Well, Virtual High School Meanderings is officially three today. The entry that started it all – Welcome to my Blog on Virtual High Schools .
For the remainder of March, I’ll revisit some of the initial questions that I posted during those first months to see if we have come any further in our understanding of virtual schooling. Let me start that trip down memory lane with…
How Far Have We Come with Virtual High Schools?
This was the third entry that I posted on this blog on March 24, 2005 and I think that the question I asked in the title is still relevant. In that entry I was questioning the growth of virtual schooling and why we weren’t seeing larger numbers of students in virtual schools, particularly rural school students. While virtual schooling is growing at an increasing rate, and with the State of Michigan’s new online learning requirement, have we really come that far in three years? In that original entry I cited statistics that included 9% of public schools in the United States and 15% of schools in small districts had students enrolled in virtual schooling – however, larger schools still made up the majority of virtual school students.Is that different three years later? While the number of students is increasing, are the number of students at small and rural schools increasing at the same rate?
Virtual School Society 2008 Annual Spring Conference.
This was a new one to me and one that I will have to try and get on my agenda for next year. It came via the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education listserve (it is a combination of the former Canadian Association of Distance Education and the Association for Media and Technology in Education in Canada ).
Learning: Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere
Virtual School Society 2008 Annual Spring Conference
April 22 – 24, 2008
Coast Plaza Hotel & Suites Vancouver, BC
The Virtual School Society (VSS) is pleased to announce our 2008 Annual Spring Conference. BCEd Online, the organization that formerly hosted this conference, has integrated with the VSS which is continuing this highly successful and very popular annual event. This conference is regarded in the province as the premier Professional Development conference for educators interested in online education. It is an exciting forum that connects educators and industry leaders from throughout the world with opportunities to learn and share experiences, ideas and new developments in using technology for teaching and learning.
Please check http://www.learnnowbc.ca/educators and scroll to “VSS Conference” for information on the two afternoon keynotes as well as the rest of the program.
I know that Alberta has another Canadian one that is also going to have to figure into my regular conference circuit at some point.