I chose to discuss this article http://www.argusleader.com/article/20110724/NEWS/107240324/Four-rural-S-D-schools-let-students-run-show found through my educational technology blog. I chose it for several reasons: one, I work in a "rural" district, I am interested in project-based learning, and I wanted to know if the article talked about teacher qualifications or meeting state standards. I was not disappointed.
Briefly, the article, explores several solutions to problems of rural districts. Rural districts often have difficulty finding qualified teachers to teach usually, higher level high school courses. In one school, they created a project-based learning situation about biology that involved working with teachers that were not "qualified" in biology but would help facilitate the students in finding the information online. It sounded like it was well organized and was teaching to a real world situation, but I was just concerned that it did not mention how the online information was checked. If I had to look at complicated research in biology, I probably would have a hard time deciding if it is valid. It should be noted that the author did mention specifically that one of the projects was based on state standards. I would think the others would have as well. I hope.
But I do agree with rural areas trying to think "outside the classroom box" to solve educational problems that are arising in our difficult economic times. As author Josh Verges notes, "monies are driving experimentation." (7/24/11) The Internet provides a valuable resource for rural areas in terms of seeking out "experts" on topics. Skype conferencing and distance learning can bring the world closer to these isolated students. It is foolish for us to assume that most of our students will stay in our small town throughout their life. They must have rich, valuable experiences to meet the challenges of the future.
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