High School Course Exchange: Boundless Learning

By Marilyn Hagle HighSchoolCourseExchange.org

The idea for highschoolcourseexchange.org was conceived while thinking about how to make school wonderful for my children. They are seven and ten and dyslexic. Our local school district is small and rural. The elementary school is admirable, but the high school does not have much to offer. My children could participate in nearly any athletic team imaginable, but electives and fine arts are neglected.

I think school should be a place where kids can dream. It should be a pasture of possibilites and their gateway to the world.

This is what I want for my children.

I want them to take Russian from a teacher in Russia.
I want them to study the middle ages from a teacher in France.
I want them to learn about Africa from a teacher in Kenya.
I want them to study philosophy with a teacher in India.

I want them to learn to sing and paint and write and dance.

I want them to study astronomy with a teacher who has worked at NASA.
I want them to learn about agriculture from a farmer.
I want them to learn about the sea from a sailor.

The goal of the High School Course Exchange is connect teachers to students.

The early nature of online coursework was very similar to the old snail mail correspondence courses, but on a computer. In recent years with the onset of youtube, podcasting, and cheap easy teleconferencing - the world has changed. Now, teaching choir online is not such a crazy thing. Also, since the first on-line classes were administered only through reading and writing, dyslexic students were left out. The new classes can fully accommodate children with dyslexia. All other students will benefit from the multisensory approach.

If you are a student, teacher, or school official interested in participating in this project, please contact me at highschoolcourseexchange.org/contact. For the High School Course Exchange to evolve and grow we will need input from a wide range of educators.

Marilyn Hagle teaches on-line choir and uses free and open source software extensively in teaching the arts in rural Texas, U.S.A.