More and more, Corning-Painted Post Area School District (C-PP) students are traveling across time and space to chat with Native American educators in New Mexico, tour museums in Cleveland, visit with historical figures like Galileo and Benjamin Franklin, and return to school in time for lunch. No, it's not Miss Frizzle's Magic Schoolbus; it's C-PP's Distance Learning (DL) program, which is coordinated by the Technology Services Department.
The program has been offered to teachers and staff in grades Pre-K through 12 since 2003. Since then, the Tech team has hosted over 100 Distance Learning experiences - sometimes referred to as Virtual Field Trips. The majority of the programs to date have been held at the elementary level; however, the middle and high schools are increasingly taking advantage of the offerings as well.
In the current climate of reduced budgets, student travel and hands-on field trips have been reduced or eliminated in school districts nationwide, and C-PP is no different. The DL program is a cost-effective way to enhance the education of our students, without the added expense or logistics of real travel. The typical fee range is between $25 and $100 per DL session, a nominal cost that is currently covered by the District's Technical Services budget. Students enjoy the interactive nature of the program, as well as the ability to travel to another destination to learn. Teachers say the Distance Learning programs help reinforce their classroom curriculum.
In 2007, students in Ellie Vaughan's Special Education class at East High examined food webs in a one-hour session with the Bronx Zoo's educator, Erin Prada. The program focused on each individual species' concern with obtaining energy - energy to keep going, energy to grow, energy to reproduce, energy for survival. Mrs. Vaughan's students began the session by discussing their own breakfasts, then examined the flow of energy in living systems as represented in food chains and webs. During the class, students explored the role of producers, consumers, herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. Every Bronx Zoo program includes an extensive teacher guide, featuring tips on preparing for a videoconference, content background, National Science Education Standards correlation, lesson plans for pre- and post-conference activities and reproducible student materials.
Interdisciplinary experiences like these support International Baccalaureate (IB) and other curricular goals. In addition, they reinforce C-PP learning goals by demonstrating the Relevance of studies to the lives of people and our history, and by making students active participants in their learning.
