Educational Program for Gifted Youth delivery through the Internet
Ray Ravaglia, [ravaglia@csli.stanford.edu]
Stanford University
Ray Ravaglia, [ravaglia@csli.stanford.edu]
Stanford University
Traditionally students in middle schools and secondary schools,particularly those in rural areas, have had limited access toadvancedinstruction. Limited school financial resources combined with alackof trained instructors make it impossible to offer courses that aresubstantially beyond grade level. Through its multi-mediacomputer-based courses, the Education Program for Gifted Youthhas been making such courses available to students since 1991.Through EPGY middle school students are able to take calculusand high school students are able to take university level coursesand receive credit for them. The primary mode of instruction has been CD-Rom. We have beenusing web resources to improve the instructional suport of courses.We are limited by the fact that our students have internetconnections that are provided by commercial companies such asaol. We have been focusing on this challange of providing a highlevel of content through extremely low-bandwidth channelscompared to what are available on university campuses. Suchapplications include a virtual classroom for synchronousstudent-instructor interaction and a virtual lab assistent to helpstudents perform physics experiments in their homes.