Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide

The Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide (ACCESS) Program was developed by the Alabama Department of Education to implement distance learning. The Department of Education provides this program to give high school students the opportunities to participate in Advanced Placement (AP), elective, and other courses which may not be offered to them in a regular classroom. These technological courses take place during regular school hours in an ACCESS lab available in the school. The instruction for these courses will take place through web-based programs, face-to-face instruction via internet, and real time videoconferencing (IVC). IVC is a two way audio and two way video instruction that provides students with immediate feedback The objectives for ACCESS are to provide access to: Advanced Diploma Courses, Additional Course Offerings, Advanced Placement or Dual Enrollment/Credit Courses, Remediation and Supplemental Resources, Teachers with Multimedia and Technology tools to enhance instruction, and Leverage Existing Resources and Distance Learning Offerings.
In order to visit this site, go to http://accessdl.state.al.us. When you reach the website, at the top of the page you will find eight different tabs in which you can access information from. The tabs consists of About ACCESS, Courses, Students, Educators, Parents, Contact Us, Help, and Resources. This site is not just for the Department of Education to visit. This website is to help parents, students, and educators to better understand all aspects of the Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide Program. On this website, you can also find a list of high schools that have operating ACCESS labs, the plan for 2007-2010, the goals that have been met in the past years, and where they plan to expand the ACCESS labs to. There is also a powerpoint available at http://accessdl.state.al.us/showaccess.php?Ink=aboutaccess. I think this website will be helpful and useful to me as a future educator because the technological world is our future. This site gives us a glimpse at what the educational field will become. I also find it useful to help me inform my future students and their parents of the highest opportunities our education department has to offer.