WASHINGTON
VIRTUAL CLASSROOM CONSORTIUM
Schools Striving
For Greater Access
Anyone wishing additional information on the WVCC project is encouraged to contact Sherry Schaaf, WVCC water quality coordinator at the Quillayute Valley School District (sschaaf@esd114.wednet.edu). You may also contact Mr. Frank Walter at the Quillayute Valley School District, (fwalter@esd114.wednet.edu), John O. Jones from the Quinault Lake School District (jjones@quinault.k12.wa.us), or Jim Bennett from the Quinault Lake School District (jbennett@olynet.com).
Background
Information:
A
consortium of nine school districts, each representing a different educational
service district in the State of Washington, initiated a project entitled the
Washington Virtual Classroom in 1997. The project’s primary mission was to establish
interconnectivity between each district so that both staff development and
course delivery can be accomplished via video teleconferencing and web-based
learning modules.
The
founding school districts (Adna, Concrete, Eatonville, Lake Chelan, North
Franklin, Quillayute Valley, Wapato, Wellpinit, and White Salmon) have similar
demographics; each has a significant level of poverty in its community, a mix
of ethnic minorities, is small in size (ranging from 225 to over 3,000 students
district-wide), and is rural. The districts currently have varied
configurations of networking, computers, related peripherals, software, and
staff expertise. Since the consortium’s inception, the Ocosta School District
has replaced Lake Chelan and Quinault Lake has joined. In 2002 the Brewster
School District and the Washington State School for the Deaf joined the
project.
The
project was first funded in part by a competitive grant from the State of
Washington in the amount of $1,070,000 and continues to be directed by the host
district; Quillayute Valley, located in Forks, Washington. In winter of
2002 Senator Patty Murray was the key player in procuring further funding to
keep WVC going strong for the next two years.
Woodring
College of Education at Western Washington University (WWU), considered to be a
leader in distance learning and related technology, served as a mentor/partner
to the districts in the initial stages of project implementation. Since, the
North Snohomish-Island-Skagit County Coalition (NSIS) headquartered in
Bellingham, Washington, serves as our higher education partner. NSIS represents
the five major state universities and three community colleges and offers a
link to all of the major universities.
Offering
coursework that will assist a wide variety of students in their pursuit of a
given career pathway is a financial burden WVCC districts cannot afford. They
are faced with the necessity of sharing resources with each other.
Telecommunications and video teleconferencing is making it possible to bring
student and staff resources from each school to a shared format. As an example,
students desiring to pursue a career in the high-tech industry will need
special training. Having to finance an A+ Certification program, for example,
taught in 11 different locations, by 11 different instructors, to 1-10
students from each district is a financial burden none of the schools in this
consortium can afford. With the WVC project and the advantages of video teleconferencing and
web-based instruction, students can be clustered under the direction of one
qualified instructor.
These
grant funds made it possible to develop curriculum projects that could be
shared via both web-based and videoconference technology. Groups of teachers
from across the consortium member districts channeled their efforts into the
development of a variety of offerings deemed of importance to all schools.
Students in the WVCC member districts are now able to access A+ Certification, Cisco Networking, and Microsoft AATP certification training. Students enrolled in four of our high schools (Forks, Ocosta, Wapato, and White Salmon) are taking these courses via a combination of web-based, self-paced curriculum, and video conferencing technology. Two certified teachers, one in Forks and one in White Salmon Valley, are connected to students in all four schools on a daily basis and provide remote assistance to students in other locales. The equipment used to make this possible, i.e. computer tech labs, were purchased by grant funds and matching E-rate funds. This latter program is a sign that WVCC is meeting the initial goals it set out to accomplish.
WVCC
and its water quality project are viewed to be a model for other regions of
this country to replicate. WVCC is organized in a unique manner and promotes
the sharing of resources across a larger geographic region. The water quality
project can be integrated into any school district regardless of its location. This
model poses to be a cost-effective means of educating large numbers of young
learners to better understand the environment in which we all live.