DEANZ - Extending Learning Opportunities for High School Students in Rural Communities: The Replication of a New Zealand Model in Canada

Well, I’m here at the Distance Education Association of New Zealand (see http://www.deanz.org.nz/conf2008/) and while there aren’t many sessions focused on the K-12 environment, there is one that I am in now:

Dr. Ken Stevens - Extending learning opportunities for high school students in rural communities: The replication of a New Zealand model in Canada

As Dr. Stevens’ introduced it, the problem is “the provision of educational opportunities for senior students in small rural high schools that are comparable to those expected by urban students in big high schools.”  His beginning in addressing this problem was through the creation of district intranets to link schools together for parts of their day here in New Zealand with 10 rural schools (this is building on his open school concept that he’s described earlier in papers such as:

Stevens, K. (1999). A new model for teaching in rural communities: The electronic organisation of schools as intranets. Prism, Winter, 23-26. Retrieved on June 21, 2005 from http://www.tellearn.mun.ca/pubs/model.html

Stevens, K. (1997). The place of telelearning in the development of rural schools in Newfoundland and Labrador. Prospects, 4(4). Retrieved July 4, 2005 from http://www.cdli.ca/Community/Prospects/v4n4/telelearning.htm

Stevens, K. (1997). Three dimensions of leadership in a telelearning environment: School networking, collaborative teaching and open administration. The Morning Watch, 25(1-1). Retrieved on June 21, 2005 from http://www.mun.ca/educ/faculty/mwatch/fall97/three.htm

The open school model is designed to:

• teaching in schools and teaching between schools
• expanding the school class in time, space, organization, and capacity

After describing the transition from the Vista District Digital Intranet (Dr. Stevens’ original project) to the provincial virtual school (see my own article in BJET - http://www.michaelbarbour.com/research/pubs/bjet-05.pdf - which describes this evolution), he moved to discussing the role of the small schools in these projects, which he saw as:

• desperation with falling student rolls
• school closure
• lack of curriculum options
• duplication
• collaboration for growth
• sharing facilities and staff
• enhancement of opportunities

The pedagogical challenges that remain or need to be overcome:

• integrating on-site and online instruction
• integrating physical and virtual spaces
• blended, asynchronous and synchronous learning
• [missed this one]
• new classroom organizational models

Next steps in looking at e-learning in rural K-12 schools:

• horizontal integration of e-students
• vertical integration at community levels
• integration of virtual and physical learning - “cybercells” (Stevens & Stewart, 2005)
• customized instruction - education for each

Note: Stevens & Stewart (2005) - http://www.mun.ca/research/2006report/publications/cybercells.php

Killick Centre Project Update

Well, I’ve mentioned this project in the past (see Virtual School Project in Newfoundland and E-Learning Project From Back Home).  Anyway, I believe that they have a new website:

http://www.mun.ca/killick/home/

One of the main pieces of the website I’d like to point out is the Project Descriptions (see http://www.mun.ca/killick/projects/).

The only project that appears to have released any results to date is the one being led by Drs. Dale Kirby and Dennis Sharpe (see http://www.mun.ca/killick/projects/impactcdli.php) and have recently released an update newsletter with some of those results:

Project Update: 01/07/08

Some of the key findings to date in my opinion:

• “Participation in CDLI high school distance education courses does not negatively impact upon students’ post-secondary choices or persistence decisions.”
• “…females were significantly more likely (53%) than males (28%) to indicate their intention to attend university.”
• “…rural students’ choice between university or non-university studies is strongly connected to academic performance in school and participation in after school activities…”

These were key findings for me because they suggest something that I have both heard and read about with the province’s virtual school and rural male students.  As more and more rural schools have to rely upon the CDLI to offer their academic program, anecdotal evidence suggests that many students (particularly male students) are choosing courses from the basic program to avoid having to take online courses.  This essentially seals their fate at not being in a position of not being eligible for post-secondary studies.

The findings above, coupled with this persistent rumour from folks on the ground, lead to me wonder how K-12 online learning is affecting rural students (and particularly rural males) in their course and career choices.

VHSM Podcast Teaser

VSS2007: What Are They Doing And How Are They Doing It?

VHSM And Podcasting

So, I’ve decided that I’m going to try podcasting in the Fall.  Beginning in September, sometime after Labour Day, I’m going to upload a monthly podcast entitled “Virtual High School Meandering Podcast” or “VHSM Podcast” (creative title I know).  I’m been chatting a little with my good friend Nate (see http://durandus.com/ ) to get the specifics on how to do this down and with the last month and a half (or a little better) of the summer, I’m going to figure this out.

BTW, if anyone has an catchy music or wants to create a little musical introduction for the future show that I’m going to be podcasting (i.e., the “Virtual High School Meandering or VHSM Podcast” show), I’d be happy to entertain any submissions.

In the meantime, the entry that immediately follows this one will be a teaser - so to speak.  Last year, I recorded the presentation that I gave at the 2007 Virtual School Symposium on my ipod and used Garage Band on a MacBook Pro to edit it. I have no idea why the software chopped the sides off of the PowerPoint slides The M4A that I had originally created included the PPT slides at the appropriate places (although the left and right sides were chopped off), but WordPress only allows you to use MP3 files with their free service. You can also access all of the slides at the NACOL website and you find them directly here.

I had been trying a number of ways to get this online since about a week after the Virtual School Symposium (which was back in November 2007). I tried uploading it to Blogger, as they allow video files of up to 100MB, but that didn’t work (and the support people never did respond to my numerous queries - thanks a lot Blogger!). I tried uploading to Google Pages, I tried the iTunes store, I tried YouTube (and discovered it was too long or too big), I tried two or three other free video hosting sites.  Nothing seemed to work.

So, when I decided that I was going to start a monthly podcasting show anyway and talked to Nate about how to host it, we decided that the best way way to just upload the files to a directory on my own web server and insert the file into an entry on my blog (thanks Nate!!!).

This is my first try at recording one of my presentations, my first time using Garage Band (or any other software of that nature) to edit the audio and the PowerPoint, and my first attempt to podcast the results.  So feedback on the technical aspects of what I have done here are appreciated. As are comments about the presentation itself.  Again, the podcast is in the entry that immediately follows this one.

Using The Net To Learn

An article from my home province that touches close to home for me.

Using the net to learn

AARON BESWICK
Northern Pen

Rural schools are turning to the Internet to provide full courseloads to their students when appropriately trained teachers aren’t available. Pictured are students of Conche’s Sacred Heart All Grade learning creative writing: (l-r) – Brittany McLean, Megan Wiseman, Sara Gardiner and Cassondra Carroll.
Rural schools are turning to the Internet to provide full courseloads to their students when appropriately trained teachers aren’t available. Pictured are students of Conche’s Sacred Heart All Grade learning creative writing: (l-r) – Brittany McLean, Megan Wiseman, Sara Gardiner and Cassondra Carroll.

The Northern Peninsula’s many rural schools are turning to technology to keep their students abreast with advanced subjects.

Few students mean small teaching staffs trying to handle a wide variety of subjects, many of which, such as physics and chemistry, require specialized knowledge.

Level three students at Conche’s Sacred Heart All Grade were logging onto the Centre for Distance Learning Innovation (CDLI) last Tuesday, as they do every day.

“Now raise your hands if you have any questions,” came Cindy Lander’s voice across the information superhighway from Goose Bay.

A strange statement to older generations who would wonder how a teacher in Goose Bay would see a raised hand. But the Sacred Heart students are savvy - in the online world they hit a hand on their screen with their mouse to ask a question.

Under Ms. Lander’s supervision, the class typed away at their mystery stories - next week they are set to write and record radio plays on their computers.

“It’s a good system, but it’s different,” said student Brittany McLean. “You have to work harder because you don’t always have someone around to point stuff out to you.”

Though not an educational researcher, Brittany’s words mark one downside to CDLI.

“Those who don’t do as well with CDLI are those who don’t do as well academically - less independent learners,” said Jeff Thompson, an assistant director of education with the Western School District. “Those are the students who need some extra help and monitoring from the teaching staff that is present at the school.”

Students in CDLI programs write the same exams as those learning in a classroom setting and Mr. Thompson has found marks to be comparable.

CDLI courses are divided into supervised online time, during which they communicate with a teacher, and time during which they work alone on their projects. During the unsupervised time students can access short movies for extra instruction.

For Mr. Thompson, the benefits outweigh the shortcomings.

“It’s not without its challenges, but it’s a wonderful opportunity,” said Mr. Thompson. “Some schools can only put off a course every three years - so if a student failed the course they would be facing the possibility of having to wait another three years to graduate. But with CDLI that course can be arranged.”

Another major benefit, he added, is providing a wider course selection with subjects like creative writing, Canadian History and advanced sciences.

He has a supporter in Conche principal Dalton McLean.

“We don’t have a sufficient staff to cover a vast array of courses,” said Mr. McLean, whose school offers eight CDLI courses. “I’ve found CDLI really good for broadening their array of courses.”

Original article available at: http://www.northernpen.ca/index.cfm?sid=131780&sc=361

Note the comments about the type of student who succeeds in these virtual school courses, one of the main concerns I continue to have about virtual schooling.