K-12 School Computer Networking/Chapter 25/Case Study: Rural Hall Elementary School’s "Communications with Distance Learning"

Introduction to Rural Hall Elementary School
Rural Hall Elementary School is a school serving children in Kindergarten through fifth grade located in Rural Hall, North Carolina, a small town about 12 miles away from Winston-Salem, NC (http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=rural+hall+elementary&fb=1&sa=X&oi=local_group&resnum=1&ct=image). There are approximately 570 students and 61 teachers at the school, giving the school a 1:9 teacher-student ratio (http://www.publicschoolreview.com/school_ov/school_id/59377). 65% of the students are Caucasian, 28% of the students are African-American, 7% are Latino, and 1% are Asian (http://www.publicschoolreview.com/school_ov/school_id/59377). Of the entire student population, 32% are eligible for free lunch and 9% are eligible for reduced lunch (http://www.publicschoolreview.com/school_ov/school_id/59377).

School Theme: Communications with Distance Learning
Rural Hall Elementary School’s mission is: “Educators, parents, and community will provide the optimum educational experiences to all children by focusing on maximum time for quality teaching and learning while developing lifelong learners and citizens of good character” (http://winstonsalem.nc.schoolwebpages.com/education/school/school.php?sectionid=110&sc_id=1182882870). Rural Hall has adopted the school-wide theme of “communications with distance learning” as the primary means by which to achieve their mission. “Telecommunications is bringing sharp changes to the educational world by electronically bringing into immediate contact many of those in education who were formerly isolated from each other by sheer geographical separation” (Taylor, 1991, p. 1), which makes implementation of a distance learning program particularly relevant and beneficial for students in small towns such as Rural Hall.

The “communications with distance learning” project began when Rural Hall was awarded $10,000 of “‘theme’ money” from the Forsyth County school system to implement an idea developed by the school that would supplement and enhance the school’s curriculum (McDermon, 2005, p. 2). The school used this money to purchase a Polycom Viewstation FX, which was put together with two large televisions and the school’s T-1 fiber optic line in order to conduct “IP-based video conferencing using H.323 technology” (McDermon, 2005, p. 1).

Although videoconferencing is central to Rural Hall’s “communications with distance learning” theme, distance learning has been meaningfully implemented across academic and extra-curricular disciplines through a wide variety of mediums, including many free or inexpensive technology platforms.

“Ten Ways to Boost Learning with Technology”
The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) recently released ten recommendations to support and enhance education through technology (Stansbury, 2008, p. 1). These recommendations are: (Stansbury, 2008, p. 1)
 * 1) Ensure that technology tools and resources are used continuously and seamlessly for instruction, collaboration, and assessment.
 * 2) Expose all students (pre-K through 12th grade) to STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] fields and careers.
 * 3) Make ongoing, sustainable professional development available to all teachers.
 * 4) Use virtual learning opportunities for teachers to further their professional development, such as through online communities and education portals.
 * 5) Incorporate innovative, consistent, and timely assessments into daily instruction.
 * 6) Strengthen the home-school connection by using technology to communicate with parents on student progress.
 * 7) Provide the necessary resources so that every community has the infrastructure to support learning with technology, including assessments and virtual learning.
 * 8) Obtain societal support for education that uses technology from all stakeholders--students, parents, teachers, state and district administrators, business leaders, legislators, and local community members.
 * 9) Provide federal leadership to support states and districts regarding technology's role in school reform by passing the ATTAIN Act.
 * 10) Increase available funding for the e-Rate so that schools can acquire telecommunication services, internet access, internal connections, and maintenance of those connections.

Some of the mediums utilized by Rural Hall to incorporate technology throughout the school community and curriculum in order to boost instruction and learning outcomes include:
 * School Web Site
 * Classroom Web Pages
 * PBWiki
 * YouTube and TeacherTube
 * Videoconferencing
 * Podcasts
 * Blogging

School Web Site
Rural Hall Elementary School maintains extensive school web page that contains information relevant for parents, students, community members, and employees (http://winstonsalem.nc.schoolwebpages.com/education/school/school.php?sectionid=110&sc_id=1182882870). Some of the information and resources included on the site include:
 * Administration announcements and policies
 * Frequently asked questions
 * School-wide calendar
 * Classroom web pages—each page includes:
 * “Communications with distance learning,” including information on:
 * Webmaster contact info
 * “Hot Potatoes”—interactive web activities
 * Interactive videoconference schedule
 * Media center
 * School projects
 * Parent Teacher Association
 * Photo albums
 * Newsletter
 * Email directory
 * School fundraisers

Classroom web pages
Every homeroom class and enrichment class in the school has its own web page hosted on the school’s website. Each classroom web page includes:
 * Photos
 * Class calendar
 * Class schedule
 * Important documents
 * Relevant and age-appropriate website links and internet resources

"Communications with Distance Learning" links and information
The school website includes an extensive list of links and information to support the school-wide “communications with distance learning” theme. This section of the school’s website includes information about:
 * Blogs produced by students, teachers, and classes
 * Computer lab schedule
 * North Carolina Computer and Technology Curriculum
 * “Digital Flat Stanly” project
 * GLOBE (“global learning and observations to benefit the environment")
 * Megaconference, Jr., “a project designed to give students in elementary and secondary schools around the world the opportunity to communicate, collaborate and contribute to each other's learning in real time, using advanced multi-point video conferencing technology” (http://www.megaconferencejr.org/)
 * North Carolina Distance Learning Award
 * Podcasts
 * Technology-related projects
 * Read Around the Planet
 * Rural Hall Elementary School News
 * Videoconferences
 * Virtual fieldtrips and teleconferences
 * Weather

PBWiki
Rural Hall Elementary School has created its own school-wide PBWiki (http://ruralhallschool.pbwiki.com/). Some of the information included on Rural Hall’s PBWiki includes:
 * Links to blogs
 * Photographs of the school’s mascot (bulldog)
 * Class and student produced videos (http://ruralhallschool.pbwiki.com/Student+and+Classroom+Videos)
 * Technology how-to movies
 * Video conferencing references
 * Links to related Wikis

YouTube and TeacherTube
YouTube and TeacherTube are utilized throughout Rural Hall to host videos that fall into two broad categories: class/student-produced videos and technology how-to videos.

Class/student produced videos (http://ruralhallschool.pbwiki.com/Student+and+Classroom+Videos)

Topics include:
 * Electing the United States President
 * Fractions
 * Patterns
 * Historic figures

Technology how-to videos (http://ruralhallschool.pbwiki.com/Technology+Movies--how+to)

Topics include: Telecommunication allows teachers to “communicate with colleagues in schools around the country or even the world, soliciting help and sharing insights on vital topics in which none of their physically immediate fellow teachers are either interested or expert” (Taylor, 1991, p. 1). Including links to technology how-to videos is especially important for supporting teachers as they learn new forms of technology and strive to implement these new forms of technology in their classrooms in meaningful, efficient ways.
 * Blogs
 * Excel
 * Google docs
 * Online photosharing
 * Phishing scams
 * Social networking
 * Social bookmarking
 * Twitter
 * Web search strategies
 * Wiki
 * Video RSS feeds

Videoconferencing
In the Rural Hall Elementary School "Distance Learning Blog," a teacher wrote: “Our K-5 public school does IP videoconferencing. This is a unique opportunity for our students to take a trip to a museum 100 miles away in a few seconds. Once there, they spend time with a scientist or other instructional expert and ask questions while discovering answers for themselves with materials and manipulatives sent to our school. Then they return to their classroom to continue with their school day. This saves time, money, and offers exceptional instruction to students.” (http://rhes_distance_learning.blogspot.com/) Rural Hall’s interactive videoconference schedule includes virtual field trips with the following organizations: Utilizing videoconferencing to take students on virtual fieldtrips and interact with scientists and other experts gives students broadened experiences and understanding of curriculum content, experiences that they likely would not get otherwise while living in a small town such as Rural Hall. "Excellent material substance and appropriate topical focus is often enhanced through presentation by a world-class expert, incorporating insights and presentational gifts rarely encountered by most students, even in the best of schools" (Taylor, 1991, p. 3).
 * International Wolf Center
 * NASA Digital Learning Network
 * NC Museum of History
 * NC Museum of Natural Sciences
 * NC School of Science & Mathematics (NCSSM)
 * NC Wildlife Resources Distance Learning
 * Projects - Megaconference Jr., Read Around the Planet
 * Sea Trek
 * Smithsonian American Art Museum

Podcasts
The types of podcasts produced by students and teachers at Rural Hall include: (http://web.mac.com/mcdermon1/Site/RHES/RHES.html)
 * Regular child-produced news broadcasts
 * Visiting experts
 * Speeches from student council candidate speeches
 * Student research and presentations
 * Student-produced poetry performances
 * School song

Blogging
Blogging is utilized by both teachers and students at Rural Hall Elementary School. Students typically blog about information they have learned through their videoconference virtual field trips. For example, students blogged about information they learned through a research project on Belize, a collaboration between Rural Hall Elementary School, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and the Educators of Excellence Fund (http://belizetrek.blogspot.com/). Blogging is also used by teachers to share their experiences with the use of technology in the classroom. One teacher wrote: “Just like our students, we need to keep learning new things/skills; besides keeping us updated, it continues to remind us how puzzling, confusing, and frustrating students can feel when approaching new material. It keeps us honest as we work with students understanding a new concept” (http://techquest4teachers.blogspot.com/).

Conclusion
Overall, Rural Hall Elementary School provides an excellent example of successful implementation of distance learning at the elementary school level. Technology coordinators can use Rural Hall as a model when designing their own distance learning program. Although the project started with a large grant from the county school system, much of the technology implemented for the school’s distance learning theme is available at low or no cost to the general public. In addition, all forms of technology utilized by Rural Hall are both child and teacher friendly, and the school has provided an abundance of information and resources to teachers as they embark upon their journey to implement technology across all subjects and grade levels.

A suggestion for improved implementation of the “communication with distance learning” theme is to streamline and condense some of the information and technologies utilized in the program. Many of the same links, resources, and content are available in multiple places (such as on the school website, the PBWiki, and in blogs). Almost all pages created by the school are easy to navigate; however, the plethora of sites and links available, combined with the multiple postings of certain content, can sometimes make navigation difficult. Condensing pages and streamlining the technology used may help to make Rural Hall’s distance learning project even more successful.

With telecommunications, “students can now regularly communicate electronically with other students, other teachers, and even various experts, all in far away places, enlarging their interpretation of both their studies and the world at large by a far broader set of perspectives on both than traditional classroom alone could ever provide.” (Taylor, 1991, p. 1). Through the communications with distance learning project, Rural Hall Elementary School has successfully implemented a comprehensive technology program that is integrated throughout all subject areas and grade-levels, enriching the experiences and broadening the worldview of its students.

Resources

 * http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=rural+hall+elementary&fb=1&sa=X&oi=local_group&resnum=1&ct=image


 * http://www.publicschoolreview.com/school_ov/school_id/59377


 * http://winstonsalem.nc.schoolwebpages.com/education/school/school.php?sectionid=110&sc_id=1182882870


 * McDermon, L. (2005). Distance Learning: It’s Elementary!  Learning & Leading with Technology.  International Society for Technology in Education.  Retrieved from: http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/1e/1e/6e.pdf


 * Stansbury, M. (2008). Ten Ways to Boost Learning with Technology.  eSchool News.  Retrieved from: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=56081


 * http://www.megaconferencejr.org/


 * http://ruralhallschool.pbwiki.com/


 * http://ruralhallschool.pbwiki.com/Student+and+Classroom+Videos


 * http://ruralhallschool.pbwiki.com/Technology+Movies--how+to


 * http://rhes_distance_learning.blogspot.com/


 * Taylor, R. (1991). The Impact of Telecommunications on Education.  Delivered at the First Greek National Conference in Computing and Education, November 1991.


 * http://web.mac.com/mcdermon1/Site/RHES/RHES.html


 * http://belizetrek.blogspot.com/


 * http://techquest4teachers.blogspot.com/