Equally important in the new technology initiative launched today by Governor Bob Riley and the Alabama Department of Education is the ability to deliver and receive state-approved curriculum using the latest interactive instructional models.

"When I announced ACCESS during my State of the State Address in February, I said it would revolutionize the way we teach our children in Alabama. With this new initiative, our children will gain more educational opportunities than we ever thought possible. Soon, many students will start benefiting from this 21st century approach to learning, and all our students will benefit from it as we implement ACCESS across the state,” said Governor Riley.

A key strategy of the ACCESS initiative is a blended approach to distance learning course delivery. Through a competitive grant process, 24 pilot school sites were selected to launch this blended approach to receive and/or deliver ACCESS courses during spring semester 2006. Pilot sites will receive essential equipment and services to host interactive distance learning labs and Internet-delivered courses. Twelve (12) pilot high school lab sites are funded by the state, and the state secured an Appalachian Regional Commission federal grant to fund an additional 12 sites, which include community partnerships.

Pilot sites will use multipoint videoconferencing equipment combined with individual student tablet laptops. This technology will be blended with synchronous (real-time) instruction from an Alabama certified E-teacher who will educate students who are in his/her physical classroom, as well as instruct students virtually at remote sites. Other pilot sites will use Internet-delivered asynchronous courses with Alabama certified E-teachers as instructors. All remote sites will have a facilitator.

There will be at least eight E-teachers delivering courses from the 24 sites. E-teachers will pilot the 2006 spring semester delivery, further structure guidelines for the initiative, and help develop the statewide blended course model during the summer of 2006. Pilot E-teachers are expected to continue as E-teachers into the 2006-07 school year.

A program evaluation is being developed by the Alabama Department of Education for the semester ending May 2006 for the 24 pilot high schools.

Many high schools have not been able to provide advanced diploma courses such as foreign language, electives, and trigonometry,” said State Superintendent of Education Joe Morton. “The ACCESS approach will help solve that problem by offering curriculum and teachers to meet course requirement needs.”

By summer 2006, the state funding for ACCESS will include increased connectivity for approximately 50% of all high schools, connect the existing 113 interactive videoconferencing (IVC) labs scattered across the state, enable these IVC labs to communicate statewide, and increase the variety and quantity of distance learning online courses.

By year one of the statewide implemented ACCESS initiative, which will be the 2006-07 school year, the potential is for 10,000 of a total 205,000 high school students to be served. This includes up to 6,000 students receiving needed courses currently unavailable and up to 4,000 students receiving online graduation exam remediation courses.