World Virtual School Project
What is the World Virtual School Project?
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The World Virtual School Project is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State Office of Overseas Schools to assist participating schools and regions in terms of curriculum quality and continuity, opportunities for collaboration, progressive professional development, and resiliency in the face of natural or man-made emergencies.
This unique project is premised on the assumptions that...
* schools value the integration of relevant and effective online resources for their varied learning communities;
* schools value working regionally to collaborate and to share perspectives and methodologies, and to consider and nurture best practices;
* schools value their integrity in the face of adversity, and seek cost-effective and reliable means of assuring continuity of operations.
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| Built upon the success of the NESA Virtual School - a robust consortium of schools who are cost-sharing and co-managing a shared learning management system (LMS) infrastructure - this World Virtual School initiative gathers representatives from the eight major international school regions to focus on general principles and practices related to stand-alone and shared virtual learning environments and newly evolving Web 2.0 tools.
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WVS - Who, When, Where?
All eight of the Regional Associations have agreed to a three year commitment to the WVS Project. Each of the regions has designated a WVS Representative (listed on Welcome to GEO page), and we meet annually at the JOSTI summer sessions (see Global Teacher Info page) near Washington DC. Bea Cameron, of the State Department Office of Overseas Schools, and Ken Paynter, WVS Project Facilitator, preside over the meetings.
Our first meeting was in June 2007, and our agenda focused on Learning Management Systems (Moodle, Blackboard, etc.). In June 2008 our focus shifted towards collaboration - sharing and developing examples and opportunities. This GEO website is an outcome of that meeting. In June 2009, our meetings focused on sharing information developed through this website project, and on turning our attention to the increasingly feasible possibility of developing a worldwide network of schools.
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