Creative solutions to this problem call for sharing resources. Principal Lehman negotiated an arrangement with a rural school in the same area so that a qualified chemistry teacher known for good practice could offer a combined chemistry class for both schools. The chemistry teacher at the host site moved the smaller section of his regular chemistry students to the school's Iowa Communications Network (ICN) room. This enabled him to provide instruction for an additional remote section of students through two-way television. A science teacher at the remote school, who was not certified to teach chemistry, teamed with the chemistry teacher to serve as a facilitator for students there.

And how do school districts find the teachers who are qualified and willing to offer ICN classes? "... by word of mouth," said the school counselor, Mr. Lynch. "Our conference is called the Western Iowa Conference. There are eight schools in it. We're all from around here in southwest Iowa. The superintendents meet once a month." Superintendents announce their needs at these meetings and offer their available resources that meet other needs.

The success of having one teacher teach two sections of chemistry at geographically distant locations largely depends on careful planning and close collaboration among instructors, students, and administrators. Counselor Lynch believes that putting the needs of the students first was extremely important and he was willing to work around logistic problems such as scheduling and academic calendars. "These kids need to take this course. We'll make it work —[even without] the same calendar or the same hourly schedule [at both schools]" counselor Lynch said.

"... calendars are different —the hourly schedules are different. There were many reasons why these things couldn't work. A couple of years ago we happened to be without a calculus teacher. Our calculus teacher resigned and moved on and we could not find a replacement. We got a math teacher, but not one who could do calculus. It happened that Tri-Center, which is only forty miles from here, had an excellent calculus teacher and she was willing to do it over the ICN, but our two schedules didn't match. And we said, okay, so what. These kids are going to take calculus. That means we're going to have to jockey around their schedule. We made it work.” (Ivan Lynch: Counselor at Griswold High School)

Principal Lehman agrees with Counselor Lynch. Superintendents and administrators should attend to teacher recruitment, logistics and finances, and let the teachers concentrate on instruction and assessment. Guidance counselors are also involved. They need to understand "how the class works and how the ICN equipment works" as well as the criteria and expectations of the course to advise students effectively and to monitor progress. The parent-teacher meetings and feedback to school counselors continue as normal. The lead teacher visits the remote school for an evening of parent-teacher conferences. In the previous year's conferences, the ICN rooms had been used for these consultations. This provided a beneficial illustration of the strengths and weaknesses of the technology to the parents and school counselors.

While the chemistry teacher enjoys the challenge of distance education, the overtime is recognized by both schools. Additional payment has been negotiated and is provided by the remote school with agreement from faculty and staff in both schools. The additional compensation is particularly welcome given the lower rates offered by rural schools in Iowa.
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WHAT:

"On Monday, I sent out a review sheet that had several examples of problems that might be included in the quiz. Then on Tuesday, the students bring their answers and questions to class. I don't check all the students' answers, but I have some of them come up and demonstrate on the document camera how they go about solving the problems. I don't just want them to put their papers with their answers down on the document camera. They can bring it up to the front with them, but they have to show and explain, and I can question them." (Steve Baier: lead teacher)

Eleventh- and twelfth-grade students from two different rural high schools enrolled in a single required chemistry course. Both groups of students were taught simultaneously by a certified chemistry teacher using distance education technologies —one section at the host school and the second facilitated by a biology teacher at a remote site. The chemistry teacher, who was regarded as the lead teacher, was responsible for course design and preparation —including adapting course content to the remote school's textbook and laboratory resources. The biology teacher acted as the remote facilitator. Although he was not licensed to teach chemistry, he was knowledgeable about scientific methods and general laboratory safety. The facilitator received detailed verbal and written instructions from the lead teacher to enable him to prepare and facilitate learning for remote site students.

The lead teacher continued to use pedagogical approaches that had been successful in his classroom for many years —directing whole class instruction with strategic questioning, humor and analogies suited to adolescent minds, demonstrations, homework, quizzes, and a small-group project with a class presentation to the whole class. This is illustrated with the topic of Oxidation and Reduction. The lead teacher began the topic with a lecture session about the definitions, chemical reactions and equations involved in oxidation and reduction. An illustrative chemical reaction was demonstrated in front of both classes utilizing the document camera. After dropping a small piece of zinc into a beaker of acid, he zoomed the lens of the document camera onto the tiny bubbles as they formed.

Throughout the lecture, the lead teacher elicited answers from students as he presented examples of equations on paper placed under the document camera. Following the lecture session, students were given a worksheet and were instructed to answer the questions. Homework and laboratory work sheets were provided weekly and reviewed in class the following week. Towards the end of the unit, a study guide was handed out to supplement the lecture and laboratory activities, and to facilitate revisions for the end of the unit quiz. In addition, the whole class also reviewed group projects. Each group went to the front of their classroom in turn and used technology they had chosen —the document camera, video or Power Point to illustrate their findings.

HOW?

"I can put a small chip of zinc into a beaker of acid on the document camera. I can zoom right in on it and they could see those tiny bubbles starting to form. This gives the kids a heads-up about what to expect when they are conducting their experiments and I don't need to pass a beaker of acid around the class. It’s much safer." (Steve Baier: lead teacher)

The lead teacher manages the display projected on the monitors so that students at the remote site have an appropriate view. During lectures, he uses the ICN camera to broadcast an image of himself or a resource under the document camera to focus the attention of students at the remote sites. When he wants to share equations and graphics, he zooms in the lens of the document camera on a worksheet or other relevant documents so the students at both sites see the pages and his writing in detail. Demonstrations are also shown using the document camera or video. When students from either site have questions or comments, they are encouraged to use microphones mounted on their desks in the ICN room and the lead teacher turns the camera on the speaker. The remote facilitator is also available for support, to answer questions and proctor tests.

For laboratory activities, the lead teacher provides the remote facilitator with comprehensive verbal and written instructions for each task. They often discuss the laboratory activities for the following day over the ICN. The lead teacher reviews the objectives, the resources, and any concerns the remote site facilitator may have. For example, in one instance the lead teacher recommended substituting the cloudy sulfuric acid stock with hydrochloric acid. Laboratory experiments are held separately. The lead teacher supervises his section at his school while the remote site facilitator supervises students as they conduct experiments in his school's laboratory.

For some projects students collaborated with peers in their own schools. In one of the projects, a group of advanced students studied the effect of disinfectant on the growth of bacteria in petri dishes. Their presentation describing the contrasting levels of growth arising from different conditions was shown by placing the dishes under the document camera and zooming the camera lens in. They also illustrated their scientific measurements in the form of graphs and tables using a Power Point presentation that was played on the lead teacher's computer station. In a separate project, a very active group of lower achievers undertook the study of mops used by the school caretaker. They decided to present their results in the form of an amusing video shared over the ICN. The video was accompanied with additional commentary by one of the group members. All groups were given the opportunity to present their projects to students in both locations using the technology in the ICN room. Additionally, the lead teacher facilitated the question-answer sessions so students from both sites were given the chance to request for clarification and explanation when necessary.

Following normal practice, student learning was assessed through the use of quizzes at the end of each unit. This chemistry course consisted of 13 units. The lead teacher faxes a copy of the quiz to the secretary of the remote high school. Copies are made and the remote site facilitator proctors the quiz for students in the remote location. The lead teacher administers the quiz at the host site in the ICN room so he can answer questions from either group.

Although laboratory experiments posed challenges, the students were able to carry out their own practical experiments in their own school because the remote facilitator was able to supervise such sessions safely, having been provided detailed guidance that matched the school resources and worksheets by the lead teacher. Therefore, laboratory sessions were supervised separately within each school and students reported on their experiments by completing the sections in the incomplete report provided by the lead teacher. These completed reports were marked using a rubric within each school and the facilitator returned the grades with comments to the lead teacher.

- Note: The previous years, the remote section had visited the lead teacher on two Saturdays to carry out half of the laboratory experiments each time.

Thanks to Griswold High School, Darwin Lehman, Steve Baier, and Ivan Lynch for their help.

This case developed by:
Niki Davis, Ph.D. and Lily Compton, M. A.
Center for Technology in Learning and Teaching
Iowa State University

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