Abstract:

We have access to 21st century technology but maintain an 18th century educational mindset; we live in a post-Instagram society yet still rely on pre-industrial educational principles. Although there has been undeniable progress in terms of our systems, our learning models have largely remained unchanged. As the Academica Virtual Education (AVE) instructional team grows, we would like to present on the ideas, values, and philosophies that have pushed us to lessen our assumptions about the way things are or ought to be and really rethink what we do, why we do it, and how we can actually begin to progress.

In following, we will have a very interactive workshop in which attendees do not simply passively listen to what AVE is doing with its now close to 10,000 enrollments but actually model for them how to engage students, motivate them to care about learning, and create a peer-driven learning network that stands at the cross-section of education, entertainment, and technology.

We desire to provide K-12 administrators, educators, and stakeholders with a step-by-step guide of how to create a truly global school by offering an engaging education to students throughout the world--regardless of eco9nomic background--with access to the most innovative online education possible. We will utilize AVE's multiple affiliates such as Somerset Virtual Academy, Mater Virtual Academy, Somerset International, and Mater international as case studies for meeting the changing learning needs of an increasingly global society. We will seek to help attendees develop strategies for updating learning processes to match 21st-century learner needs, to identify instructional frameworks for engaging and motivating students in non-traditional learning spaces, to help them discover conduits for hiring, training, and supervising virtual instructors, and ultimately to aid them in expanding educational pathways and platforms available to students regardless of where they might be situated in the world.

Keywords:

e-learning, international, digital education, problem-based learning, experiential learning, dual diploma, english immersion, innovation, peer-to-peer learning.