Alabama’s classrooms continue to shift toward using technology as a teaching tool, and the state government and state Department of Education are accelerating the shift with funding of the ACCESS program.ACCESS (Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators and Students Statewide) is a distance-learning program that utilizes online courses and interactive video conferencing.
Sallie Chastain, community education and electronic curriculum coordinator for the Talladega County School System, said ACCESS has been in place for around three years, but the county has been using the technology associated with ACCESS since 1999.
“The main intent is to allow students in every high school to take a wider range of both core classes and elective classes,” Chastain said. “For example, small rural high schools cannot offer several foreign languages, but students can take a foreign language class from a teacher in another school in the state through online classes or video conferencing.”
In online classes, students do their work at the computer with a school facilitator in the room to watch them. The work is submitted online and a highly qualified and certified teacher in the state grades the work to make sure the student is getting adequate instruction, Chastain said.
With live video conferencing, students and teachers can see each other by computer or television or projector screen. Microphones are set up around the classroom so the teacher can hear students and the teacher carries a small microphone so students can hear him or her.
Teachers can bring up a screen that is visible to the class to demonstrate how to work out a problem or question, as well. Multiple screens can be shown simultaneously, and instructors can teach two or three classes at the same time.
Chastain said some Talladega County students are taking non-traditional courses such as French, German, Latin, advanced physics and math, marine science, creative writing and psychology.
Additionally, students are taking Advanced Placement courses for college credit through ACCESS from teachers certified to teach AP courses.
Pell City High School principal Helene Bettinger said her school has been using ACCESS for a couple of years.
“We have teachers that also have been instructors for the ACCESS program,” Bettinger said.
She said students can take Internet classes in a nearly endless variety of classes and last year PCHS offered video conferencing classes in Advanced Placement chemistry as well as French 1 and French 2.
Bettinger said there are not a large number of students at Pell City who use the ACCESS program yet, but it is useful for students who want to try different courses or students who have class scheduling conflicts.
“It especially helps students coming in from schools that have block scheduling because we’re on a seven period schedule,” Bettinger said. Those students can get credit for classes they have not taken while their peers take classes they may have completed already.
Gov. Bob Riley and state schools Superintendent Dr. Joe Morton announced last week $11 million from the state’s 2007 $1 billion Education Bond Issue will be used to ensure every public high school will have the ACCESS program by the 2009-2010 school year.
The original goal was to have ACCESS in every high school by the 2010-2011 school year.
“Alabama is blessed with some of the best teachers in the country. Our students deserve the benefit of being able to learn from these teachers whether they are in a larger, metropolitan school system or a small, rural school system,” Riley said.
“This is an investment not only in technology; this is an investment in our children.”
The Alabama Department of Education said a total of 190 high schools either with no ACCESS program or are just beginning an ACCESS program will benefit from the funding.
There are 181 high schools that already have full ACCESS grants or video conferencing labs paid for by other funds, so a total of 371 high schools should have ACCESS by August 2009.
“ACCESS labs in every high school not only greatly increases educational opportunities, but it also brings students and teachers together from across the state, allowing them to share and expand their horizons beyond their physical surroundings,” Morton said.
Chastain anticipates the extra state funding will allow the Talladega County School System to put more laptops in the classroom as well as tablet computers where students can write on a screen and send it to the teacher to show their work.
“Many areas do not have ACCESS, so we’re very fortunate to have it,” Chastain said. “Hopefully, this state funding will allow us to expand our current program.”
