Spotlight on the 1996
SIGTel
Online Award Winners
Designing Virtual Practicums for
Preservice
Teachers
A.
Margaret Fryatt
W. J. Hunter and M. E. Brown
Nechako
Electronic Busing
Program School
RR #2, Sinkutview Rd.
Vanderhoof, BC Canada
Pairs and trios of student teachers in their fourth year of education
at Massey
University, New Zealand, were connected to groups of volunteer
students from
either the Nechako Electronic Busing Program™ ( a unique program
that offers
support to parents who have elected to school their children at home)
or Sinkut
View Elementary School, Vanderhoof, British Columbia, for a short
online practicum
project. Student-teacher pairs developed a series of 4-6 related
online activities that would enable the volunteer students to
accomplish specific
learning goals. All activities were delivered and supported at a
distance. Twenty-two
student teachers are involved (10 groups) with 52 students between the
ages
of 8–15 (34 Sinkut View Elementary students in Grades 4–6
and 18 Electronic
Busing Program students in Grades 3–10). Topics were selected
from within
the framework of BC curriculum by the student teachers and supported
by the
use of Internet resources.
|
