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Illinois Virtual High School. www.ivhs.k12.il.us. History of Distance Learning in the United States. 1970’s. Broadcast Television Microwave Broadcast. Broadcast Television Microwave Broadcast Satellite Broadcast. 1980’s. Broadcast Television Microwave Broadcast Satellite Broadcast
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Illinois Virtual High School www.ivhs.k12.il.us
History of Distance Learning in the United States 1970’s Broadcast Television Microwave Broadcast Broadcast Television Microwave Broadcast Satellite Broadcast 1980’s Broadcast Television Microwave Broadcast Satellite Broadcast Video Conferencing Multimedia packages 1990’s
There is a growing movement in the United States to provide an entire high school curriculum via distance learning technologies
USA Virtual High Schools • Florida (since 1996) • Concorde Consortium (since 1996) • Kentucky (since 1998) • Nebraska (since 1998) • Illinois (beginning 2001)
March 1999 IVHS Timeline Earliest discussions about the possibility of creating an online ‘virtual’ high school wicks@imsa.edu
What were the initiatives behind the IVHS? • Address large discrepancies in curriculum across the state • Make available Advanced Placement courses to all schools • Address the growing home school movement in the state
Series of meetings among groups of teachers interested in a virtual school July 1999 – December 1999 December 1999 $30,000 acquired grant for planning January 2000 Establishment of virtual school steering committee
Governor Ryan’s Vision • ”Utilizing various technologies this project [the Illinois Virtual High School] will explore new ways to deliver high school and college-level opportunities throughout Illinois.” Governor George RyanState of the State Address, February 2000Venture TECH - strategic technology investment initiative
Series of meetings among groups of teachers interested in a virtual school July 1999 – December 1999 December 1999 $30,000 acquired grant for planning January 2000 Establishment of virtual school steering committee March 2000 State takes control of virtual school program June 2000 3 day planning retreat by steering committee
The Illinois Board of Education (secondary education) takes control of the virtual school August 1999 September 2000 Bids go out for portal and content vendors 3rd Party vendor bids accepted October 2000 December 2000 IL Virtual School open for registration January 2001 IL Virtual School begins classes
IVHS Providers • ecollege.com (portal) • apex learning (content) • class.com (content) • The Florida HS (content)
Illinois Virtual High School • 13 initial courses including core courses such as American History, English, and Algebra • offered because these have high occurrence of being ‘repeated ’ • avoided science and foreign language courses
What are the long term goals of the IVHS? • Offer a complete core high school curriculum along with many electives • Provide equal access to the technology needed to use the IVHS
What technologies will the IVHS use? • The registration and administration of courses will be done via the Internet • While most work will be done via web-based course design, the content providers may choose CD-ROM, video recordings or other media to distribute curriculum.
What ‘best practices’ were explored? • Prior to accepting the bid of the content vendors, how they would provide the curriculum was investigated • A variety of methods were reviewed. Among the best or most effective included:
The use of ‘streaming video’ • Illinois Institute of Technology • www.iit-online.iit.edu • Lectures delivered in classrooms are available as RealPlayer files. • Notes and assignments are downloadable • Students correspond with instructor via email • Assessments take place at independent testing centers
Direct Satellite Broadcasts • TEAMS (Los Angles, California) • teams.lacoe.edu • K-12 classroom settings delivered via direct satellite broadcast to subscribers. • Cooperating school receives related classroom material • Students correspond with instructor in real time via telephone, email or fax
Best Practices on the Web • United States Dept. of Education • www.dlrn.org • Distance Learning Resource Page • Links to courses developed out of the ‘Star Schools’ Program • Links to over 800 examples of the web used as a medium for learning.
Problematic Issues facing the IVHS • Communicating Purpose • Retention rate found with distance learning • Equitable funding • Translating course into a distance learning format (foreign language, science) • Intellectual property rights • Concerns of labor unions
Kmurphy@LTHS.net Www.reaching4stars.org