Online schools will share classes (Post-Gazette)

By Brian David, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

At Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center in Midland, a student sat at a piano.

In Los Angeles, a professional musician sat at another.

Then, through the power of the Internet, the lesson began.

“We ‘Skyped’ them so they could see and talk to each other,” Lincoln Park executive director Stephen Catanzarite said, referring to a video-conferencing Internet program. “But what was really cool is that when the teacher pushed the keys in California, the keys went down on the piano at Lincoln Park. …

“By the end, they were actually playing a duet, with the student on one part of the keyboard and the teacher on another, playing together despite being separated by 3,000 miles and three hours of time.”

That demonstration helped the National Network of Digital Schools, which is closely tied to Lincoln Park, land a $500,000 grant to launch an effort known as the Pennsylvania Digital Learning Network, which will link the national network and 10 member schools to share classes online.

The idea is to take a step beyond simply finding customers for existing online coursework.

“We want to get the partnering school districts to create a collaborative learning network,” Mr. Catanzarite said. “They should not be just a dry consumer of classes, but a partner and a provider.”

Mr. Catanzarite, who is spearheading the project for the National Network of Digital Schools, said a number of districts have been tentatively identified for the network, and that the national network is actively seeking more. The idea is to get a mix of size and demographics, large districts and small, urban, suburban and rural.

The money is coming from the federal Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Education. The application was made through the office of U.S. Rep Jason Altmire, D-McCandless. It will be used to buy the needed technology, to update websites and to provide training.

The inspiration comes from the 10-year history of the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, one of the pioneers in the realm of online high schools. Lincoln Park and tje National Network of Digital Schools are both spinoffs from the cyber charter school.

“We’ve been trying to create what we call ‘the next segment of the bridge’ ” between traditional and online schools, Mr. Catanzarite said. He said some experts have predicted that within the next five years, half of all high school classes in the country will be taught online, giving students the social and educational advantages of traditional schools and also the flexibility and huge potential curriculum of online schools.

“Traditional schools are recognizing this, and are reaching out,” he said. “We have 10 years of experience doing this. We have the infrastructure. We have the technical expertise, and we have the curriculum.

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