The Education Of The Cyber Charter School

Since children today have become digital natives; they will never truly know a world that is not touched with technology. This means that the educational paradigm has to shift in order to keep up with the needs of our young learners (Jo, 2016). In the last thirty years, technological advances

Cathy N. Davidson suggests an innovative education system, providing an emphasis in today’s digital era, and claiming that the existing education system needs to be renewed according to the new expectations of the digital era. Davidson states that,” In the last half century, many changes have occurred in the technology field, however, classrooms and educational methods have remained fairly steady for the past years as well in consequence students are not being prepared for the future advances of society.” That being said, it is important to improve and to give a change to the current educational methods, adjusting them to the existing demands of the era that we are living and taking advantage of the resources that it provides. “What if we continued to the lesson of internet itself,

Technology has many attributes and applications that improve livelihoods. As a student myself, one of the most obvious advancements is in the field of education. Educational technology has slowly been integrated into classrooms over the last decade. Today, the basis of technology, digital literacy, is a crucial skill for academics. “Students who are digitally literate know how to effectively use technology to collaborate, create original content, and conduct in-depth research for academic purposes” (Dotterer, “Fostering Digital Citizenship In The Classroom”). Some worry that the use of technology will encourage people to “cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful” (qtd. In Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”).

For some of us, it is difficult to comprehend why our education systems have not yet made the transition to technology-based forms of teaching especially when we are in the era of technology. To others, the reasoning is clear and they support the original, dated usage of textbooks in a “traditional classroom” setting. The changes in our society are undeniable with the innovation of technology and social media. Although some authors, such as Neil Howe and Jean Twenge, argue that technology is deteriorating the minds of Millennials, technology is also providing Millennials with a way to create connections across communities.

The Committee of Highly Successful School for Programs for K-12 STEM Education (2011) calls for schools to “strive for excellence for all students in all disciples” (p.13). Meaning successful STEM K-12 education programs have specific qualities which lead towards success, including; a coherent set of standards and curriculum, teachers with high capacity to teach in their discipline, a supportive system of assessment and accountability, adequate instructional time, and equal access to high-quality STEM learning activities (Committee of Highly Successful Schools for Programs for K-12 STEM Education, 2011, p. 18-23). Agora Cyber Charter School is far from a STEM integrated school, but does possess high quality, committed teachers who regularly participate in professional development and professional learning communities (PLC), as well as, adequate instructional time through a block scheduling model. Agora needs to develop their curriculum to adequately and consistently teach the standards within STEM student-centered activities that proved students quality learning experiences.

Distinctions between “digital immigrants” and “digital natives” (Prensky, 2001a; Prensky, 2001b) have been frequently referenced over the past decade. Much has been written about digital native students as a part of the Net generation (Tapscott, 1998; Tapscott, 2008) or as Millennials (Howe & Strauss, 2000), which generally includes learners “born in the 1980s and later” (Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005, p. 1.2). However, little work fully considers the impact of digital immigrant discourse as it appears within the field of adult learning and continuing education. Indeed, such discussion seems increasingly necessary given the growing body of recent evidence calling into question such popular, binary notions characterizing youth as ubiquitously tech

Presently, the District is comprised of six brick and mortar schools and one virtual charter school. The brick and mortar schools include three elementary schools, one middle school, one traditional high school and one alternative high school for high risk students. Our virtual charter school serves student’s grades K- 12 and is primarily attended by families who homeschool their children and want flexibility and access to District resources such as teachers and curriculum. EASD strives to be in the top 10% of everything we do, and strive to be progressive in the education field. As stated by District Superintendent, Jason Tadlock, the mission of EASD is, to “maximize growth for every student, improving academic achievement for all

This concept is Loewy’s “‘interdisciplinary curriculum for the digital age,’” and from this, education should change for the better. By highlighting important aspects of the program, Wong shows opposers and concerned parents the solutions to their worries. Danger on the internet will always be present, and it’s all a matter of understanding of how to interact with the internet. If students don’t know how to properly interact on the internet, of course, parents are going to have their concerns. This leads to the “fearmongering and massive information campaigns” over avoiding such issues, which wouldn’t be an issue if covered in school more in-depth. In addition, according to Wong, Loewy’s concept is not the first either, “University of Pennsylvania English Professor Kenneth Goldsmith launched a course [in 2015] called ‘Wasting Time on the Internet,’” where it teaches students how to use technology appropriately, and use it to their advantage of gaining knowledge, rather than wilting it away with societal norms. Therefore, digital citizenship becomes vital if technology is to be a part of education, which Wong thrives in informing her

XYZ has the potential to reach at risk youth as early as early childhood by introducing them to the world of virtual learning to target student achievement. With this technology grant XYZ Charter Academy would be able to invest in a one to one computer program for every student. The computers will be used for research projects and instead of writing papers they could create PowerPoints or videos. It gives students a new way of learning. Edudemi(2017) discusses how Technology gives children the ability to learn in ways their parents and grandparents never had. Technology in the classroom also impacts the teachers with data analysis.

In Alia Wong’s “Digitals Natives, Yet Strangers to the Web,” Wong discusses the motives behind Reuben Loewy’s Living Online Lab as technology is misshapen into education and immobilizing students from thinking critically. In other words, technology is creeping itself into a student’s learning environment causing a mayhem as educators incorrectly incorporate them alongside given curriculums and set expectations that students are technology-born prodigies.

According to Feeding America (n.d.), 46.7 million American people live in poverty including 15.5 million children. The status of living in poverty often makes families experience food-insecurity, or the inability to provide substantial, nutritious food to their children (World Hunger Education Services, 2015). Unemployment and job uncertainty often lead to food insecurity and both have become a growing problem in America. As a teacher in a cyber- charter school who severs a cross section of children throughout the state of Pennsylvania, I have taught many children from various socioeconomic backgrounds. This wide range of students has allowed me to expand upon my own knowledge of poverty in America and witness the impacts to a child’s education.

As schools promote 21st-century learning, there has been a push for literacies which encourage students to be 21st-century learners. The two overarching literacies, new and digital, has taken over the three R’s literacy, reading, writing, and arithmetic. New Literacies continuously change due to the new technology emerging providing different ways to get information and communicate with others (Leu et al., 2015). In contrast, digital literacy is the ability to use digital tools to access information for understanding and communication (Jose, 2016). New literacies and digital literacies also differ in aspects of use in the classroom. New literacies are the building blocks for digital literacy; which are the skills students need to understand the internet (Maloy, Verock-O'Loughlin, Edwards, & Woolf, 2017). New literacies can be taught without the use of technology because students are learning to locate, evaluate, synthesize, and communicate information. Teachers can demonstrate these skills using encyclopedias and journal articles to gain a minimalistic comprehension. Once students learn the necessary understanding, teachers can transfer these skills to online which will promote digital literacy; furthermore, digital literacy can only be taught using digital tools. Teachers would teach students how to use computers and the social practices of the new literacies to gain an understanding of the digital literacy (Jose, 2016). Furthermore, digital literacies

While volunteering with the corporation, El Segundo Cyber Education Initiative (ESCEI), I show leadership by teaching the kids of my community cyber security and computer science. I helped found ESCEI as a club in November of 2016, but we later turned into a corporation. Every couple of months we hold events ranging in sizes to teach fourth and fifth grade children. I teach the children computer science with fun games including block code or actual code. I love doing this because I feel like a role model for the children, especially the girls. Also, I believe the children enjoy watching me, a female student teacher, use my knowledge to help them learn about computing and cyber security. I always try to encourage the girls and boys to further

It is no secret that technology plays a critical role in our society. In fact, it has become one of the most used items in the world, starting from personal computers and ending in smartphones, thus it was only a matter of time when educational institutions would start to utilize these gadgets in order to improve the overall state of current education. According to a U.S Department of Education (UDE, n.d) report, all 48 states, including the District of Columbia are now offering online education. Additionally, the report states that these schools operate on all kinds of scales, including state scale, district scale and charter scale, thus it would safe to assume that the whole state of current education in the United States is large and the whole approach is clearly technology based. However, despite the

Eshet-Alkalai, Y. (2004). Digital literacy: A conceptual framework for survival skills in the digital era. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 13(1), 93-106. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/205852670?accountid=32521