Chapter 20: A Case Study of E-Learning To Sustain Small Schools In Rural Canada¹

This case study has three objectives. The first objective is to demonstrate that school size and location as barriers to the provision of educational opportunities can be challenged and, through judicious application of information and communication technologies (ICT), largely eliminated. The second objective is to show how technological, pedagogical, professional, and political barriers were overcome to sustain a project that provided rural Canadian high school students with access to enhanced learning opportunities; and the third objective is to provide insight into an initial step in the integration of virtual and actual learning environments.

The study is set in a rural area of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador in Atlantic Canada where small schools have been getting smaller. In many cases small schools have been closed as families relocate to urban areas or leave the province altogether to seek work in other parts of the country. This demographic change a decade ago coincided with the advent of the Internet in schools and, through it, the formation of electronic teaching and learning structures known as intranets. Intranets electronically link small schools located on multiple sites and enable them to share teachers through the creation of virtual classes.