ACCESS

ACCESS, or Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, & Students Statewide, is a program set up by Governor Bob Riley to allow students all across the state to gain extra courses and things such as advanced diplomas through distance learning. It was launched in 2004, and received $10.3 million in funding on October 1, 2005. In the ACCESS PowerPoint presentation, slide 6 tells us why ACCESS was set up. The problem is that, "Many rural and low-income schools have limited course offerings for students." It goes on to point out that because of some schools having a low budget, they cannot offer the courses that would dignify students with an Advanced Diploma. The idea is that students can take advantage of the technology at hand to take specialized courses, through the computers at their school. In the About ACCESS section, you will find links to the goals, history, overview, and staff of ACCESS. There is also a section for students, that describes distance learning, and is soon to provide a demo course to see if distance learning is for you! In the technical support section, there are links to downloads and plugins to aid the student in accessing the courses. There is also a list of ACCESS support centers. These are Madison City Schools, University of Alabama and Troy University. Troy University is the support center for Mobile County, as well as 26 others.

Overall, I think this is a great thing. It allows students to broaden their diplomas with courses that some schools simply cannot provide. I hope to see that demo course up on the site soon. I would love to see how it works! I am adding this to my PLN. It should come in handy in the future.