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.

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!

Great piece in eSchool News, “Opinion: Virtual schools are a critical piece of education’s future”

“A virtual school, as a disruptive technology, is an interesting concept, because it might be possible to maintain the positive and important characteristics of American education—local control of the curriculum, state rather than national accreditation, independent school districts operated by local administrators and boards of directors, and funding supported by the communities being served—while schools evolve into something different, yet familiar.”

Read the full article here: http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/01/18/opinion-virtual-schools-are-a-critical-piece-of-educations-future/2/?