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(BPT) – K-12 education has evolved. What used to be a linear path to academic success has expanded to a variety of nontraditional options for families and students looking to chart their own course in and after school. Schools that leverage online learning, such as full-time virtual schools, make it possible for students to pursue a top-quality education with more flexibility than the traditional classroom experience.

Nationwide, more than 275,000 K-12 students in the U.S. attended online school full-time during the 2014–15 school year, according to the 2015 Keeping Pace with K-12 Digital Learning report. A new third-party public opinion poll commissioned by Connections Academy also reveals that 86 percent of parents think America’s K-12 public school students should be able to choose tuition-free online learning options.

Further evidence of this shift to digital can be found in the Class of 2016, with many top graduates arriving at this important milestone via a nontraditional path — online learning. Connections Academy online schools are expected to graduate more than 4,000 students this year across 24 states — and many of those students will have completed their entire high school educations online. In fact, students who are enrolled in Connections Academy schools for all four years of high school have a graduation rate of 84 percent.

Although they traveled a unique path to their high school graduation, students and alumni assert they are experiencing the same success as their traditional public school peers. Recent 2016 graduates from Connections Academy-supported online schools were accepted to more than 690 four-year colleges and universities in each U.S. state including the District of Columbia, and others have plans to continue their education at two-year colleges or vocational schools, start careers or enter the military.

Texas twins Kelley and Courtlyn Ranly chose to attend online public school Texas Connections Academy to pursue their passion for rodeo. During their high school careers the sisters have been active National Honor Society members, maintained honor roll with a 4.47 GPA (on a 4.0 weighted scale), and, recently, they celebrated their achievements alongside their peers as they served as co-valedictorians for the school’s class of 2016. Outside of school, the flexibility to schedule their classes around their extracurricular activities allowed these Texas 4-H Livestock Ambassadors to volunteer at a local veterinary clinic and raise livestock, which won them several awards at the state’s largest county fair.

Courtlyn and Kelley will continue to pave their own path this summer as they travel to Argentina and Uruguay to learn about the agricultural industry on a global scale, seeking a different type of pre-college summer break than many of their classmates. Come fall, the sisters will further pursue their passions at Texas A&M University as animal science majors, with the shared goal of one day opening a veterinary clinic together.

When traditional schools did not fit the needs of Jeffrey Crouch, who has a unique educational learning need as a visually impaired student, he joined Great Lakes Cyber Academy. Transitioning to online school made it possible for Jeffrey, working closely with his teachers, to pursue an individualized education. As the president of the Michigan Association of Blind Students and president of the Genesee County Chapter at the National Federation of the Blind in Michigan, Jeffrey is actively involved in advocating for equal treatment of people with disabilities, a role that’s taken him to Capitol Hill to discuss advocacy issues. Jeffrey will graduate from high school this year and intends to pursue criminal investigation as a career path.

Across the globe, international students such as Aayah Nuriddin are also turning to online schools. Aayah began attending International Connections Academy in 10^th grade, after several years at an international school following her family’s move from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia. Though her parents wanted to raise the family in their home country, Aayah and her parents agreed it would benefit her long-term education goals to study an American curriculum. Online school has given her the flexibility to blend what she and her family agree are the best of both worlds for her education and growth, allowing her to become a global citizen now graduating from a U.S.-based school. She has participated in International Connections Academy’s honor societies, taken advantage of college and career guidance, and says she’s benefited from learning and working with teachers with different cultural backgrounds. Locally, Aayah works with younger students through her involvement with the English Honors Society of Shangri-La. Aayah has plans to study architectural engineering at Prince Sultan University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

While quality and flexibility are popular drivers, many types of students are opting for online school for all sorts of reasons: there are students who simply thrive better outside the traditional classroom, others are ahead or behind their peers academically, still more benefit from greater personalization. Educators agree that online school isn’t for every student and families interested should take the time to learn about their options. Information sessions are currently taking place in many states for parents and students interested in learning more about Connections Academy-supported online public school options. A full-time online private school is also available for families who live in states where a tuition-free public online option is not available.

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(BPT) – Every decade gets two moments in the sun it seems — when the years actually occur, and when they’re fashionably retro. In the twenty-teens, it looks like everything 90s is hot again.

The influence of the 90s is showing up virtually everywhere in pop culture in 2016, from reboots of movies and TV series that were hugely popular 20 years ago, to fashions that evoke the grunge era. The trend isn’t just popular among older millennials who remember the decade. Nineties style is being embraced by 20-somethings, teens and even children who are too young to recall the 90s or weren’t even born until after 1999.

Nostalgia can be a great way to bridge the gaps between generations, especially as kids discover updated versions of pop culture elements their parents who lived through the 90s loved. If you’re a child of the 90s, here are some retro experiences you can share with your kids this summer:

Video games

While some video game characters that have been around since the earliest days of console games are familiar to kids of all ages, others are just being rediscovered by today’s young gamers. Crash Bandicoot ruled the 90s gaming scene as one of the coolest, most fun platform games of the decade.

First introduced to the gaming public in 1996, Crash jumped, ran and spun his way through more than a dozen games that sold millions of copies worldwide. Now, he’s back in the newest game in the Skylanders franchise, Skylanders Imaginators. Skylanders Imaginators gives players the freedom to unleash their imagination and create their own Skylander using immense possibilities available in the game, including appearance, powers, abilities, names, catchphrases, musical themes and much more.

No Crash game would be complete without the ability to jump on TNT Crates to blow them up or collect the Bazooka Crate to get a rocket launcher. Crash is back in ways that will appeal to hardcore fans as well as introduce him to a new generation of gamer. Parents and kids alike will enjoy experiencing his unique and quirky personality both as a fully playable Skylander Sensei character and brand new toy. In Skylanders Imaginators, every Sensei has a devastating Sky-Chi attack, their most powerful move. Crash’s Sky-Chi attack is the ability to use a yo-yo to yank his enemies into a spin attack!

The Skylanders Imaginators Starter Pack Featuring Crash Bandicoot will be available exclusively for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 at launch this October. The Crash toy will be playable across platforms.

Screen reboots

Some of the hottest movies of the 90s are rebooting. Last year’s successful “Jurassic World” continued the dinosaur-cloning-gone-wrong cautionary tale and demonstrated the movie-going public has an appetite for 90s entertaining.

This summer, the “Independence Day” sequel is hoping to cash in on the popularity of the original that first premiered in 1996. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who first made it to the big screen in 1990, are back this summer, too. Their rebooted look and approach aims to appeal to both parents who grew up watching the original TV series and their kids who are discovering the heroes on a half shell for the first time.

Other 90s screen hits that are in the works for reboots include “Lethal Weapon” and Stephen King’s “It.”

Fashion backward

There’s something about retro fashions that makes people willing to wear attire they wouldn’t have dreamed of trying on the first time it was popular. Older millennials who lived through the years when acid wash jeans, chunky-soled shoes and oversized shirts were the height of fashion may now wonder if their own kids raided their old closets!

With the arrival of summer, you’re sure to see more crop tops — a signature look of the 90s — paired with shorts and combat boots. When the weather cools, denim overalls, nylon bomber jackets and bucket hats will reappear.

Whether you lived through the 90s, or you’re discovering the era’s entertainment and fashions for the first time, there’s no denying the decade is experiencing a retro renaissance in modern pop culture.

Yoav Vilner is Co-Founder at Ranky and a regular blogger whose articles have been published on Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc, VentureBeat and TheNextWeb.

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(BPT) – When patients are treated as individuals, they become engaged, active partners in their care plan and their health outcomes improve. This shift in providing customized care to patients is also being adopted by nurse educators, who are applying a similar approach that sets up nursing students for success in both the education and clinical setting. The customization of care is also a driving force behind four growing trends across education: individualized instruction, experiential learning, educating for cultural humility and increased access to education for military students.

Focusing on student success

Individualized instruction is an emerging trend that is designed to help students achieve greater confidence and overcome barriers to their education. Each student has their own preferred methods of learning, their own challenges and their own goals. When nurse educators care about the student’s individual success, everyone benefits. 

“We believe that if we take extraordinary care of our students, they will in turn take extraordinary care of the patients and families they serve,” says Dr. Richard Cowling, vice president of academic affairs at Chamberlain College of Nursing. “We call this value system, ‘Chamberlain Care.‘”

Through the Chamberlain Care Student Success Model, a team of Chamberlain faculty, advisors and mentors identify any barriers to the student’s success and deliver individualized academic coaching and a customized support plan to encourage and support students in reaching their goals.

Fostering active learning

To help students reach those goals, nurse educators turn to another emerging trend: active learning. A stark contrast with passive learning, watching a teacher in a classroom or learning from a textbook, nurse educators are cultivating active student participation and curiosity through direct patient care and simulated and virtual learning experiences.

Active learning promotes clinical reasoning and affords students the opportunity to see the outcome of their care decisions in real time. Simulation labs, a form of active learning, engage students to explore various clinical processes but instead of live patients, high-tech mannequins are used. In addition to these on-campus labs, Chamberlain also offers virtual learning environments for students pursuing a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree. Both simulation and virtual learning are types of experiential learning opportunities. When direct patient care isn’t an option, experiential learning opportunities can be created by nurse educators so students can learn how to respond to disasters, treat infectious diseases or participate in other scenarios they may not have exposure to otherwise.

“Active learning experiences allow students to practice the skills they need in a safe environment,” Cowling says. “Students feel in control of their own learning because they receive real-time feedback from instructors immediately following the experience, which helps in building confidence while they actively build their clinical knowledge and skillset.”

Promoting diversity

In addition to transforming how students learn, current trends in health care influence what students learn. Today’s health care environment is becoming more complex — with a rise in chronic illness, an aging population, ever-changing technology and increasingly diverse communities. The role of the nurse is also rapidly evolving as the focus has shifted to person-centered and culturally congruent care. Students who received individualized attention and a foundation in providing person-centered, culturally congruent care enter the workforce with a deeper understanding of the needs of today’s diverse patient populations. 

“We have enhanced our Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) curriculum to align more closely with the evolving health care needs of our communities and the practice settings where new nurses will serve. In fact, Chamberlain is piloting two programs to provide care to Hispanic communities and to military students,” Cowling says. “By customizing the learning experience, nurse educators help create a shift in both the education and health care industry by teaching others cultural humility and how to care for an increasingly diverse patient population in a person-centric way.”

Cultural humility is a continual process of self-reflection, self-awareness and self-critique by health care providers in order to develop and maintain mutually respectful and useful partnerships with individuals, families and communities. Rather than focusing on the mastery of many cultures as in cultural competence, cultural humility suggests that understanding other cultures requires a lifelong commitment to a learning process. This encourages an intentional examination of how the nurse’s beliefs, values and assumptions influence the delivery of health care and development of relationships with patients and their families.

Leading the next generation

The nursing students today are the future nursing leaders of tomorrow. Nurse educators who place a high value on individualized instruction and active learning and prepare students to think about caring for diverse populations in a patient-centered way are helping drive the perspective of the next generation of leaders.

Whether these nurses of tomorrow go on to earn their MSN or Doctor in Nursing Practice (DNP) degree, impact health policy, become nurse educators themselves or serve their local communities, students who receive customized education are empowered to achieve their goals. Thanks to the shift in education to a more customized approach, these students received the experiences, training and caring support necessary to transform health care on a local, national and global scale. 

 

 

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