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School District Expands Successful Distance-Learning Program
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After embracing a statewide initiative and expanding it, the Wilson County School District is becoming a leader in distance learning.
The school district has offered summer school online for four years. Students who sign up can do their work from anywhere in the world. All they need is a computer and an Internet connection.
And in January 2009, the district started offering distance-learning classes, making it possible for students throughout the district to take advanced and honors courses not offered at their schools using videoconferencing programs.
Both programs are part of a statewide initiative called e4TN, which stands for effective and engaging e-learning environment. The district received the three-year distance-learning grant – renewable each year – as a beta-testing rollout along with several other school districts. The coursework is tied into the county’s own online and distance-learning programs, which continue to evolve and expand each year, says Kim Clemmons, supervisor of instructional technology.
“We use desktop videoconferencing, so the students are at one school while the teacher is at another,” Clemmons says. “When we began the program, we chose a discrete math class taught by Barbara Hallums at Lebanon High School. We installed a SMART Board [interactive whiteboard], two cameras and two projectors in that room.”
Students at each location can see what’s on the teacher’s computer and the interactive board.
Students at Watertown High School and at MAP Academy, the district’s alternative high school, were the satellite recipients of the lessons, and they worked under the guidance of a lab facilitator in each school’s computer lab.
Multiple features within the desktop video conferencing, such as polling and chatting, allow students to ask questions from onsite or offsite locations. Handheld devices allow students to vote and tabulate the results on the screen.
“It’s very interactive,” Clemmons says. “And because it’s recorded, a student who was absent – or one who wants to review the lesson – can go back over it.”
By the end of the trial-run semester in May 2009, plans were in the works to greatly expand the system.
“We are ready to run with it,” Clemmons says. “We’ll be adding four additional courses in different subject areas in fall 2009, based on school needs.”
Other school districts have taken note of the program’s success, and they’re sharing in the benefits.
“Part of our responsibility is to do outreach, and we’ve had Trousdale, Clay and DeKalb county students using the program,” Clemmons says. “Districts are now helping one another fulfill requirements, and that’s really neat.”
Story by Joe Morris
