Monday, February 21, 2011
Ferndale's current technologies
I am interested in learning more about the two computer programs (Compass Learning and Nova Net), which are offered at Ferndale Adult Education. It is very intriguing that the city of Ferndale offers courses for adults to enhance their skill set. Among the two computer programs, what technologies are currently active to help promote lifelong learners?
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Ferndale Public Schools have an internet policy that all students and employees have to adhere to before being able to access the internet. Each user have to read the policy and guidelines, then sign the technology form before accessing and using the technology.
ReplyDeleteFerndale Public Schools use technology to enhance learning and to exchange information. The Ferndale's Schools give Internet Driver License, which allows students to have email communications globally, provides information and news, public domain software and shareware, discussion forums for certain topics, online university libraries and the Library of Congress.
Reference: District Website. (2010-2011). Ferndale Public Schools. Retrieved from http://www.ferndaleschools.org/index.html
Students attending the night classes walk into a physical classroom lined with Dell desktop computers. Each student receives a login and password at the beginning of class, in order to log in to the school computers. While students do not have assigned seats (user names are portable via the network, not assigned to a physical machine), there are enough computers for all participants to be working at once.
ReplyDeleteThere will be several different courses going on in one room, with a single educator present to provide help and assistance with understanding the material.
The courses are relatively self-paced, though students are expected to complete a certain amount of material within the quarter in order to receive credit.
I'll post again with more detailed information when I hear back from the counselor. :)
The courses are all self-paced, and as I commented on the previous post, the facilitator in the room assigns each student to an appropriate program based on available site licenses.
ReplyDeleteBoth programs use audio, and Compass learning also has video components. Nova Net is being updated, but the newest version has not been installed yet so the counselor does not know if it has added video capability.
Neither program is true "distance learning" with students working at home or learning from an educator outside of our program - that would fall under restrictions from the school board as to how many DL courses a student can take. Instead, we use the DL programs to provide self-paced in-school learning with modules that the school puts together from available content, based on the curriculum needs.
(M Mirkes, personal communication, February 23, 2011).