The Virtual Schooling Service is an initiative of Education Queensland (the State Education Department) in Qld Australia. http://www.education.qld.gov.au/. Now in its second year of delivery, the VSS serves students based in Queensland state schools who otherwise would not able to take certain subjects due to small class sizes or the unavailability of specialist teachers. This benkyoukai is an introduction to the trials, tribulations and successes of delivering Japanese online in both real time and asynchronous modes.
In March 1999, the Education Queensland New Technologies Project reported on the "application of new technologies to enhance learning outcomes". The report, which reviewed current information and communication technology initiatives, identified key actions required to deliver educational opportunities appropriate for life in an information-rich, technology-rich 21st century. As one of its major findings, the report recommended the development of online services and flexible curriculum delivery options required to maximise the educational benefits of Education Queensland's considerable investment in network infrastructure.
The Virtual Schooling Service, under the management of a branch of Education Qld called AccessEd, commenced delivery of 5 Senior School subjects in the year 2000. 8 Teachers created online materials for, and delivered Year 11 (second last year of high school) online lessons in, Japanese, Maths C, Economics, and Computer Studies.
In 2001, the pilot expanded the Year 11 subjects to Year 12, and offered Modern History and Information Processing and Technology (Year 11), and Japanese (Year 9). A trial of school-based delivery commenced with three trial schools delivering Maths C, Economics and Japanese to a new Year 11 cohort. Teachers in these schools have a combination of face to face and online classes.
All the students log in to the Ed Qld network from their schools for their synchronous lesson, and to download their asynchronous materials.
The asynchronous environment was previously Lotus Learning Space. The VSS teachers collectively decided to use their own websites hosted by AccessEd instead, as we felt that courseware involved too many "clicks" for students working with limited bandwidth. The websites are also an easy way for students to collect materials and work online at home.
Due to an Ed Qld decision to standardise all online training, we will be transferring our materials to a BlackBoard environment within the next 6 months. In the future it is hoped to allow students access from home through the network firewall.
Our synchronous environment at present is comprised of NetMeeting based on an Exchange server, and a Latitude Communications Meeting Place voice conference server. We keep the voice and data connections separate - so that we at least have one or the other working in case of network failure or phone problems!
At this stage, students have 2 online lessons a week of approximately 40 minutes. These will probably be longer in the future, with the decision being made by the relevant delivery school. The rest of the time allocated to the subject is spent working on the web/paper based materials. The students in Years 9 - 12 all work with the Mirai textbook series.
A key role is played in the delivery of this service by a "Study Coach" in each school. This person is a mentor to the students and the key contact for the VSS teachers. They are not necessarily present for all of the lessons as that role can be taken by anyone the school sees fit to supervise. Many of our Senior classes are not supervised at the school. Generally this is not an issue as there are only small numbers at each school site, and the students are cooperative.
Most of our activities have been created using the Microsoft Office programs, as Education Queensland has an agreement with Microsoft and the software is freely available to schools and teachers. As we are continuously delivering lessons and materials, production time is limited with work being prepared 1-3 weeks ahead of time. We use the Global IME (a free download) with Office 2000 on Windows 98 or 2000 for Japanese script. For the simple web page tasks, we use Front Page 2000 which easily supports Japanese.
We try to use a wide range of activities depending on the mode of delivery.
Our Synchronous activities include
For Asynchronous activities
As there was no start up time for the project, we have had to develop materials as we are teaching. This has meant that we need to keep them fairly simple! We use the software that is readily available and simple to use. We keep reminding ourselves that the prime concern has to be the underlying pedagogy of any task!
We have often felt constrained by the mandatory content load in the Senior Japanese programme. Combined with student involvement in the many other curriculum and extra-curricular activities in a school, time pressures force us sometimes to limit our ideas for activities to the absolutely 'necessary'. This is really no different to the face to face classroom. However, these issues are sometimes compounded by limited bandwidth in schools for downloading online lesson materials, as well as network failures.
We felt it was important for students to have a textbook and the corresponding activity books (for Years 11 & 12), as well as the related CD / tapes as they can be used in case of network problems and provide the students with the opportunity to work at home, even if they do not have a computer. The possibilities for more innovative course and material development are endless - but unfortunately the budgets are not. Textbooks have provided the basis for the course progression, and we have basically created online support materials. Our hope is to slowly build up a set of Flash games and activities to support these. (We are by no means experts in using the Macromedia suite - support so far has come from Multimedia university and college students' assignment work and work experience!)
We would love to meet others working with online language classes. We have plenty to learn from others' experiences, and would appreciate any suggestions or comments you may have!
Feel free to contact us by email, or join us in the Benkyoukai.
Jennifer.Johnson@openaccess.qld.edu.au
Louise.smith@openaccess.qld.edu.au
The VSS website provides little information to the visitor, but you can take a look at
http://www.education.qld.gov.au/virtualschool/html/index.htm
Jennifer Johnson has been teaching high school Japanese for almost 10 years in Queensland state and private schools. She has also taught EFL in Japan and ESL in Brisbane. Jennifer has been a part of the Virtual Schooling Service Pilot Program since its commencement in January 2000, and has enjoyed the experience of working completely in an online environment. (Jenny particularly enjoys the absence of playground and bus duty!). As from mid 2001, she has also been writing and developing materials for an online course in EFL for Japanese high school students which will be trialled from November. Jennifer is almost at the end of her M Ed in TESOL, and can't wait to finally achieve those 3 letters!
Louise Smith originally trained in Special Education: Hearing Impairment. She taught in this area early on in her teaching career. She thinks this has greatly influenced her approach to mainstream curriculum and dealing with students especially non-achievers. Louise has been teaching high school Japanese and English (even a small stint of German) for 9 years with Education Queensland. Although she has no formal qualifications, she has taught ESL in Senior high school in Japan as part of the Queensland Saitama teacher exchange programme. She is currently studying 3rd year psychology at the University of Queensland. Louise joined the Virtual Schooling Service Pilot Program in January 2001, writing curriculum for, and delivering, Year 9 Japanese.
Back to 15th Benkyoukai page
Back to senseiOnline page
Back to Keiko Schneider's Bookmarks