SITE: Virtual Schooling SIG

The Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE) approved a Virtual Schooling Special Interest Group (SIG) in August 2009 to their current list of SIGs. As it is described on the website:

The use of distance education, particularly online learning, at the K-12 level is growing dramatically. There is significant K-12 online learning activity in 44 states, along with international virtual schooling initiatives in Australia, Canada, China, Finland, Iran, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Turkey, and the United Kingdom (and likely others).

The Virtual Schooling SIG will take an international focus on the growth of this form of distance education at the K-12 level. This focus may include issues related to the design and delivery of programs, the models used to organized virtual school opportunities, the nature of virtual school students, and the preparation of teachers for the virtual school environment to name but a few areas.

The duties of the Virtual Schooling SIG include:

• coordinate reviews for conference proposals submitted to the Virtual Schooling SIG, including recruiting SIG members to review those proposals
• hold an annual meeting of the Virtual Schooling SIG during each SITE conference
• ensure the Virtual Schooling SIG Chair attends the Instructional Technology Council meeting and the combined Councils and Executive Committee dinner at each SITE conference
• take part in the SITE Ning Community
• explore ways to strengthen the Virtual Schooling SIG and SITE

If you are a member of SITE or the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) and are interested in becoming a member of the Virtual Schooling SIG of SITE, please e-mail me at mkbarbour-at-gmail-dot-com.

Chair: Michael K. Barbour
Vice-Chair: Leanna Archambault