The Salt Lake Tribune recently ran a front page feature on the Open High School of Utah that generated a number of comments online. (More recent OHSU coverage at eSchoolNews). Many of the comments about the online school ran along these lines: So much for peer relationships! Social growth is also a good idea - or was…. Re Taxpayer… these online courses lack the academic interaction between students that is so crucial to a great education ...
The Open High School of Utah, the first high school to commit to using 100% open educational resources across its entire curriculum, has opened its enrollment application process and received its first application! I’m giddy with delight. If you know someone who lives in Utah, will be a 9th grader next academic year, wants the flexibility of attending an online high school, the privilege of being loaned a laptop for the duration of their studies, and the freedom to forever keep a copy of all the curriculum materials s/he uses throughout high school, invite them to enroll today!
I heard this quote at the iSummit today, and it completely sums up what we’re trying to do with the Open High School of Utah: You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. Buckminster Fuller
Several readers have asked or emailed about access to the Open High School of Utah’s charter application documents. They are now online for your reviewing and reusing pleasure! http://openhighschool.org/documents/ The documents are licensed CC By 3.0. We sincerely hope that many of you will reuse the charter application documents to start your own OER charter schools!
Several of you have emailed with statements of support for the Open High School of Utah. Thank you for all the offers of help and the connections and introductions you’re making. Please keep them coming in!! I especially appreciated this note from Jun in the Philippines: You have just set a precedent that may be the answer to many of non-developed countries woes in education. You just might have transformed education as we know it. ...
With extreme joy and happiness I can now announce that this past Friday (the 9th) the Utah Board of Education formally approved our request to create a new charter school to be called the Open High School of Utah. For those unfamiliar with how US charter schools work, a charter school is a publicly funded school with a specific emphasis - like a performing arts high school. OHSU will be a completely online school (or “virtual school” as they are sometimes called) that will use open educational resources exclusively. ...