Giant Campus Blog

DECA Picks Giant Campus for First Ever Online High School Chapter
2009 Washington DECA Advisor of Year to be Giant Campus’s DECA advisor

SEATTLE — August 17, 2010 — Giant Campus (www.giantcampus.com), a nationally recognized leader in innovative technology, marketing and business education programs for youth and adults, today announced that it has formed the first online DECA chapter in coordination with Washington DECA. DECA is a student organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management.

“Giant Campus is a perfect partner because it’s located right in our backyard in Seattle, is one of the leading online learning companies and has been preparing students for business-related careers since 1997,” said Washington DECA Executive Director Shanna LaMar. “We recognize that business no longer takes place entirely in-person and that’s why we’ve decided to launch this first- of-its-kind chapter, where students from all over Washington State can collaborate through a mix of virtual and in-person meetings.”

By being part of Washington DECA, Giant Campus’s marketing and entrepreneurship students will have the opportunity to participate in DECA competitions and events worldwide. As part of the program, students will operate their own online store, and will work in teams to create and present business and marketing plans at competitions. Lori Jacobs, the 2009 Washington DECA Advisor of the Year and a business and marketing education teacher at Auburn High School, will guide Giant Campus chapter participants through each of these competitions and events in her role as Giant Campus DECA advisor.

“I’m looking forward to helping launch a chapter which promises to change how our young business leaders learn life-long skills,” said Jacobs. “With the Giant Campus chapter, the barriers of geography, and a dedicated advisor are gone. Students in rural and metropolitan areas, and in private and public schools will have a platform to share ideas on a daily basis.”

Membership is open to all Washington State high school students who meet DECA membership requirements, do not attend a school with a DECA chapter and enroll in one of Giant Campus’ business courses. For fall, students taking Introduction to Entrepreneurship or Introduction to Marketing are eligible to join the online chapter.

“Being handpicked by DECA to launch this online chapter is an honor,” said Giant Campus Founder and CEO Pete Findley. “At Giant Campus, we are committed to providing a robust business and marketing curriculum for our students, and DECA membership is a key element to our program.”

Introducing five new online high school classes focused on technology and business innovation and one of them will involve green design and technology — the only online class of its kind! Read more about our new classes and how educational organizations can license for this fall! View the class videos here.

I’m the Chief Financial Officer here at Giant Campus and I’m pretty passionate about changing the way middle and high school education is delivered.  I’m particularly interested in the Hybrid education model because as a father of six (yes, it’s the Brady Bunch) and a finance guy I see the lack of educational choices and how education funding continues to be cut.  I wholly appreciate the conflict created by lower school funding and the struggle by school administrators to balance the budget. But there is a better way. 

The Hybrid education model is still in its infancy but brings significant promise to traditional schools struggling with providing students relevant breadth and depth of choices in courses while facing significant funding pressure.  I define the Hybrid model as a traditional school that contains a room(s) with multiple computers connected to the internet with a teacher or teacher’s assistant monitoring students where they are afforded the opportunity to take approved online classes.  By implementing this model, students are able to choose from a wide variety of courses with highly specialized teachers that otherwise would not have been available.  Schools are able to save money by reducing headcount and instead offering online courses which generally are less. There is a better way.

I’m going to use my son’s high school as an example.  His school is in a district that is one of the better funded and higher performing districts in the state of Washington.   It’s a four year high school that has approximately 1,250 students with the usual activities ranging from drama, band and all the usual sports.  They have a reasonable technology program offering single classes in graphic arts, web design, digital photography, video/tv production and interactive media.  In languages, they offer Spanish, French and Japanese.  They also have a reasonable number of AP classes.  It’s the general store of education, a mile wide and an inch deep, in most subjects outside the core math, language arts, sciences and social studies. A student that wants a concentration in computer science or perhaps Chinese has zero options.  As a parent that believes China is going to be an economic powerhouse, I’d like my kids to learn Chinese and well…the computer science education…do I need to say more? It’s not available at his high school.  There is a better way to offer more breadth and depth in specific subjects with dynamic teachers and do it for less.

I think full online schools are wonderful for some students.  They offer a great breadth and depth of classes.  However, most students need and want the socialization of a traditional high school.  My kids fall into that bucket.  The hybrid model offers a student both. It’s a better way.

I will assume for argument sake that 75% of the 500 high schools in Washington and in the country don’t go as wide or as deep as my son’s high school because they are smaller and don’t have the same financial support. This applies to both public and private schools.  Those students are further disadvantaged because they don’t have the same opportunity. Rural students find themselves captured in that ugly cycle of minimal opportunity.  Parents who actively take part in their child’s education may supplement or educate at home to make up for the deficiencies but that is limited.  In Washington, there is an alternative if your school doesn’t employ the Hybrid model yet.  Students can drop a class at their resident school and enroll in a Giant Campus course taught by a world class teacher.  Its part of the public school system so it’s free and the credits are transferable to your student’s transcript.   There is one catch.  Your school district can be more interested in protecting its valuable funding and deny your child the choice to take these great courses even though it’s in the student’s best interest.  Check out our classes and if you find them compelling, ask your counselor if they will let your student take a class through an inter-district agreement. 

I encourage you to push your school administration to adopt the hybrid model. You’ll find that the quality of education will improve, kids will be more engaged in classes they enjoy and the school will save money by reducing teacher headcount.

Tuition-free Giant Campus of Washington Gives High School Students Insight Into High Tech Careers, Offers Full-time Enrollment

Washington State High School Students Can Now Earn a Diploma While Pursuing Interests in Digital Arts, Computer Science, and Business & Innovation

SEATTLE — May 26, 2010 — Giant Campus, the nationally recognized leader in innovative technology education programs for youth and adults, today announced the availability of full-time enrollment with Giant Campus of Washington, a public and tuition-free online school program of Columbia Tech High School in the White Salmon Valley School District. Giant Campus of Washington is accredited with the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools (NAAS), and is the first online school in Washington state to offer both core curriculum and elective concentrations in digital arts, computer science, and business & innovation to Washington high school students statewide.

“The availability of full time enrollment with Giant Campus of Washington is an educational milestone for Washington state,” said Jerry Lewis, Superintendent, White Salmon Valley School District. “Never before have students been able to enroll full time in a tuition-free school that offers core curriculum and a broad selection of elective courses in digital arts, technology and business—all entirely online. Washington state students have the rare advantage of sampling 21st century careers, helping them make more informed educational and career decisions.”

Giant Campus of Washington students meet graduation requirements entirely online using their home computer. Every lesson, question-and-answer session, quiz, assignment and teacher-student interaction happens via a virtual learning environment. A variety of virtual campus activities, such as field trips, after-school clubs, student organizations and contests, help students gain strong teamwork, collaboration and problem-solving skills. Online guest speakers and a news hub help keep students up to date on various technology and business topics of interest.

Read more here: http://www.giantcampus.com/about/press-room/articletype/articleview/articleid/73/tuitionfree-giant-campus-of-washington-gives-high-school-students-insight-into-high-tech-careers-offers-fulltime-enrollment/

A special report from Education Week was recently published in April, 2010 backing up blended or hybrid learning is proving to be effective because it plays to students’ strengths and weaknesses. Districts and states are embracing online learning. And as one educator puts it “There are so many technology resources out there, why wouldn’t you want your students to gain access to them?”
You can read more about how e-learning is making a difference here: www.edweek.org/go/elearningp

Interesting article in USA Today about a growing trend of high school seniors, growing restless and unsatisfied by the current offerings in their school, choose to reinvent it on their own or skip out on parts of it. 

A selection from Greg Toppo’s article: “Trimble is part of a small but growing group of students — most of them academically advance and, as a result, a tad restless — who are tinkering with their senior year.  A few observers say the quiet experiment has the potential to reinvent high school altogether.” 

These stories get me going every morning.  Helping students and schools reinvent high school education is what we do at Giant Campus every day.  Make high school more relevant for our students and get them prepared for the future.  Our motto says it all:  Real Classes for the Real World!

Here’s a link to the full article at USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-02-25-senioryear25foronline_st_N.htm

I just read a great article in Forbes on the effectiveness of online learning and use of technology curriculum in the classroom.  Features nice highlights of our industry friends K12 Inc. and Apex Learning.

My favorite exerp from the article: “The “guide on the side” model takes off a lot of the pressure on teachers in terms of lesson plan design and content delivery. If they act as classroom supervisors rather than domain experts, allowing technology to play the latter role, the likelihood of children learning better even from teachers who do not have the appropriate background is considerably higher.

Maybe President Obama needs to mandate the use of a certified online curriculum for all public schools to give America’s K-12 kids a chance to become competitive in the 21st century!

Great article by Sramana Mitra over at Forbes!  Here’s a link to the full article:  http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/14/online-education-innovation-intelligent-technology-mitra.html

Learn all about Giant Campus of Washington and meet the people behind our school!

High-tech electives go online for teens
Washington state high-school students can now opt out of certain traditional elective classes at their school, instead taking a limited number of online courses in game design, 3-D animation and video production.

Washington state high-school students can now opt out of certain traditional elective classes at their schools, instead taking a limited number of online courses in game design, 3-D animation, video production and other technology subjects.

The for-credit classes, free to most students, supplement normal core courses, allowing students to stay enrolled in their high schools while taking some elective classes their schools do not offer.

It’s all possible through a new partnership, announced earlier this month, between the White Salmon Valley School District and Giant Campus, a national online technology-education company.

“It’s an avenue for students to pursue to take courses that normally they wouldn’t be able to,” White Salmon Valley Superintendent Jerry Lewis said.

Read more of our article here: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010828980_giantcampus19m.html

Thanks Brian Rosenthal for the great write-up!

Stumbled across a great article in Forbes that discusses how Technology is addressing the dysfunctions in education.

“If teachers all across America (and the world) can be motivated to use technologies such as those offered by K12, Apex and Revolution Prep, the entire K-12 education problem will become tractable. The “guide on the side” model takes off a lot of the pressure on teachers in terms of lesson plan design and content delivery. If they act as classroom supervisors rather than domain experts, allowing technology to play the latter role, the likelihood of children learning better even from teachers who do not have the appropriate background is considerably higher.”

Read the full article here: http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/14/online-education-innovation-intelligent-technology-mitra.html