying personal development experience I’ve ever experienced. I also feel pretty honored to be among this group of educators.” Billy Lombardo, Teacher, Latin School of Chicago, Illinois

“I learned so much from this week, and

I loved getting to know all of these other teachers. They are truly

remarkable people and extremely inspiring educators. I also loved my interactions

with the GOA staff.” Erin Armstrong, Teacher, Punahou School, Hawaii

Islandwood 2014 was a productive and energizing week – we look forward to next year and encourage all teachers to apply! To read more, please go to our blog:

http://globalonlineacademy.wordpress.com/2014/07/11/images-from-our-4th-annual-teacher- training-workshop-june-2014-bainbridge-island-wa/

CATALYST REPORT 2014

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Challenge: FOSTERING RAPPORT & RELATIONSHIPS ONLINE

“There are some students who in a class would never raise their

hand because it would feel like a performance to them. They just wouldn’t engage. Then suddenly

in an online environment they are unbelievably participative.

It’s because they can take the time to reflect, connect,

and contribute.” - Dr. Mark Milliron, Chief Learning Officer, Civitas Learning, Texas

Our Guiding Beliefs:

Different perspectives are critical to being a global citizen.

Students should be encouraged to pursue their passions.

New environments promote reflection, growth, and new skills.

Online learning is not a replication or replace-ment of on-campus learning.

WE ARE NOW represented across: 4 CONTINENTS 9 COUNTRIES 24 STATES 12 TIME ZONES

A general complaint of online courses is that they are content-driven, not relationship-driven, making them highly impersonal. A common concern teachers and students have expressed is whether the social connections that happen in a traditional classroom environment can be replicated online. Will the social benefits of being in an in-person classroom be missing?

The GOA experience stands apart by proactively nurturing connections and camaraderie among students and teachers online. Whether students are conferring in a real-time video chat, blogging with the class, emailing with the teacher, or watching and reacting to personal video diaries, GOA lives up to its independent school values and strives to make the online experience highly personal, responsive, and communal.

To read more about building communities online, please go to our blog:

“Community Can Build Content (and Vice Versa)” at

http://globalonlineacademy.wordpress.com/2014/03 /26/community-can-build-content-and-vice-versa/

8.

Challenge: FOSTERING RAPPORT & RELATIONSHIPS ONLINE

In Paige’s words: “In the beginning of the class everyone did a roll call video, which is telling a little bit about yourself. Jianing was the only other sophomore in the class. I found it really in-teresting that she’s Chinese, but she’s living abroad in Jordan at King’s Academy. I e-mailed her just asking about that thinking it was really cool and we just kept on e-mailing. We talk about all kinds of things. We’ve talked about politics, we’ve talked about stereotypes and arts, and other forms of writing like po-ems. We discussed learning languages and traveling because I’m really interested in learning languages and she’s taking French and Arabic, and she knows Chinese and English. There are just so many things for us to talk about. It’s pretty cool.”

In Jianing’s words: “At the beginning of the course everyone is asked to make a video to introduce him/herself, so we get some idea of what our classmates are like. After sharing the videos I noticed that a girl from Hawaii (her name is Paige) has similar hobbies and personalities as I do. I guess she noticed the same thing in me, so I received her email after the course ends, saying we can be friends. Afterwards we have been writing to each other, discussing what our schools are like, our interests, and views about everything. Maybe I will travel to Hawaii one day. Or I guess we can meet years later since we both plan to go to America for college. For now we often send pictures to each other so I can see the place she lives in and she can see mine.”

Paige L. from Punahou School (Hawaii) and Jianing Z. from King’s Academy (Jordan) are modern-day pen pals. They met online during Jen Neubauer’s (The Dalton School) Fiction Writing class and are still actively in touch. Their ongoing friendship is a great example of how online relationships can be just as powerful and influential as in-person ones.

“We’ve talked about politics, we’ve talked

about stereotypes and arts, and other

forms of writing like poems.”

“Maybe I will travel to Hawaii one day. Or I guess we can meet years later since we both plan to go to America for college.”

88% OF STUDENTS WOULD RECOMMEND THEIR GOA COURSE TO A FRIEND

PAIGE L. - PUNAHOU SCHOOL (HAWAII)

JIANING Z. - KING’S ACADEMY (JORDAN)

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT online friendships in action

CATALYST REPORT 2014

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professional GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT

“GOA has a powerful professional development community that stimulates creativity and innovation in faculty at member schools. They get to play in a virtual sandbox. If you look at the data, it’s pretty clear that faculty say that just teaching in this environment has changed the way they teach face-to-face. It’s made them think more broadly about pedagogy, more broadly about the tools that are available. It’s really acting as a catalyst for talented educators to think about what else they can do with these kinds of tools.” - Dr. Mark Milliron, Chief Learning Officer, Civitas Learning, Texas

We are very excited this year about our ongoing investment in an advanced professional growth track available to all educators. Our professional development offerings focus on providing ed-ucators with the techniques and tools to be innovative in their practice to deliver the highest-quality learning experiences for their students. Our approach is grounded in best practices in adult learning combined with our ongoing expertise from collaborating with member schools. Built on the solid foundation of our teacher training program, our professional growth track allows all educa-tors to engage in professional development with GOA.

GOA is an incubator for teacher growth; there are many ways to participate:

ONLINE COURSES: Two-week online courses on a variety of topics – most popular is our three-part Online Learning Environments (OLE) Series. This series supports teachers as they shift their practice to a more blended approach to teaching and learning.

ON-CAMPUS WORKSHOPS: Customized workshops that can be conducted all on campus or blended (some instruction online and some in person) over an extended period of time.

GLOBAL LEARNING NETWORKS (GLNs): An exciting opportunity for member school teachers to connect with peers around the world throughout the year to collaborate, share ideas, apply and reflect on new learning, and gain inspiration on a shared role or a common topic.

PARTNERSHIPS: GOA is partnering with select programs to offer a wider range of courses to bring to life modern learning techniques in a blended professional development model.

TRANSFORMING TEACHERS’ ROLES IN THE CLASSROOM

2012

-201

3

7 courses 21 sections

2013

-201

4

3 courses 3 sections

One-Year Growth of Professional Development Courses Offered

10.

Key Learnings:“An online learning environment when it’s

done well, when it’s done intentionally, and where the kids play

key roles in constructing the learning experience can enrich and

support a brick-and-mortar classroom.

“I have taken a lot of what I do with GOA and really tried to com-

municate the same message here at our school: that technology

is not the destination. It is a tool for getting to a destination. The

destination always needs to be the learning goal. Those learning

goals can be content-based, culturally-based, ethically-based, or

whatever, but you have to know what your learning goals are

first before you can figure out how you’re going to get to them.”

GOA track record: Participated in Online Learning Environ-

ments (OLE) Series; facilitates OLE Series; upcoming co-facilitator

of Global Learning Network: Blended Learning-What’s Next

JAMEY EVERETT Technology Integration Specialist Park Tudor School Indiana

In Jianing’s words: “At the beginning of the course everyone is asked to make a video to introduce him/herself, so we get some idea of what our classmates are like. After sharing the videos I noticed that a girl from Hawaii (her name is Paige) has similar hobbies and personalities as I do. I guess she noticed Key Learnings: “I was inspired by the course to apply as

many of the online learning tools as I could to my current brick-

and-mortar classroom, I just didn’t know how. Then it came to

me, like a thunderbolt: in my new role, I was learning that my

school’s coaches would never have time to gather for mean-

ingful small group discussions, especially since 80% of them

have off-campus professional commitments. But, we could all

participate in an online community. In a timely August meeting

with a friend and mentor who “coaches coaches,” the plan

came together and we began laying the online foundation for

what we are calling Coaching With a Purpose.”

GOA track record: Participated in Online Learning

Environments (OLE) Series

SAM KNOPIKAssistant Athletics Director Pembroke Hill SchoolMissouri

DAVID RYNERSON TeacherThe American School in JapanJapan

Key Learnings: “I have been developing my technology

skills slowly and gradually over the years, and my understand-

ing has been stretched as a result of GOA’s OLE certification

course. There are 4 key ideas that I am beginning to extend

into my courses:

• Thinking Intentionally: think through the whole process and

outcomes from the start before designing and executing the

online course.

• The Importance of Connection: leveraging certain technology

tools to facilitate the interaction between and among students.

• Flexibility and Accessibility: use technology to share ideas,

get feedback, and stay in touch wherever there’s a Wi-Fi signal.

• Meaningful Group Work: use online communities to keep

student group interaction in one place and accessible to all.”

GOA track record: Participated in Online Learning

Environments (OLE) Series

Key Learnings: “One learning from my GOA experiences

has been the key to building an online classroom community

is consistency – this can be an area of challenge for anyone

regardless of their personality. You can’t put one video up one

week, two the next, and then none for a week because students

are going to be expecting that consistency from their teacher.

Without that consistency, the community starts to dissolve and

disband. If you go and there’s nothing there, you’re less apt to

check back frequently.”

GOA track record: Participated in Online Learning

Environments (OLE) Series; facilitated OLE 1; will be teaching

student Graphic Design course in 2014-2015

GREG SCRANTONTeacherKingswood-Oxford School Connecticut

teacher spotlight GOA LEARNINGS APPLIED

533 educators from around the globe engaged in professional growth opportunities with GOA last year

CATALYST REPORT 2014

11.

GOA Staff Highlights

Growing with YouThis summer capped off a wonderful year of enhancing GOA’s professional growth opportunities. We have designed and facilitated five new online professional development courses and continued to offer our Online Learning Environments (OLE) certification series on blended learning.

We have also been working closely with schools to design custom professional development opportunities. From half-day discussions to four-day on-campus train-ings our workshops are catalyzing new ideas on our school campuses and beyond.

In addition, we have also been collaborating with member schools to develop our Global Learning Networks (GLNs) for the 2014-15 school year. These online learning communities are focused on either an area of practice (blended learning and middle school) or a role within a school (world languages and libraries). The end-of-year outcome for each GLN will be documented case studies of practice, playlists of resources by topic, and an academic publication, which all of our schools will receive.

We’re looking forward to working closely with so many schools and teachers on these great programs!

Amy Hollinger, Director of Professional Development

Should you have any specific

inquiries or questions, please reach out:

amy@globalonlineacademy.org

To find out more about our professional

development courses, reference our professional

development course catalog on our website:

www.globalonlineacademy.org

12.

blended learning as THE NEW NORMAL

As we move forward, it is clear that education is not getting any less digital. Most educators concur that the future of K-12 learning will be a blended approach – leveraging the right tools and experiences needed for specific learning objectives. Blended learning will be an approach of figuring out what learning objectives are best achieved online versus face-to-face and then figuring out curricular resources, modalities, and learning experiences that make sense. Thus a class might have a blend that is 80% face-to-face and 20% online, or a class could be 60/40, or deeply inte-grated. Blended classrooms will allow teachers and schools to rethink time and place, thus creating opportunities to enrich school programs.

Another transformative change will be in the content and curricula used in our classrooms. As printed textbooks become obsolete there will be the opportunity to be more interdisciplinary, as we will be less wedded to preconceived content. Much like a music playlist is created, educators can collaborate and curate a playlist of the best digital curriculum on a given topic. The curation will be iterative, always adding and changing as new things are published or discovered. This will also impact student-centered learning, as students can help to curate their own curriculum – bringing in their own outside resources and perspectives.

“I think the natural evolution of blended learning is inexorable and will go forward very quickly. Teachers will look for technological and blended solutions naturally and intuitively first, before they use traditional methods. Schools will continue to spend more money to do this well. However, the really essential concept that this has to stay connected to is that this is about relationships and building better people first – not just the more efficient conveyance of information and knowledge.”

- Robert P. Henderson Jr., Head of School, Noble and Greenough School, Massachusetts

CATALYST REPORT 2014

13.

Dr. Paul M. Fochtman

Head of School

Frankfurt International School

Frankfurt, Germany

POINT OF VIEW

Frankfurt International School in Germany recently became a GOA member school, and we had the pleasure of speaking with Head of School Dr. Paul M. Fochtman on his future vision for online learning. The following is an excerpt from our conversation.

How do you think online learning, and GOA in particular, will evolve over the next five years?

I think you’ll see a natural separation of high-quality online providers who are legitimate, creative, committed to teaching, and they will be exceedingly successful. I also think, as we see now, that those providing low-quality offerings will be pushed out of the market. GOA is positioned like no other institution that I’m aware of to capitalize on the collective instructional strength of the very top schools in the world. While you may have isolated online high schools that are very good, there is no other program like GOA that is effectively connecting the schools, teachers, and students in the same way. This is a unique model that will allow exponential growth in the future.

What three ingredients are necessary for the full potential of online learning to be realized in your community (or the larger independent school community) in the near future?

The three ingredients would include: exceptional teachers, investment and participation in professional development, and valuable experiences for students. If these ingredients are in place, I see a very bright future for GOA.

What’s the biggest change you predict will occur in online/blended learning in the next two to three years?

The biggest change that I predict will be with teacher buy-in. I think the hybrid classes are a strong bridge for having both the real-life, face-to-face discussion and the collaboration among other schools in a technological form. Teachers that have a hybrid experience will come off the fence and see that online instruction is a viable strategy. There’s some current skepticism towards online learning and that comes from poor online classes in the market, lack of professional development, or lack of any experience with an online class. I would also suggest there may be a fear that in some way online instruction is going to limit or reduce the need for teachers. I believe the opposite is true and what we are offering is first an expand-ed teaching strategy and second, expanded opportunities for teachers and students that will only enhance teaching and learning. In short, the biggest change I see is greater acceptance, expanded use, and organizations like GOA standing far ahead given their commitment to professional development, creativity, and collaboration.

14.

• Nominate your teachers to teach a GOA course

• Encourage a faculty member to join a Global Learning Network

(GLN) and present to your faculty

• Invite GOA to design and deliver a professional development

workshop for your faculty

• Join the Big History collaboration for 2015

• Recommend GOA professional development opportunities to teachers

• Come see us at these events:

NAIS

OESIS

AAIE

• Participate in our blog

Ways To Engage With GOA

www.globalonlineacademy.org

www.facebook.com/globalonlineacademy

https://twitter.com/GOAlearning

CATALYST REPORT 2014

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