The acronym ACCESS means Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Education, and Students. Statewide. The goal of "distance learning plan is to create equity through additional educational offerings for all Alabama public high school students". Students must be a enrolled in an Alabama public high school and only the designated staff member at their school can enroll them in ACCESS.
I found that every high school course, including electives like foreign languages, could be taken through this web based resource. The site listed the following particular characteristics that successful ACCESS students usually possess:
* are self-motivated and self-disciplined
* stay on task without direct supervision
* like to figure things out without direct assistance
* prioritize workload effectively
* can successfully work alone
* are good at assessing their own progress
* like working with computers and software programs
* enjoy the challenge of working with new technology
* are good at following instructions
* use email and can create messages with attached files
* can download and install programs from the Internet
* can search the Web
* can copy and paste from one program to another
* rarely procrastinate
* enjoy communicating in writing and reading the writing of others
* work with others to complete projects
* seek assistance when problems arise
* take an active role in the learning process
Students take complete assignments, projects, collaborative work, and even tests online. Grades are reported to the students "home school" which is their high school and received with other subject grades on a report card.
Alabama is broken into three regions and students are served through a support center in their region. Teachers are usually from the same region and ACCESS offers online teaching opportunities to state educators.
ACCESS could certainly be a great resource, especially at a school or in a district that did not have the funding for all the teacher units the needed. Could this be what schools will be in the future?
I doubt it. But it's a start.
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