The document summarizes the Mandarin Chinese Distance Learning program offered through the East Central Ohio Educational Service Center. The program uses interactive video conferencing to deliver Mandarin instruction to rural high school students. It began in 2008 with one class and has since expanded to include 22 high schools. The program aims to increase access to foreign language education and share costs across districts. It has been successful but faces challenges coordinating schedules across different school systems. The program plans to continue the shared teacher model to expand access to Mandarin instruction for more rural students.

1. Project ACES Mandarin Chinese Distance Learning program East Central Ohio Educational Service Center

2. Session Goals Gain an understanding of traditional Interactive Video Distance Learning (IVDL) Learn about the history of the project Experience the structure of the current program Discuss and share goals and plans for the future

3. What is Video Conferencing? Video conferencing, or Interactive Video Distance Learning (IVDL) is the real time transmission of both audio and video over a high speed network to remote sites and locations. It is rather like Skype, but much higher quality, capable of whole room instruction, and secure for school districts.

5. History of the Project Tec-Link, the ECOESC video conference consortium, has been delivering high school courses through interactive video distance learning for 10 years. One of our partner schools asked if Mandarin Chinese was a possibility as a foreign language. Through a partnership with Ohio State University, we were able to offer Mandarin as a High School foreign Language during the school year, 2008-2009 to one class of students via interactive video distance learning.

6. During that first year, it was so successful, the consortium agreed to share the cost of the teacher among the group. We secured six high school partners, and hired a teacher for the project, all being delivered through IVDL, each partner receiving one period of Mandarin Chinese instruction per day. During that time, we also wrote a FLAP grant – Foreign Language Assistance Program – which we received on Sept. 1, 2009. This grant paid for the teacher and equipment cost of the original 6 partner sites.

7. During year two, our first year of the FLAP grant, our model proved successful enough that we decided to replicate it with paying school districts. Opening this concept to the districts through IVDL brought an additional 13 sites, and with that, the need to hire 2 more full time teachers, as well as the use of Ohio State University Teacher Assistants to meet the time constraints and demand of the instructional schedule.

8. Curriculum Because in the 1st year of the program, OSU Flagship staff provided our teacher, we chose to partner with OSU for the purpose of Curriculum in Mandarin Chinese instruction. Our current curriculum is Chinese: Communicating Culture in the Classroom, an Ohio State University Project We will continually supplement this, as we are finding that additional High School relevance is helpful.

9. Why offer courses over IVDL? To increase access and exposure to foreign languages: Mandarin is deemed a critical language through the office of Homeland Security To help fix teacher and school schedules To increase the number of course offerings within a school district To help mitigate the cost of instruction to a district All are sharing the burden of salary and benefits

10. Where are we now? Currently, we are completing year 2 of a 3 year FLAP grant. We now have 9 grant partners, and 22 high schools overall in the program. This is the 3rd year of the program, overall. The FLAP schools, at the end of next year, will have received 3 years of Mandarin instruction, and will be ready to sustain a part-time teacher at the current student numbers. The 13 additional schools are in year 1 of instruction, and have committed at this date to continue with level 2.

11. District Demographics The districts we serve are mostly very rural, with little or no access to diverse culture or languages. We reach a variety of schools, economically, demographically, and geographically. This delivery concept enables all to share in the experience and knowledge of a native speaker, who has been University trained, at a fraction of the local cost.

12. Currently Served Districts 2010-2011

13. Challenges Student and building bell schedules at the start – we have much experience working with schedules, so we suggest ways to line up schedules best, and that works well. Integration of the technology in districts where video has not been a priority. Video conferencing works VERY well, but requires a network support system designed to prioritize video traffic. Sharing physical materials in a remote environment. Capturing, rendering, transcoding and streaming daily recordings of the course instruction

15. In Ohio, we have many delay start school days (pep rallies, teacher work days, testing time, etc) and many snow days. Our teachers are located in an Urban area, with few calamity days, while our served districts are rural, and call off or start late due to bad weather. These schedule changes, on a daily basis, can slow instruction, and if not managed correctly, corrupt the entire instructional day. Each teacher may teach to 6 different districts.. And changing one class would mess up all other schedules. Ohio gives a state wide test, and we lose a week of instruction in our class because of their changes. Time for teacher professional development –we have 22 different school schedules so it is difficult to find shared planning time.

16. Future of Mandarin IVDL The delivery model, which we have worked with for the past 10 years, continues to prove successful. We are currently working with partner districts and will model the same teacher cost-sharing model for our next cohort group. Each time we reach 6 periods of purchased instruction, we hire a new teacher to deliver this course to students, always over IVDL.

17. Questions