MVU Partners in Innovation to Define Future in Online Learning
By Jamey Fitzpatrick
MVU is engaged in planning its second decade of service to Michigan schools. To be effective, our planning process requires a new level of interaction with K-12 stakeholders. We are engaging a limited number of innovative leaders in planning discussions, joint development efforts and collaborative interactions to define new online learning models and approaches.
We believe historians will look back at this new decade and document the educational revolution we are beginning to experience as a turning point in public education. In the last year, we have seen an explosion in the availability and use of smart mobile devices and small portable touch screen computers with thousands of downloadable applications. These new technologies are fundamentally changing the way we live, entertain, communicate and access information. Ultimately this new technology will have a profound impact on teaching and learning within the K-12 community.
Unfortunately, the transition process to the future will likely be fraught with resistance to change, many trials and errors, and no clear road map that guarantees student success and system sustainability. Henry Ford, one of Michigan’s most successful business leaders said “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Clearly most people living a hundred years ago could not envision a personal transportation system built on the combustion engine. Likewise, many of us today have difficulty thinking about a public education system that is not dependent on textbooks, physical classrooms, agrarian calendars and seat-time measures.
In an effort to harness our collective knowledge and experiences, we have formed the MVU Partners in Innovation program to explore the academic needs of Michigan schools and to foster the development of new and innovative online learning solutions. Participation in this program allows select school and district leaders to help develop and pilot new instructional models for students and educators, benefit from joint research, and enable collaborative interactions to share innovative ideas and best practices. The Partners in Innovation program will accomplish four broad goals:
1. Jointly research, design and develop new delivery models, including fully online and blended instructional approaches.
2. Pilot new instructional models for use by students and teachers.
3. Evaluate new program models to guide continuous quality improvement efforts.
4. Share best practices with Michigan’s K-12 community to scale the adoption and use of innovative delivery models.
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Our rationale for this approach is simple; we believe no single organization in Michigan has the resources, knowledge or ability to accomplish the stated goals. We have selected seven intermediate school districts, 13 public school districts, one charter school, two nonpublic schools and one public university to help us explore the academic needs of Michigan schools and to foster the development of new and innovative online learning solutions.
The Partners group convened for the first time in October 2011 to prioritize educational challenges and to examine core areas to develop and pilot new online programs and services. One of the high priority areas identified relates to blended learning, a mix of face-to-face and online learning. MVU plans to use the powerful new ideas generated by the Partners to seek philanthropic investments from corporate and foundation groups that have an interest in helping to fundamentally redesign how educational services are delivered in the K-12 community.
This influential group of pioneering leaders will help us brainstorm how we can do more with less in public education through the use of online and blended learning models. I am convinced that the Partners in Innovation group will cultivate new thinking and new delivery models that will ultimately change the look and feel of public education.
Partners in Innovation:
Partners in Innovation consists of 28 public and private schools, districts, regional services agencies and one public university. The current Partners are: Ann Arbor Public Schools, Berkley Schools, Coopersville Public Schools, DeTour Area Schools, East Lansing Public Schools, Eaton ISD, Ferris State University, Forest Hills Public Schools, Genesee ISD, Golightly Education Center, Grand Rapids Christian Middle School, Holland Christian, Houghton Lake High School, Ingham ISD, Kent ISD, Lakeview Public Schools, Macomb ISD, Michigan Technical Academy, Monroe Public Schools, Paw Paw Public Schools, Saginaw ISD, St. Clair RESA, Stockbridge High School, Suttons Bay Public Schools, Three Rivers High School, Traverse City Public Schools, Wayne RESA, and West Ottawa High School.
Jamey Fitzpatrick, President and CEO, MVU®, has served as a catalyst for change and a champion of innovation in public education. Fitzpatrick provides leadership for MVU, a private nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization and parent company of Michigan Virtual School and Michigan LearnPort. He can be reached at
jfitz@mivu.org.
Conference 2012
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