Populating Your Personal Planner for ISTE2011 in Philadelphia? ISTE SIGVE Pics Will Help!

ISTE 2011 is sneaking up on us and will be here before you know it. If you're attending ISTE in Philadelphia, this quoted search will help make sure you attend the REALLY important sessions, workshops, and events. Those, of course, are those chosen by the Special Interest Group for Virtual Environments as relevant in the SIG Picks' process. SIGVE members weighed in on the content of over 800 such items, limited to only 20 Picks. Two of those didn't "make," apparently, or were cancelled for other reasons, but the remaining ones are in this list. Go to it! I for one am clicking "Add to Planner" for every single one! Quoted from the official ISTE website's search feature: A Deeper Understanding of the Holocaust through Virtual Environments  Add to Planner [Learning Station Session: Poster]  Wednesday, 6/29/2011, 11:00am–1:00pm PACC Broad St Atrium , Table: 7 Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Social Studies Andrew Wheelock, Erie 1 Boces/ WNYRIC with Susannah Renzi Think history is dull? This presentation will highlight a powerful new way of bringing history to life.  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE (Contains Commercial Content)

SAP141B Design Spaces for Learning: Exploring Physical and Virtual Learning Areas  Add to Planner [Workshop: Hands-on] Seats still available. Saturday, 6/25/2011, 12:30pm–3:30pm PACC 118A School Improvement : Digital-Age School Design Chris Johnson, University of Arizona with David Jakes and Christian Long The design of school spaces affect how students learn. Discover how you can employ "design thinking" to create and redesign schools and classrooms that support digital age learning.  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE

Dive into Virtual Worlds: Learning about Ecosystems through Immersion  Add to Planner [Concurrent Session: Model Lesson]  Tuesday, 6/28/2011, 2:00pm–3:00pm PACC 119A Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Virtual Environments Shari Metcalf, Harvard University with Chris Dede Learn real science, virtually! With EcoMUVE’s immersive, inquiry-based curriculum, discover plants and animals, dive underwater, shrink to microscopic size, travel through time and collect and analyze data.  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE

SUF222W Digiteacher Workshop: Digital Citizenship within a Project-Based Learning Environment  Add to Planner [Workshop: Hands-on] Seats still available. Sunday, 6/26/2011, 8:30am–3:30pm PACC 121C Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Digital Citizenship Vicki Davis, Flat Classroom Projects with Julie Lindsay Discover the project-based method of teaching digital citizenship in this workshop from Digiteen Project co-founders Vicki “Cool Cat Teacher” Davis and Julie Lindsay.  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE, SIGDE, SIGLIT

Games, Simulations, and Virtual Environments for Learning and Teaching  Add to Planner [Concurrent Session: Panel]  Wednesday, 6/29/2011, 1:15pm–2:15pm PACC 103A Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Games & Simulations Greg Jones, University of North Texas with Lisa Dawley and Chris Dede Discover games, simulations, virtual environments, and visual experiences in education and see projects that benefit learning and teaching.  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE, SIGGS

Immersive Worlds, Immersive Learning: How 3D Virtual Worlds Change Everything  Add to Planner [Concurrent Session: Lecture]  Wednesday, 6/29/2011, 10:15am–11:15am PACC 111B Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Virtual Environments Diane Lewis, Seminole County Public Schools with Janine McGrath Learn how you can provide truly immersive learning experiences in 3D worlds from Second Life and Quest Atlantis to WOW and many worlds in between.  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE

Learning Between Worlds: Integrating Virtual and Real World Classrooms  Add to Planner [Learning Station Session: Poster]  Tuesday, 6/28/2011, 4:00pm–6:00pm PACC Broad St Atrium , Table: 35 Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Technology Integration Rory Nackerud, Center4EduPunx  Experience the integration techniques of a social media instructor morphed into a student teacher of middle and high school language arts and science.  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE  (Contains Commercial Content)

Machinima Fest 2011  Add to Planner [Other Program Events: Meeting/Gathering]  Tuesday, 6/28/2011, 5:30pm–7:00pm PACC 126A Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Virtual Environments Kae Novak, Front Range Community College with Marianne Mahlstrom, Rory Nackerud and Andrew Wheelock Machinima Fest 2011 will showcase videos created using 3D virtual worlds or games, and it's potential for learning and communicating. Discover the possibilities of using machinima in your classroom.  Everyone invited! Sponsored by SIGVE. For more information, including how to submit a video of your own, please visit http://sigve.iste.wikispaces.net/Machinima+Fest+2011  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE

Project-Based Learning for Interactive Education in Virtual Worlds  Add to Planner [Learning Station Session: Poster]  Monday, 6/27/2011, 8:00am–10:00am PACC Broad St Atrium , Table: 25 Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Virtual Environments Susan Toth-Cohen, Thomas Jefferson University  This poster details the specific steps and outcomes of project-based learning for graduate students who collaboratively developed virtual world exhibits on health and wellness.  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE

Real World-InWorld Design Challenge: Inspire Students to Solve Space Challenges  Add to Planner [Learning Station Session: Poster]  Monday, 6/27/2011, 8:00am–10:00am PACC Broad St Atrium , Table: 24 Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Virtual Environments Sharon Bowers, National Institute of Aerospace with Mark Clemente Through both face-to-face (real world) and virtual world (InWorld) collaborations, students solve NASA-inspired design challenges. New challenges available each school year.  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE

TSIGOL SIGOL/SIGVE Forum: Teaching in the Cloud!  Add to Planner [Other Program Events: Forum/Summit/Symposium] Seats still available. Tuesday, 6/28/2011, 2:00pm–4:00pm PACC 105B Virtual Schooling/E-learning : Virtual Learning Technologies Kecia Ray, Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools with Kevin Honeycutt, Scott Merrick and John Ross Virtual, online, and immersive learning environments are becoming much more accessible and acceptable. Visit this forum to find out just how accessible learning can be for students and teachers!  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE

SIGVE (Virtual Environments) Gathering: Virtual Learning with Real People  Add to Planner [Concurrent Session: Birds-of-a-Feather]  Monday, 6/27/2011, 5:30pm–6:45pm PACC Grand Ballroom Lobby Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Virtual Environments Scott Merrick, Metro Nashville Public Schools  Members and others will gather to celebrate our year, share a vision for SIG Virtual Environments, and pass the leadership torch.  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE

The 3 Cs: Connecting, Communicating, and Collaborating for Student Scientific Research  Add to Planner [Learning Station Session: Global Collaboration Project]  Sunday, 6/26/2011, 7:00pm–8:30pm PACC Broad St Atrium , Table: 13 Digital-Age Teaching & Learning : Virtual Environments Randall Thomas, GLOBE Program/UCAR with Donna Charlivoix and Martos Hoffman The Student Climate Research Campaign uses open source virtual platforms to engage an international community of students, teachers, and scientists in scientific inquiry and research.  Recommended by ISTE's SIGVE  (Exhibitor-Sponsored)

Blogging ISTE? Add Your Blog!

"Blogging ISTE 2011" is a webpage at the International Society for Technology in Education's annual conference website, where one can automatically add his or her blog to the growing list of educational blogs whose authors will be, well, blogging ISTE.

Visit the page, click the link to add, and make it so. I have!

Congrats to Our Pioneer Class of 2011! AGAIN!

This is what I'm talking about. Congratulations to our seven graduating seniors amongst the class of 39 graduation seniors at Middle College High School! Thanks also to our parents for support and to our legislators for opening up the path to our actually being a SCHOOL. And what a school it will be. Stay tuned!



and watch them walk!

Congrats to Our Pioneer Class of 2011!

I'm proud enough to bust, and I'll be shaking the hands of these 7 pioneering virtual learners onstage on Monday. They're off into the world(s) after that! I've been building out a space in ReactionGrid, not yet available to our learners, but it will be. I took a few minutes to add a lasting tribute to these students that their future schoolmates will enjoy for years to come:

VEJ (say that out loud) is HERE!

ISTE SIGVE star Rosie Vojtek has spent hours and hours an correspondence after correspondence to drum up articles from some of the pioneers of virtual environments for education and here it is, the very first and BEAUTIFUL issue of VEJ, the Virtual Education Journal! Pick up your own copy of this stunning 40 page publicaton inworld in Second Life at ISTE Island Headquarters, read it right here at the embed below, or visit ISSUU.com to read it, download it, and share it on your social networks--even embed it in your very own bloggie! Thanks to Rosie/Roxie for her untiring efforts of community support and innovation and to her husband Bob/BJ for all his work and support to make this premier issue a reality!

And now...

Open publication - Free publishing - More education

Day 3 and Home to Nashville, Still Alive from Beale Street Music Festival 2011

We are, we're still alive, and we will long cherish the memory of rolling down toward Riverfront Park's deep gray roiling gloom to the tune of Girl Talk's "Oh No" and the eerily loud tornado horns, laughing all the way and singing the lyrics with a passion.

We parked in our favorite (0 Dollars Parking) onstreet row on Talbot and hoofed it over to Riverfront, asking three guys sitting under a warehouse dock overhang, "Hey, ya'll see any ditches around here?" They laughed and pointed to a covered loading area across the street that already held a swimming pool's quota of dirty water. We crossed the tracks and headed to the welcome tent where we were told "No one's made any announcements yet but no one's playing either. Hoodies up against the rain we descended the steep stone stairs where there were equal numbers of drenched festival goers leaving and coming in from the north entrance.

Those leaving were rather dour while those entering were almost to a person laughing and joking. The weird doppler effect of the air horns droned on as we made our way down to the center stage where, yes, Lucero was setting up. Colin wanted to hear them and hear them we would. They started maybe 45 minutes late but played a really rockin' set to an audience of several hundred stalwart fans.

I headed toward a portapotty at one point and saw a guy who'd decided the growing muddy puddles were just the thing to play in. Here's a quick example of his act:



More to come...

STILL Alive in Memphis, Day 2!

We are home at the hotel and proud of it. The day was stellar but we're what we in the Merrick family call "Monkey-Skunked." One of our primary maternal patriarchs was John Donelson Whalley, Lee Ann's step-father, and I hear his voice each time I hear or say the term. Basically, John would drawl in his best Toastmasters' voice, full of authority, "As the monkey said after havin' relations with the skunk, 'I haven't had as much as I want but I'm pretty sure I've had as much as I can stand."

We're there.

Reference these pics as you read, assuming you have the stamina to read all of this!



We started out the day by looking for a good free parking spot and find one we did. Parking on a side street we hiked down to Beale Street proper to get the lay of the land. It was only a few blocks before we joined the throngs of tourists (pronounce that "tursts") roaming around the sawhorse-blocked street, in and out of the chotski gift shops (our fave was certainly Tater Red's Lucky Mojos and we're very likely to hit it again today, maybe for the license plate style plaque that reads, "My wife says I never listen to her, or at least that's what I think she said," or something like that.

We really wanted to grab a burger at Dyer's, the world famous deep-fried goal of burger-hounds, but we voted against standing in the considerably long line in favor of easing right into a table at Alfred's on Beale, where Colin had a great cheeseburger and I opted for the really tasty Philly Cheese sandwich, which was expertly grilled with onions and just enough for my appetite. Our waitress, Maddie, was really friendly and apologetic for our seating at a back table instead of on one of the porches, but we were frankly happy to be in a quiet spot and told her so. I quaffed a couple of a local draught, Ghost River Copper, perfectly cold and nicely balanced with a mild but very present hoppy finish.

After lunch we checked out the local Gibson Factory, decided not to spend the time to tour, and then headed down to the concert, aiming to hear Lotus, a band not on our original target list but one that Colin had checked out online in the hotel and found promising. WOW, are we glad we did. This performance was one of our festival favorites, and I'm a new fan of this highly thinky rock fusion band. You can gather that, I'd wager, from my pic set above, where it's obvious I was sort of obsessed by the band's lead guitarist, completely in his own groove. My only criticism of the performance, which tore the roots out of a 15 minute jam version of one of their recorded songs, is that the band seemed so immersed in their music they kind of forgot the audience (contrast the upcoming Mumford and Sons show), but they're young, and Colin and I agreed that their performance was so imbued with highly (say HIGHLY) technical aspects that their concentration on that was justified. It's just that if they want to grab the whole package and soar to the next level, they're gonna have to belly up and figure that out. I LOVE 'em.

From Lotus we hit our favorite secret gold mine, the SoCo Blues Shack, for another target performance, Blind Mississippi Morris. He did not fail us. This is blues at its absolute finest, and I have to admit I shed a few tears for no reason I could pinpoint, excepting that my little brother, recently deceased, would have loved this. Completely confident, aswim in his soulwarm bluesiness, Morris bore his way into the hearts of his growing audience, which swelled from our first dozen to a hundred or two by the time we headed out.

Then it was off to hear the Sick Puppies, an Aussie trio that I was introduced to in the indie film Rock Prophecies. We watched a bit, but I came away feeling that their competent mainstream rock is undermined by their falling victim to their own media image. They're just a'ight with me, and Colin's comment, "They're good, but..." pretty much sums it up. I did get what I think is a pretty tasty shot (see flickr stream) of their bassist, Emma Anzia, whom I think is, well, pretty much the bee's knees.

We were off to hear the spawn of a legend.

Devon Allman's Honeytribe could have been populated by any competent blues rockers, he's that good himself. His backers were quite good, though, and Colin was particularly taken by his technically expert drummer. Rocking a custom Les Paul signed by the owner of Gibson, Allman blew out our eardrums, which we sacrificed willingly to his powerful guitar mastery. There's a pic in the stream of the giant audience gathered in folding chairs in the John Hammond Blues Tent for his performance prior to it, and we just strolled right up to that stage like we owned it and parked at the skirt for several songs. WOW again: Greg's genes might even be improved in this version of Allman. We stayed for his take on Ramblin' Man, with its nicely time-modulated chorus (proving that blues rock can think, too) and moved on to The New Pornographers.

That was kinda nice, but not appealing enough to justify our adopted strategy of burrowing into the thick crowd to get in the heart of it for the performance. We only listened to a handful of songs, very competent mainstream rock, performed well, but something seemed missing. A.C. Newman seemed to be trying too hard, if that makes any sense, and Neko Case, though vocally powerful, seemed to be phoning in her performance. I'm not a fan, but the large crowd seemed to be full of them, with a good deal of heartfelt singing. Maybe too mainstream for their name? I'm not sure, and it may well be that I was just beginning to head toward that "monkey-skunked" state. All I know is that "The Band That Touched a Generation" seems to have missed mine, and gauging from Colin's sort of lukewarm response, it may be missing another one.

We had to see Jerry Lee Lewis, and heading down to that stage we discovered that a lot of other people had that notion too. We were at the back central edge of a bunch of folks, and to our surprise we discovered that they were there for a "family show" and there was some middle aged brunette woman singing at the piano, with no Jerry Lee in range. I'm sure this is very legit, but I wonder about the moral perspective of serving up basically an opening act to a 55 minute show. Sheesh. We left, headed back the to Pornographers for a song or two, then moved back to the Bud Light Stage. We wandered about a bit and came back, and Jerry Lee had indeed shown up, rattling out "Whole Lot o' Shakin'" for his adoring throngs. Coming from the first inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I appreciated the chance to see him live (we had taken a pass on his Third Man Records show last week in Nashville on Record Store Day, reasoning that 50 dollars for it was 'way overpriced). Still, I heard Randy Jackson's voice in my head--"Dude, it was just a little pitchy for me." Jerry Lee Lewis--"check."

For this next show we felt the need to burrow, and burrow we did, approaching to with 50 feet of the stage, mercilessly packed into a sea of fans. Luckily, all our immediate neighbors, now our best friends by virtue of proximity, were nice, kept their senses of humor, and only a few lit up cigarettes. There was a lot of smoking at Beale Street Music, btw, giving it, to me, a sort of European vibe. I was sad to see so many young people tarnishing their lungs with this dangerous street drug, but helpless to help without seeming like a fanatic.

My main thought, truth be told, was "Lee Ann would HATE this." But that's not true, really: She'd never get into this situation. I LOL.

M and Sons took the stage to a screaming crowd and tore into their trademark power folk with a vengeance. Now here is a group that can work a crowd. Marcus Mumford is just plain charismatic and he knows it. He's not obviously conceited, just reveling in his newfound power, and the band is tight as a keg. They layer their songs in acoustic glory then pound in an underpinning of power bass guitar to move the spirit, and at times the strong harmonies they were laying down were balanced by those issuing from the crowd, their lips moving in unison with M and Sons lyrics. Mumford and Sons had Memphis in the virtual palm of their virtual hand, and they rolled that hand into a fist and shook it at the sky over the Beale Street Music Festival.

That was about the time Colin headed out of our sardine can to make a phone call. I stayed a little while, hearing one track from their upcoming new (2nd) album, backed by a capable horn section, before weaving through the crowd to find him. We were monkey-skunked.

Sure, I would have loved to stay for Lucinda, but I happily acquiesced to his call to blow the pop stand. We headed back to the room, I uploaded the pics for this post, we took a run at iHop for a late dinner, then we were back in the room and heading for sleepyland.

We'd only had a couple rain shower events all day long, but I'm sure that Sunday will be different. We'd both REALLY like to see Sublime, the Avett Brothers, Lucero, and of course Wilco. Whether the monkey will get us or the skunk will hold us all night is partly dependent on the weather and partly on our stamina. We plan to drive after the concert so that C-man can be at school and I can be at work in the morning, both on time. Hello, Sunday.

Alive in Memphis: the Beale Street Music Festival 2011!

Hi, ya'll,

My son Colin and I are in Memphis, TN for thie year's Beale Street Music Festival (the people jam formerly known as the Beale Street Blues Festival, and we haz a blast last night. Here we are near the end of the night at the SoCo Blues Shack...

After a mostly uneventful 3 hour or so drive down to our West Tennessee capital (did you know there are 3 Tennessees? Yup, East, Middle, and West) we drove right up to the Broad Street loft occupied by friend and professional photographer David Nester and rang his doorbell. David, David, David. The former resident of his two story studio/residence reportedly sank a quarter of a million dollars into it and he has only recently purchased it outright for considerably less after maintaining a mortgage that became wonky due to some bank mergers and our most recent hard economic times. It's on a CUTE little strip of historic commercial buildings and I think he was right to do so. His remarkable collection of art and artifacts make me feel righteously proud of my home office organizational skills. (That won't mean anything to anyone who hasn't seen how remarkably cluttered my office is, but please just imagine, especially if you've seen my desk at work.) David gave us some great tips on getting around in Memphis, and we are using them daily.

Our hotel is out past the airport, for a number of reasons, and I'm not sure I'd repeat that when we come back next year. The half-hour one-way driving time spends a bit too much time, though we're really being relaxed about our focus. It's a quarter to 10 a.m. and Colin's still asleep, though I got up at 7:30 or so, copping just about my normal 6 hours of sleep after crashing at 1:30. We have a shortlist of absolute musts, and we're right on track, though the advancing heavy rains might cut us even shorter. There's supposed to be an inch or two of heavy rain on Sunday, a development the weather media had led us to believe wouldn't develop 'til Monday. Oh well, Weather is.

last night we arrived around 6 at the venue and after paying $20.00 for parking walked its length to catch the lay of the land. Riverfront Park is a sprawling narrow greenway and the Fest takes up it all. No food or beverage is allowed through the gates, requiring purchase of, for example, a 3 dollar soda, a 6 dollar beer, and food starting at 5 dollars for a corn dog. We did partake of a 10.00 barbecue nachos basket that hit the spot, and I limited myself to one beer. Just won't do it. That had the notable side effect of enforcing sobriety at a music event, one that I savored, surprisingly. I'll do it again today and tonight. It may be growing on me.

Last night:
Manchester Orchestra--good, melodic, prog-rock maybe? We just heard them in passing but I enjoyed what I heard.
Egypt Central--eek, angry, abrasive sort-of-metal from shirtless wild men. Not my cup of tea, and it made me rue the omission of earplugs from our gear.
Cake--A fantastic, fantastic show, despite their immovable denial of our repeated "1,2,3,LOOOOOOng JACKet!"
MGMT--We actually ran into these folks at Huey's when we stopped in for world famous burgers before heading to the festival grounds. They were roaming around the picturesque bar and grill shooting video so maybe Colin and I will get our 30 seconds of fame in their next video release!
Slightly Stoopid--Niiiiice, chill, clever, intelligent music very weed focused. I'll put them on when I wash the car, most certainly.
Grady Champion--hot mouth harp to a three-piece guitar and drums backing band at the Blues Shed, literally a small stage with lights and sound and a roof over it, off in the north corner of the Fest. We returned there to hear Kenny Brown, a clear master of rustic classic acoustic blues. His slide work led us to comment that we would repeatedly return to that stage.

Finally: Flaming Lips, ya'll. I am not a fan, or wasn't, and now am. I'm going to pop a few pics in here to explain just how justified our staying for the last act of the night was!

I certainly never expected to see an abstract girl cavorting on a giant video screen morph into a gigantic pulsating female private part with the band members coming onstage through a door at its center. And the titillation continued with more naked video loop and giant plastic sphere crowd surfing! It was a proud parental moment to be standing there with my 15 year old!

More later: We're off to explore Memphis and to identify a less dear parking option for today and tonight!

Hellloooooo. I've been a bad blogger.

Actually, I have been a very good worker. We have just been so very busy at my work that I've let my blogging slip. I just want to punch the virtual clock here to note a couple of developments:

First, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's announcement of a partnership with Pearson Learning (aka Florida Virtual School when it comes to digital content) to produce 24 courses in math and literacy serving all grades K-12 (http://tinyurl.com/gatespearson). What's more, 4 of them will be made available for free to schools.


Says a Foundation rep:

Each course will serve as a 150-day curriculum and will harness technological advances such as social networking, animation, and gaming to better engage and motivate students, Judy B. Codding, the managing director of the Pearson Foundation, told reporters...Secondary-level courses in math and elementary-school-level courses in English/language arts are to be available for the 2013-14 school year, and the entire suite of courses and accompanying tools are slated for the 2014-15 school year, Ms. Codding said. The four free courses—two in math and two in English/language arts—will be posted online as soon as they are finished, she said.

Lots of questions ensue: Which courses? What does "free to schools" mean? Does that mean that students can use, for example, FL Global School's teachers and take the course within their LMS (Learning Management System) for free? Woot!

I doubt it though. More likely, content will be "free" to schools for use in their own LMS, assuming they have one and  the wherewithal to load digital content into it and manage its delivery using teachers, assuming teachers have been trained (and perhaps certified) to teach online--which, let's face it, isn't the same thing as bricks-and-mortar teaching. Pardner, I can tell you right now that just having the content is, yes, a good thing, but supporting it and delivering it entails much more than popping a web link out to teachers or kids.

Anyway, just a little glimmer of what every day in my own professional life looks like now. It's been a wild ride and it's getting nothing but wilder as we continue to craft online learning options for a public school system that has never really had them to offer. Again, woot.

I'll be trucking down with my son to Memphis this weekend for the Beale Street Music Festival, formerly the Beale Street Blues Festival. Last year it was rained out by the May Floods, but this year's weather looks better, having just suffered huge hits from the giant weather pattern that killed nearly 200 Alabamans and dozens of Tennesseans. If I can celebrate the music festival online at all I will, and at the very least you can look for pics here and in Facebook!

Please Call Your Tennessee Congressman or Senator

and ask them to support House Bill 0732, the "Virtual Public Schools Act" slated to go before the Senate Education Subcommittee today. Here is the bill:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.capitol.tn.gov%2FBills%2F107%2FBill%2FHB0732.pdf

and just because I can, here it is in clickless form:

HOUSE BILL 732

By Brooks H

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49, Chapter 16, relative to virtual schools and to enact  the "Virtual Public Schools Act".

WHEREAS, meeting the educational needs of children in Tennessee's schools is of the  greatest importance to the future welfare of the state; and

WHEREAS, closing the achievement gap between high-performing students, including the gap between minority and non-minority students, and between economically disadvantaged  students and their more advantaged peers, is a significant and present challenge; and

WHEREAS, providing a broader range of educational options to parents and utilizing existing resources, along with technology, may help students in Tennessee improve their academic achievement and

WHEREAS, many school districts currently lack the capacity to provide other public school choices for students whose schools are high priority schools; now, therefore,

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:

SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49, Chapter 16, is amended by deleting  the part in its entirety and by substituting instead Sections 2 through 10

SECTION 2. This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the "Virtual Public Schools Act."

SECTION 3. The purpose of this chapter is to provide Tennessee families with an alternative choice to access additional educational resources in an effort to improve academic achievement.

SECTION 4. As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) "Sponsor" means an LEA or the department of education; and 

(2) "Virtual school" means an independent public school in which the school uses technology in order to deliver a significant portion of instruction to its students via the Internet in a virtual or remote setting.

SECTION 5. A virtual school may be sponsored by an LEA or the department of education may establish a virtual school. A virtual school shall be a public school and shall be provided equitable treatment and resources as any other public school in the state.

SECTION 6. A virtual school shall provide each student enrolled in the school:

(1) Access to a sequential curriculum that meets or exceeds the curriculum standards adopted by the state board of education. The sequential curriculum shall have an interactive program with significant online components;

(2) The same length of time for learning opportunities per academic year that is required by law for public school students, unless such school can show that a student  has demonstrated mastery or completion of an appropriate subject area; and

(3) Regular assessment in language arts, math, science and social studies.

SECTION 7. A virtual school shall maintain an administrative office within the state.  This office shall be considered its principal place of business.

SECTION 8. Any student who is eligible for enrollment in a public school in this state may enroll in a virtual school. Sponsors are authorized to charge tuition to any person not enrolled in a public school in this state.

SECTION 9. In order to encourage collaboration among LEAs, a virtual school is authorized to operate according to the authority granted by the Educational Cooperation Act compiled in chapter 2, part 13 of this title.

SECTION 10. A virtual school shall be evaluated annually by its sponsor based on the following criteria:

(1) The extent to which the school demonstrates increases in student  achievement according to the goals of its authorizing contract and state academic

(2) The accountability and viability of the virtual school, as demonstrated by its academic, fiscal and operational performance.

SECTION 11. This act shall take effect July 1, 2011, the public welfare requiring it.