ACCESS visit

Today I visited the ACCESS lab at Baldwin County High School. Misty Morries who is a technology coordnator and also a teacher of government, history, and AP government assisted me in my visit to the lab. In adition to teaching regular classes at the school, she also teaches classes on ACCESS which involve students completing assignments, quizzes and so forth but it is all web based. I really enjoyed my visit and learned a lot about the many different things that can be done in the ACCESS labs. The part of ACCESS that allows students to have class in a room but not with the actuall teacher, but more of a mediator to make sure that they are completing theri work reminds me a lot of our online classes here at South, and ecompanion. In other classes, students can actually see their teacher on a screen along with sound and any other audo the teacher wants to use such as power point or video. The teacher can also see the students and here questions if they may have any. Mrs. Morries also showed me that there are many classes offered to students through this program. Something that I thought was very interesting was that in some schools there are only a few students who want to take a certain class, lets say german. The school can not hire a teacher fore just a few students, so if avaliable to the school, they can allow their students to take this class online with a teacher from another school through the ACCESS lab. This was very cool and probably helps students who need these classes but can not get them from a regular classoom setting. This lab also helps the student be responsable, having to submit assignments to a drop box and learn how technology works in diferent ways. I hoe to learn more about the ACCESS lab and maybe even sit in on an actual class, or maybe even teach one some day.