Why Distance Learning?

In this episode of Why Distance Learning, Seth, Allyson, and Tami speak with Heather Gate — Executive Vice President of Digital Transformation at Connected Nation — about how the digital divide keeps changing shape, and why closing it takes more than laying cable.Together, Seth, Allyson, Tami, and Heather explore what "meaningful use" actually looks like — filling out a job application, setting up multi-factor authentication, helping a kid with homework — and why Heather argues the same access-versus-skills gap that shaped broadband adoption is now reopening around AI. They dig into how Connected Nation builds community-specific technology action plans (including a look at Bastrop County, Texas), the Teens Teach Tech program that pays teenagers to train their own neighbors and grandparents, and the idea of "digital compassion" as a companion to AI literacy. Heather also previews Connected Nation's attempt at a Guinness World Record: 25 straight hours of live digital skills training across six continents to mark the organization's 25th anniversary. She closes with one of the more memorable answers the show has gotten to its closing question, using a rural Kentucky classroom's remote-controlled telescope to make the case for what distance learning is really for.Key Topics:Meaningful use vs. broadband accessThe evolving definition of the digital divideThe emerging "AI divide"Technology action plans and community readinessTeens Teach Tech programDigital compassion and AI safetyConnected Nation's 25-hour Guinness World Record livestreamLinks & Resources:Connected Nation — https://connectednation.org25 Hours. One Connected World. (Guinness World Record livestream, September 24–25) — https://connectednation.org/25-hours-one-connected-worldTeens Teach Tech program — https://connectednation.org/programs/teens-teach-techAI Literacy Resource Hub — https://connectednation.org/resources/ai-web-resources"Beyond Access" digital literacy report — https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/beyond-access-new-report-explores-how-digital-literacy-impacts-economic-educational-and-health-outcomes-in-america-302390208.htmlConnected Nation's VP of Digital Inclusion named FCC Communications Equity and Diversity Council Chair — https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/connected-nations-vp-of-digital-inclusion-to-lead-fccs-communications-equity-and-diversity-council-as-chair-301404939.htmlThe Divide (Light Reading podcast): Heather Gate on maps, grants, and the "future-proof" fallacy — https://www.lightreading.com/digital-divide/the-divide-connected-nation-s-heather-gate-on-maps-grants-and-the-future-proof-fallacyGuest Bio: Heather GateHeather Gate is Executive Vice President of Digital Transformation at Connected Nation, where she has led digital inclusion strategy for nearly two decades, focusing on rural communities, minority populations, and other groups historically left behind by broadband access and digital skills gaps. She chairs the FCC's Communications Equity and Diversity Council and holds degrees in computer science and public administration from Kentucky State University.About the HostsSeth Fleischauer is the founder of Banyan Global Learning and a host of Why Distance Learning, a podcast for education leaders and practitioners making real decisions about how virtual learning gets designed, adopted, and sustained. Through Banyan, he designs live virtual programs that connect K-12 classrooms to global peers and expert facilitators. See https://www.banyangloballearning.com/programs/global-cohortsAllyson Mitchell and Tami Moehring are co-hosts of Why Distance Learning and members of the team at CILC — the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration — which connects students to real experts through live virtual field trips and experiences. See https://cilc.org

In this episode of Why Distance Learning, Seth talks with Dr. Mark Deschaine - Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Mississippi and editor of the Journal of Contemporary Research in Education - about what online teacher preparation actually requires, and why this moment of institutional disruption represents a structural opening for distance learning. Deschaine draws on three decades of work at the intersection of online learning policy, special education research, and K-12 practitioner experience.Together, Seth, Allyson and Mark explore why teacher preparation programs still treat online instruction as a digital extension of face-to-face teaching rather than its own discipline, and what the NSQOL standards actually get right (and why state adoption is uneven). They trace the structural roots of "à la carte education" — the pandemic-era shift in which parents bypassed school-provided content and found it wasn't that hard — and Mark argues it wasn't an anomaly but a preview. He walks through the three gojies — pedagogy, andragogy, and heutagogy — as a framework for understanding how learner agency changes across contexts, and makes the case that a heutagogical twelve-year-old with internet access could test out of their grade if the system would let them. The conversation builds toward a central claim: what traditional schooling sells isn't content, it's credential and trust — and right now, both are actively eroding through school choice legislation, educational savings accounts, and the dismantling of federal categorical funding. That erosion, Mark says, is where online learning's real opportunity lives. He closes with a preview of decentralized learning, soul-bound tokens as credentialing infrastructure, and the fourth "gogy" he's currently developing — agentagogy — a framework for learning with agentic AI he'll be presenting at AACTE.Key topics:Online teacher preparation as a distinct discipline (not technology added to traditional training)NSQOL standards: what they are, why states adopt them, and where they fall shortÀ la carte education: the post-pandemic structural shift in family-school authorityPedagogy, andragogy, and heutagogy — the three frameworks for learner agencyCredential and trust erosion in traditional schoolingDecentralized learning and soul-bound tokens as credentialing alternativesDiffusion of Innovations: why the DLAC community mattersLinks & Resources:"Ala Carte Education: An Inevitable Outgrowth of COVID?" — Mark Deschaine, Academia Letters, January 2021. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348827105"The Five Cs of Digital Curation: Supporting Twenty-First-Century Teaching and Learning" — Deschaine & Sharma, InSight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching, 2015. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281641256National Standards for Quality Online Learning (NSQOL): https://nsqol.org/Michigan Virtual: michiganvirtual.orgThe Sources of a Science of Education — John Dewey, 1929. Available free at Project GutenbergThe Reflective Practitioner — Donald Schön https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/donald-a-schon/the-reflective-practitioner/9780786725366/?lens=basic-booksDiffusion of Innovations — Everett Rogers https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Diffusion-of-Innovations-5th-Edition/Everett-M-Rogers/9780743222099Journal of Contemporary Research in Education (JCRE): https://egrove.olemiss.edu/jcre/Guest Bio: Mark E. Deschaine, PhDMark Deschaine is a Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Mississippi, where he prepares MA, EdS, EdD, and PhD candidates for school and district leadership roles and serves as editor of the Journal of Contemporary Research in Education. His research focuses on online learning policy, special education in virtual school settings, and differentiated instruction — grounded in a practitioner career spanning building-level principal, special education teacher, and paraprofessional. He is a Research Fellow at Michigan Virtual and a Leadership Team Member for the National Standards for Quality Online Learning.About the Hosts:Seth Fleischauer is the founder and president of Banyan Global Learning and a host of Why Distance Learning. Through Banyan, he designs live virtual exchange programs that connect K-12 classrooms to global peers and expert facilitators. Find Banyan at banyangloballearning.com.Allyson Mitchell and Tami Moehring are co-hosts of Why Distance Learning and part of the team at CILC, the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration, which connects students to real experts through live virtual field trips and experiences. Find CILC at cilc.org.Why Distance Learning is available at whydistancelearning.transistor.fm.

In this episode of Why Distance Learning, Seth, Allyson, and Tami speak with Dr. Nichole Lemmon, Executive Director of Virtual Learning and Strategic Planning at Springfield Public Schools and founder of Launch Virtual Learning — about what it takes to run the only statewide K-12 virtual school in the country inside a public school district. Launch serves more than 400 Missouri districts and 23,000 students annually, with 85% of those students enrolled in just one or two courses at a time, a structure Nichole has maintained deliberately for fifteen years.Together, Seth, Allyson, Tami, and Nichole explore how Missouri's public education funding flows through virtual providers and why roughly $60 million of it is going to out-of-state for-profit companies. They get into the three reasons Launch outperforms the field on state assessments: Missouri-specific curriculum, class sizes that mirror what the state mandates for seated schools, and in-state testing. They talk about what drove the decision to add synchronous instruction after years of building async-first, and what it looked like when Nichole told the governor of Missouri she could put the entire state on her platform in 2020 - and then had to deliver on it. The conversation also covers how Launch now runs direct-to-consumer ad campaigns on Hulu targeting millennial women on Sunday evenings, and why a public school program decided it had to compete on marketing terms with the companies it's trying to outperform.Key TopicsPublic vs. for-profit virtual school funding in MissouriCourse-access model and why 85% of Launch students take one or two classesClass size standards and how Launch mirrors seated school requirementsWhy Launch added synchronous instruction — and what wasn't working without itCOVID-era overextension: saying yes to the governor and the two-year recoveryVirtual special education and medically fragile learnersDirect-to-consumer marketing for a public school programLinks & ResourcesLaunch Virtual Learning: https://launchvirtuallearning.comVirtual Learning Leadership Alliance (VLLA): https://virtuallearningalliance.orgVLLA Accred accreditation program: https://accredved.org/Digital Learning Collaborative (DLAC): https://www.digitallearningcollaborative.comKSMU: Launch Virtual Learning Serves Thousands (May 2025): https://www.ksmu.org/news/2025-05-21/launch-virtual-learning-serves-thousands-from-its-office-in-springfieldPulitzer Center — Cash and Consequences: For-Profit Online Education in Missouri (2021): https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/cash-and-consequences-profit-online-education-missouriPew Charitable Trusts — Virtual Classrooms, Real-World Disparities (Nov 2025): https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2025/11/virtual-classrooms-real-world-disparitiesGuest Bio: Dr. Nichole LemmonDr. Nichole Lemmon is the Executive Director of Virtual Learning and Strategic Planning at Springfield Public Schools in Missouri, where she founded SPS Online in 2011 - now known as Launch Virtual Learning - and grew it into the only statewide K-12 virtual school in the country operating inside a public school district, serving more than 400 districts annually. She serves on the Executive Board of the Virtual Learning Leadership Alliance and as the Missouri State Affiliate for the Digital Learning Collaborative. Dr. Lemmon holds a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from Lindenwood University.About the HostsSeth Fleischauer is the founder of Banyan Global Learning and a host of Why Distance Learning, a podcast for education leaders and practitioners making real decisions about how virtual learning gets designed, adopted, and sustained. Through Banyan, he designs live virtual programs that connect K-12 classrooms to global peers and expert facilitators. See https://www.banyangloballearning.com/programs/global-cohortsAllyson Mitchell and Tami Moehring are co-hosts of Why Distance Learning and members of the team at CILC, the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration, which connects students to real experts through live virtual field trips and experiences. See https://cilc.org

In this episode of Why Distance Learning, Seth Fleischauer and Allyson Mitchell talk with Raymond Rose - President of Rose & Smith Associates and Public Policy Chair at the Texas Digital Learning Association- about what digital accessibility actually requires of educational institutions, and what it means to be out of compliance with an agreement you've already signed. Rose came to this work through civil rights enforcement, not ed tech, and it shows in how he frames the problem. For most institutions, the legal commitment to full accessibility is already on record. The question is whether anyone knows it.Together, the hosts and Raymond explore the Office of Civil Rights' operational definition of accessibility - same information, same interactions, same time frame - and why the "same time frame" clause changes what compliance actually looks like in practice. They work through the most common failures in online courses: PDFs that are images rather than readable text, missing alt text on graphics, videos without adequate captions, and data tables used for layout. Raymond explains why Universal Design for Learning is the right design framework for all learners - not just those with identified disabilities - and points to a simple test: 25% of males have some form of colorblindness, and roughly half your audience is already using closed captioning on their television. The episode also covers how to ask vendors for a VPAT before purchasing third-party tools, where automatic captioning still falls short, and what shifts when the students are K-12. The episode closes with Raymond making the case that most institutions are not deliberately ignoring accessibility - they just haven't been told they were already responsible for it.Key topicsDigital accessibility as a civil rights obligation under Section 504 and ADAThe OCR definition: same information, same interactions, same time frameUniversal Design for Learning (UDL) — the three components and why it benefits all learnersCommon compliance failures: PDFs, alt text, captioning, color contrast, data tablesHow automatic captioning has improved and where it still falls shortVPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) and how to vet third-party vendorsThe 504 coordinator gap: most schools have never trained this role for the web contextK-12 vs. higher ed: where the compliance pressure sits and why K-12 has been slowerLinks & ResourcesWAVE Accessibility Checker — free tool for identifying accessibility errors on any website. wave.webaim.orgCAST — Universal Design for Learning — the national headquarters for UDL frameworks and resources. cast.orgTxDLA Digital Accessibility Course — Texas Digital Learning Association's multi-session course on digital accessibility. txdla.orgQuality Matters — standards and training for quality online course design. qualitymatters.orgNational Standards for Quality Online Programs — Aurora Institute. https://www.aurora-institute.org/wp-content/uploads/national-standards-for-quality-online-programs.pdfRose, R. & Blomeyer, R. (2007). Access and Equity in Online Classes and Virtual Schools. iNACOL / Aurora Institute. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED509623.pdfRose, R. (2014). Access and Equity for All Learners in Blended and Online Education. Aurora Institute (formerly iNACOL). aurora-institute.orgRaymond Rose's blog — e-Learning Evangelist rmrose.blogspot.comGuest Bio: Raymond RoseRaymond Rose is President of Rose & Smith Associates and serves as Public Policy Chair and Digital Accessibility Liaison at the Texas Digital Learning Association (TxDLA). He co-directed the Virtual High School at the Concord Consortium - one of the first large-scale K-12 online programs in the country -  and wrote the nation's first virtual school Special Education Policy. For two decades he has focused on digital accessibility as a civil rights obligation for K-12 and higher education, working with institutions, policymakers, and federal funders on what compliance actually requires. He was inducted into the TxDLA Hall of Fame in 2026.About the HostsSeth Fleischauer is the founder of Banyan Global Learning and host of Why Distance Learning. Through Banyan, he designs live virtual programs that connect K-12 classrooms to global peers and expert facilitators - building the kind of structured, human-centered distance learning the podcast explores. See https://www.banyangloballearning.com/programs/global-cohortsAllyson Mitchell works with CILC, the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration, to help educators implement high-quality live virtual learning experiences across grade levels. Discover more at CILC.org.

In this special episode of Why Distance Learning, hosts Seth Fleischauer, Allyson Mitchell, and Tami Moehring skip the guest interview and trade hot takes drawn from their recent run of research conversations — with Michael Barbour, Bobbi Sandberg, Jered Borup, and Kristen DeBruler. Each host came in with their own list, then picked which ones to dig into together. What surfaces is a set of specific, evidence-backed reframes: where parents' instincts to help go wrong, why remote isolation is a design failure rather than an inherent cost of distance learning, and what's actually breaking down when students sense their teachers are using AI on their feedback.Together, the hosts work through the Academic Communities of Engagement framework's head/heart/hands distinction, and why the "heart" and "hands" work — trust, executive-functioning support — protects kids more than parents jumping in on academic content. They connect a CBS News piece on remote-worker isolation to Michael Barbour's finding that logging into school was, for some students, the most normal part of their pandemic day, arguing that isolation is what happens when culture isn't designed on purpose, not something baked into the medium. And they spend the back half of the episode on AI: not the cheating problem schools have mostly focused on, but the mirror-image trust break when students catch teachers using it on feedback without saying so — and why an honest, disclosed, assignment-by-assignment AI policy beats a blanket ban nobody actually follows.Key topics:Head, heart, hands: the Academic Communities of Engagement (ACE) frameworkWhy parental "head" support (re-teaching content) can do more harm than goodRemote work isolation as a design failure, not a modality problemMichael Barbour's finding on pandemic remote learning and student mental healthTeacher-student trust and AI-generated feedbackAssignment-by-assignment AI disclosure as an alternative to blanket bans"Improved" vs. "more" parental involvementLinks & ResourcesPrior Why Distance Learning episodes referenced: Michael Barbour (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3), Helaine Marshall, Bobbi Sandberg, Jered Borup (Part 1 & Part 2), Kristen DeBrulerAcademic Communities of Engagement (ACE) framework: https://edtechbooks.org/encyclopedia/academic_communities_of_engagement_ace_frameworkBehind the Screen: Exploring Parental Roles in K-12 Online Education (Sandberg & Borup, Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 2025): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15391523.2024.2447729Cuccolo, K. & DeBruler, K. (2024). A Look Back At 3 Years of Michigan Virtual Research. Michigan Virtual. https://michiganvirtual.org/research/publications/a-look-back-at-3-years-of-michigan-virtual-research/Make It Mindful episode with Katherine Heavers on the biology of trust (referenced by Seth): https://mim.bepodcast.network/episodes/85-katherine-heaversCBS News piece on remote work and isolation (referenced by Tami): https://www.cbsnews.com/news/remote-work-job-isolation-mental-health/Derek Thompson, "A World Without Work," The Atlantic (July/August 2015): https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/07/world-without-work/395294/Ikigai (Japanese concept referenced by Allyson): https://www.japan.go.jp/kizuna/2022/03/ikigai_japanese_secret_to_a_joyful_life.htmlNote: this is a hosts-only episode, so there's no guest bio or guest-provided links to confirm — just the items above referenced on air.About the Hosts: Seth Fleischauer is the founder of Banyan Global Learning and host of Why Distance Learning. Through Banyan, he designs live virtual programs that connect K-12 classrooms to global peers and expert facilitators — building the kind of structured, human-centered distance learning the podcast explores. See https://banyangloballearning.com/Tami Moehring and Allyson Mitchell work with CILC, the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration, to help educators implement high-quality live virtual learning experiences across grade levels. Discover more at CILC.org.