Imagine a low-cost way to vastly expand course offerings. Imagine world-class teachers. Imagine access to unlimited informational resources.

Imagine no longer.

The Virtual High School (VHS) Cooperative project, funded by a Technology Challenge Grant from the U.S. Department of Education to the Hudson, Massachusetts, public schools, is bringing the future to 43 high schools from 13 states by offering innovative courses over the Internet. Teachers from the cooperative schools are designing the courses offered to students from other cooperative schools. VHS is the first time anyone has attempted a large-scale project in Internet-based courses at the pre-college level.

The VHS project is creating a low-cost means of augmenting the range of courses a school can offer without expanding enrollment. In exchange for contributing a small amount of teaching time to the cooperative, a school will be able to offer its students netcourses ranging from advanced academic courses and innovative core courses, to technical courses and specialized courses for language minority students. As this approach gains popularity, each school can contribute more teaching time, enroll correspondingly more students, and help make a wider variety of courses available. The resulting scheduling flexibility will greatly help schools match their teaching talent to the needs of students. In the past, the only way to achieve this range of courses and scheduling flexibility was to create huge regional schools, which have proven hard to manage and too impersonal for most students.

The VHS Cooperative will also provide assistance in implementing educational reform by putting a premium on student inquiry, interdisciplinary courses, and student-centered, collaborative learning. The issues of curriculum reform and technology utilization are intertwined in complex ways. Many of the new educational demands on schools are related to the needs of the technology-rich work environment that students need to master. There are pressures to make better use of information technologies, but their best use often requires substantial changes in teaching style, in ways that are consistent with the educational reform movement. It is very difficult for individual schools to undertake these interdependent changes. The VHS creates a technology-based cooperative of schools and expert teachers, world-class professional development opportunities, and access to national leaders in technology and educational reform, all of which will greatly help schools undertake significant reform.

In this first year of the project, 28 cooperative schools are participating, offering 27 innovative, exciting netcourses. Students will also have the opportunity to take courses being offered by volunteers from the educational community. The Concord Consortium is offering two courses: "Hands on Physics," taught by Bruce Seiger and Robert Tinker, and "Music Appreciation and Composition," organized by Kathryn Costello in collaboration with professional musicians and instructors. Bill Aldridge, former Executive Director of the National Science Teachers Association, is offering "Learning Science In-depth Through Its History."

The project kicked off in March with the Teachers Learning Conference (TLC), a graduate-level netcourse for teachers designed to get them ready to offer an unprecedented range of VHS netcourses starting next fall. Over 40 teachers and site coordinators are taking this 21-week netcourse being taught by top educators in the fields of technology and learning. Subjects range from "Educational Technologies and Reform" to "Graphics and Tools Resources." Halfway through the TLC, teachers start designing their own netcourse, with the help of the faculty and outside consultants.

Student registration also began in March. Juniors and seniors from the 28 participating schools are browsing course descriptions online, and asking questions. Miramonte High School in California has developed a Web site that maps the location of each VHS participant and describes many of the Virtual Courses , which include everything from developing a model United Nations to hyptertext writing. In September Miramonte will join students nationwide in taking netcourses.

Let the future begin!

Selected VHS 1997 Netcourses

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Welcome :: Masthead :: The Future Is Now :: VHS Netcourse ::
MayaQuest Expedition :: Prof. Development :: Personal Inquiries :: INTEC Tech ::
Power & Portability :: Here Comes the Sun :: Reform Education :: Perspective :: Get Involved! ::

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