Education Book Reviews

Zucker, Andrew A., Kozma, Robert, et al (2003). The Virtual High School: Teaching Generation V. New York: Teachers College Press.

During the late 1980s, the term virtual drew mental images of children gathering in entertainment parlors to gaze into huge box-shaped machines with both hands as they navigated a joystick. Riveting bell-like sounds emanated from the machines in reaction to their movements. Their interaction commonly involved stimulating animation such as streaks of beaming lights bouncing off humans and objects, similar to a comet racing to earth, coupled with audio closely matching the victorious sounds of a Las Vegas slot machine. A glimpse further back in time would have the term constructing a very different image of Abraham Lincoln sitting at his desk with only the twinkling of candlelight to complete his law course work. When both images are combined with modern technology, such as the computer, the Internet, and correspondence and distance learning, the term virtual presents a far different connotation and virtual schools are the primary images to emerge.

Andrew Zucker, Director of the Center for Education Policy at Stanford Research Institute International, and his esteemed colleagues undertook a challenging task. This group of researchers analyzed the emerging phenomenon of the virtual school within kindergarten through 12th-grade (K–12) education. As the authors of The Virtual High School: Teaching Generation V, they selected the Concord Consortium Virtual High School of Hudson Public Schools in Hudson, Massachusetts as the study site for their investigation. The experimentation began in the mid 1990s with a U.S. Department of Education $7.4 million grant award. Although an expensive venture, the benefits of the project far outweighed the costs. Students began to effectively use interactive media and had greater access to more courses, administrative overhead was reduced, teaching strategies and learning styles were significantly augmented, and traditional pedagogical strategies were productively redefined.

Unlike the saturated “virtual cafes” throughout the United States during the 1980s and early 1990s, K–12 virtual schools—especially virtual high schools (VHSs)—gained gradual recognition. Even though higher education continues to experiment with distance learning, with a measure of success in delivering quality education to students in remote locales, K–12 distance education still faces harsh criticism. Zucker et al. did not set out to respond to the contentions of critics that virtual learning at the K–12 level dehumanizes the process of learning for both students and teachers. Further criticism also posited that the delivery system diminished learning outcomes for disadvantaged and disenfranchised children, and that the quality of instruction, the self-discipline and motivation of the students, and the opportunity to broaden the social skills of students all suffered. Of upmost significance to these researchers was the adverse questioning of critics in terms of the effects of virtual learning on student knowledge in general.

Zucker et al. provides a profile of virtual education that is a combination of online courses such as NetCourses, distance learning, and virtual learning. When a student takes a high-school course online, added credit toward graduation is expected; however, that credit is valid only if the home district approves the course for that purpose. Consequently, rather than a course-granting organization, a VHS would better serve the academic community and its students as an accredited diploma-granting institution (Clark, 2001).

Zucker et al. take their readers on a brief, but exceptional, journey through the changes of online learning by referencing Tinkering Toward Utopia (Tyack & Cuban, 1995). They use the “tinkering” concept to argue the premise that technology can indeed introduce promising change to the educational system. “Tyack and Cuban looked across the history of educational change in the United States—changes that ranged from the introduction of common schooling and the Carnegie unit to the progressive education movement and the use of technology” (Zucker et al., 2003, p. 13). The Utopia principle serves as the philosophical or theoretical perspective for the Zucker et al. study.

Zucker and his associates organized this book by raising important questions related to the value of VHSs. “What is an online school? What is the online course experience for teachers and students? What are the outcomes of a virtual school? What can be learned from the VHS experience?” (pp. 15–16). The Concord Consortium Virtual High School serves as the reference point for all online schools as the authors examine the characteristics of schools, curriculum, teachers, and students. The products of commercial vendors, such as Apex Learning Software and the Blackboard platform, play a strong role in aiding and influencing the curriculum and delivery of VHSs. These researchers also analyze the successes and failures, strengths and flaws, and qualities and inadequacies of VHS online courses.

The movement toward virtual schools is a natural transition for students of the 21st century. With the rapid spread of Internet technologies, the push toward improved standards and assessment, teacher shortages, financial limitations, and the increasing demands for educational options, the VHS model is a viable alternative to the traditional school. The Virtual High School: Teaching Generation V is an excellent resource for state, county, district, private, and for-profit organizations as they consider the VHS as an avenue toward systemic change. This publication is rich with models and provides examples to help those strategically positioned and prepared to venture into the promising realm of virtual education.

References

Clark, T. (2001). Virtual schools: Trends and issues. A study of virtual schools in the United States. Retrieved November 23, 2002, from WestED database at http://www.wested.org/online_pubs/virtualschools.pdf.

Tyack, D. B., & Cuban, L. (1995). Tinkering toward Utopia. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Press.

Pages: 160     Price: $44.00 (cloth) $19.95 (paper)     ISBN: 0807742872(cloth) 0807742864(paper)

Reviewed by Neil Mercurius, Director of Education Technology and Assessment, Jurupa Unified School District, Riverside, California

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