October 28, 2008
GCS Education Foundation Board Takes a Field Trip
Group visits GHS & Virtual Classroom with Jason Horne; Launching A Learning Moment
The GCS Education Foundation Board of Trustees today launched a new feature of their monthly board meetings called A Learning Moment. A Learning Moment will become a regular item on the board's monthly agenda, and is aimed at focusing attention on a teacher or a school's accomplishment, project, or program, by hearing a "testimonial" from an involved staff member, or by visiting a school and seeing the program or project first-hand. The latter took place today.
The GCS Education Foundation normally gathers at the Kathryn W. Leonard Administration Building for its monthly meetings. Today however, the group convened at GHS for a tour and demonstration of the school system's first Virtual Classroom.
After a brief business meeting, Professional Development Center director and Education Foundation trustee, Robbie Mitchell, introduced tour guide Jason Horne. Horne is the French teacher at GHS and GMS, and the school system's Virtual Classroom "expert".
Horne invited the Education Foundation trustees to assume students' roles in the Virtual Classroom. Once they were seated, Horne demonstrated some of the capabilities of the classroom's impressive state-of-the-art equipment. Horne used the equipment to link to Scott County School System's Technology Director, Mike Lay, who presented an interactive overview on the ways his school system is using similar Virtual Classroom technology.
Horne explained that presently, GHS offers students an opportunity to take French I & II through the Virtual Classroom experience. After receiving Virtual Classroom Teacher certification, Horne began videoing (archiving) his French class lessons last spring. Those archived lessons were made available to his French students through internet access. Students could retrieve Horne's lessons via their home computer, and even download lesson videos to their iPods.
Beverly Miller, GCS Chief Technology Officer, was also on-hand during the demonstration. Miller announced that plans underway to expand the Virtual Classroom course offerings to include Spanish I, II, and III, Latin I and II, and hopefully Mandarin Chinese. She added that there were plans to offer Economics and Government as Virtual Classroom courses, possibly as soon as summer of 2009.
In addition to course instruction, Horne explained that the Virtual Classroom technology could be used to provide students with learning opportunities that otherwise would not be attainable. In a few days, his French students will convene in the Virtual Classroom to participate in a tour of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, PA. The students will be interactively led through the museum's exhibits by a museum docent. The museum charges $100 per class for the tour - obviously a fraction of what it would cost for that class to actually visit the museum. Horne said there is a library of experiences available, similar to the museum tour, to which he and other soon-to-be certified Virtual Classroom teachers have access.
Both Miller and Horne elaborated on the possibilities for stretching the use of this technology, by partnering with colleges and universities locally, and across the country, to offer a myriad of instruction and unique learning experiences to students.
The GCS Education Foundation plans to take more field trips to see the system's schools and experience the learning environments. The group agrees that the best way to become effective advocates for their school system is to make an effort to visit the facilities, meet the teachers, and experience programs offered.
For more information about the Virtual Classroom at GHS, contact:
Beverly Miller, GCS Chief Technology Officer - millerb@gcschools.net
Jason Horne, Virtual Classroom Architect - hornej@gcschools.net
To see a sampling of the learning experiences offered via Virtual Classroom technology, visit:
http://www.cilc.org/
To learn more about the Greeneville City School System, visit: http://www.gcschools.net/
To contact the GCS Education Foundation, contact Allison Adams:
education.foundation@gcschools.net Or: allison.adams@gcshools.net
Or call: (423) 823-0001, or visit: http://www.gcseducationfoundation.net/
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