Virtual School Project in Newfoundland

Well, I think that may have mentioned this project before (note, I have - see E-Learning Project From Back Home), but I want to give it some context. A number of year ago a group a faculty members at Memorial University of Newfoundland created a Centre for Telelearning and Rural Education (see http://www.cdli.ca/Community/prospects/v4n4/telelearning.htm or http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED413150&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED413150 for articles about its creation and purpose from Ken Stevens, and others, who was the original chair of the Centre). Note that Memorial University no longer maintains the Centre's website (which was available at http://www.tellearn.mun.ca/ ), but you can access some of it through the Internet Archive (go to http://www.archive.org/index.php and punch http://www.tellearn.mun.ca/ into their Wayback Machine).

Anyway, as best I can tell neither the webpage nor the Centre exist anymore (and it is a shame that the webpage is gone cause there were links to a lot of good early virtual school research there conducted by Dr. Stevens and his colleagues). A couple of years ago, a number of individuals from the Faculty of Education and Memorial University applied and received a Community-University Research Alliances (CURA). The project behind this CURA is described by the various initiatives that are underway as a part of the Killick Project for E-Learning Research.

I mention this here today because as I was out on the blogsphere, looking at what different Newfoundlanders were blogging about, I came across an entry entitled The Killick Project: Our "Wisconsin Idea" from Dale Kirby's Post-Secondary Education Blog. I've met Dale before and have a lot of respect for his work (which is more focused on post-secondary than mine own), and his entry got me thinking about their project again - that and the fact that Elizabeth Murphy (see Spotlight on Elizabeth Murphy) is also working on the Innovative and Effective Practices in Online Learning thread of this research.

In looking at their website, it appears that much of their work will extend into 2010 and beyond, so hopefully it will be stuff we are all reading about for the next four or five years.

Tags: research, Newfoundland and Labrador, CDLI, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education

Rural Context of Virtual Schooling

Okay, I just wanted to post this because I spend a great deal of time talking about the rural nature of virtual schooling and how I see that as my lens through which I look at virtual schooling.

In my particular case, my rural lens has traditionally been focused upon the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. For those of you unfamiliar with this geographic region, I wanted to direct you to a recent online article that I published in the Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy (CJEAP).

Issue Fifty-Nine
February 11, 2007

Portrait of Rural Virtual Schoolingby Michael K. Barbour, University of Georgia (Doctoral Candidate)

Abstract: Over the past two decades, distance education has become a reality of rural schooling in Newfoundland and Labrador. In this article, I provide historical background into the challenges facing rural schools in the province and how distance education was introduced to address that challenge. I also describe how that system of distance education evolved from a system that used the telephone lines and bridging technology to one that uses a combination synchronous and asynchronous system delivered over the Internet. Finally, I examine recent literature concerning the nature of today’s secondary students that would need to avail of this system and relate how this may not be an applicable portrait of youth in rural areas, such as Newfoundland and Labrador.

To download this article in pdf form, click here.

I hope you find this useful in getting a better sense of the lens that I use to look at virtual schooling.

Tags: research, virtual school, cyber school, high school, education, CDLI, Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation, Newfoundland, Newfoundland and Labrador