Journey has begun

For the past 25 years Arizona school districts have been using computer labs with some eLearningi in the classroom. Wilson Districti adopted one-to-one computing systems in 1993 and Emerald High School in Vail District followed suit with laptops in 2005. In the late 1990’s the School Facilities Board (SFB) wired all schools and classrooms and brought the level to one computer for every eight students. The SFB-Cox Education Network then offered email service and instructional access to all schools. Arizona Department of Education is creating a state wide student instructional and data system. The Government Information and Telecommunications Agency (GITA) is pursuing a broadbandi initiative to all rural and under served urban areas of Arizona with education as an anchor tenant.

A series of educational initiatives needs eLearning for full and effective implementation: Academic Standards. Math and Science, Charter Schools, Formative Assessments, Summative Assessments, AIMS Testing, English Language Learners, All Day Kindergarten, No Child Left Behind, Highly Qualified Teachers, Researchi Based Curricula, etc.

The eSATSi human factors system design for transforming all of Arizona K-12 education is in place. System legislationi was introduced in 2005. Senate Bill 1512i in the 2006 legislature secured $3 million funding for a middle school math eLearning pilot program for 10,000 students and a ten year eLearning Task Force to guide implementation of eLearning for all students. Arizona Department of Education received $2.5 million to accelerate development of the data warehouse with decision support system. Support is growing for this ten year initiative with major communities: education, business, government, philanthropy and eLearning enterprises. Their stewardship is being united and coordinated from within a P20 collaboration model.