Virtual Vision: Opening Doors with Online Classes in Rural America
Students in rural America simply do not have as many educational opportunities as their counterparts in bigger cities. They attend smaller schools that typically do not offer a rich variety of classes. What are some of the things you wish your school could offer students? Let's start to talk about how online classes can not only help prepare students for college and the workforce, but how they can add variety to the basic line up of classes in small districts.
Click here to get to my poster session on this topic.
Click here to get to my poster session on this topic.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sandra Jenkins on
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I teach a freshmen-level information literacy course at the University of Central Missouri. It is a GenEd course and many students take it. For several years we have offered it as an online Dual Credit course to high school students. This has worked well for us and our students.
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Permalink Reply by Samuel Lewis on
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Beth, it was a pleasure to meet you yesterday at NECC. After teaching online college courses for while -- often to rural adults who in 2009 still have dial-up Internet access -- in spring 2009 I began teaching in the LVS/NSU Early Start Program. This is a great opportunity for students in Louisiana to begin their college education while still in high school. 27 of my 28 debut students live in small towns or outside small towns (population less than 3,000). Doubters should look up Castor, Hornbeck, Rosepine, Montgomery, Mansura, and Atlanta in Louisiana to verify how rural are these students. I only hope that as the years go by, these students will be able to earn more than 12-21 college hours but move toward 30+ hours of college credit while still in high school, because these students will be much more likely to CONTINUE their college education than their rural student counterparts who graduate from college without having earned any college credit.
What I strongly wish we could do in Louisiana (and others similarly do elsewhere) is strategically reach rural high potential ("gifted") students with accelerated and advanced courses. It will be a political battle and probably a need to find sustainable funding.
http://www.louisianavirtualschool.net/
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