The Hechinger Report is a national nonprofit newsroom that reports on one topic: education. Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get stories like this delivered directly to your inbox.

iNACOL

Digital learning acolytes met this week in the land of Disney, at a hotel adorned with gigantic swans and dolphinfish, to discover more about how creativity and big dreams can transform teaching and learning.

These teachers, principals, superintendents, policymakers and advocates from public and private K-12 schools converged in Orlando, Florida, for the International Association for K-12 Online Learning’s annual Blended and Online Learning Symposium. This year’s theme: Connecting Powerful Innovators.

“We are here to cross-pollinate ideas,” Susan Patrick, president and CEO of iNACOL, said to a packed ballroom of attendees during opening remarks Monday.

Unlike many other education technology conferences, the annual iNACOL symposium stands out for the sheer number of classroom-level participants. It’s an important audience. These are the people tasked with making the magic happen every day. The conference serves as a place where they can meet, ask questions and take a peek behind the scenes into what’s happening in the classrooms of schools far away from their own communities.

Sign up for our Blended Learning newsletter



The 2015 edition of Keeping Pace with K-12 Digital Learning, released Monday during the iNACOL conference, assesses how many schools are using digital learning, at various levels, and includes a variety of school profiles. These snapshots present a ground-level view of what these trends look like for individual teachers, students and parents. The stories provide anecdotes that illustrate how schools and communities are including more digital learning – both online and blended learning – in their work.

It’s important to remember that online courses and schools represent a small fraction of available options for families, John Watson, of the Evergreen Education Group, said during a presentation Monday at the conference. Many people believe that online learning is experiencing booming growth, but Watson said the reality is not so explosive. And even in states with the most online learning opportunities, these programs represent less than 3 percent of the total, he said.

Organizers said there are about 3,100 people at the iNACOL conference this week in Orlando, representing huge growth from 480 attendees in 2005. But here’s a parting thought, courtesy of Watson: The Kansas City baseball stadium could easily hold all of this year’s attendees, and that number represents a tiny fraction of all the teachers in the nation. Similarly, Watson said, the number of students who have access to online courses – full-time or part-time – is low.

In other words, there’s a lot more room to grow. How that story unfolds depends a lot on what happens in the classroom – and how well those innovations are supported.

You can keep up with developments in blended learning through my weekly Blended Learning Newsletter. To have a free copy delivered to your inbox each Tuesday, sign up here for a free subscription, and invite a friend to subscribe.

And follow @HechingerReport on Twitter. Email blended learning news tips dobo@hechingerreport.org.

The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn't mean it's free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

Join us today.

Letters to the Editor

At The Hechinger Report, we publish thoughtful letters from readers that contribute to the ongoing discussion about the education topics we cover. Please read our guidelines for more information. We will not consider letters that do not contain a full name and valid email address. You may submit news tips or ideas here without a full name, but not letters.

By submitting your name, you grant us permission to publish it with your letter. We will never publish your email address. You must fill out all fields to submit a letter.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *