TARGET: ITV success stories

[Jim Aufderheide <0088do@INFORMNS.K12.MN.US>]

My school district is involved in a Minnesota state-wide effort to link all
public K12 schools via the internet and ITV. During the past year, there
has been much planning and sharing of ideas. As we approach the time when
this ITV network becomes a reality, I am looking for some ITV curricular
reality.

Oh, I have visited and talked with schools that share classes and teachers
to provide course offerings not possible in a single small rural school
district. I know that can work. I also know that the actual impact on
numbers of students is low in such use. What I am looking for are others
ways that Interactive Television is currently being used.

For instance, I envision two English teachers in distant school districts
doing a writing or literature unit and sharing insight between two classes
of students. I see a group of schools up and down the Minnesota river
collaborating in their science curriculums on units where science classes
monitor pollution and work collaboratively via ITV to evaluate findings. I
envision social classes in rural areas doing units with social classes in
inner city areas and comparing/studying/evaluating the different pressures
that teens experience, and the common pressures that have no relation to
environment. How about an expert on an issue or historical event unique to
a city or area teaching via ITV a group of students across a region?

In short, are there stories out there across the country of schools that
use ITV to broaden courses by collaborating on units with students (or
experts) in other locations? Send me your stories! Send me your successes!

Any other uses? Staff development? College courses offered at night that
high school students can take? There is a large group of school districts
in Minnesota that are entering the ITV era and are looking for ways to
maximize the impact, the use of this wonderful resource. Any ideas or help
would be greatly appreciated. If interested, I can certainly post a HIT. TIA


__________________
Jim Aufderheide, Technology Coordinator
Independent School District 88
400 South Payne
New Ulm, MN 56073
507-359-8413
0088do@informns.k12.mn.us