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By Lynn Dewing
HERITAGE Christian Online School has become, in only
three-and-a-half years, the largest distance education program in British
Columbia, with 1,200 full-time and 600 part-time students.
Greg Bitgood, superintendent of the online school and
its bricks-and-mortar partner school in Kelowna, says young people today
are like a different people group.
To fulfil the Great Commission in their digital world
means doing what missionary Bruce Olson did in the Amazon – going
native.
“I feel as if I’m in a loincloth compared
to my students,” Bitgood says. Some computer savvy former students
have become staff at the online school.
“We must engage this culture in such a way that
we become an integral part of it. The new technology will facilitate a
revolution in education. I don’t want to say the classroom will
become obsolete but we have to rethink every aspect of education.”
Home and distributed learning
Heritage Online offers a variety of options for both
home-schoolers and distributed-learning students who want to keep up with
the government’s learning objectives.
To do so it utilizes numerous linking websites,
training through podcasts, online courses, interactive learning centres
created by students for students, messaging, Encom, Skype, Moodle and POP3
email.
Tutorials are available for the uninitiated, whether
teacher or student.
Bitgood explains that it is his young staff’s
“ability with technology that has pushed [Heritage] to the head of
the class” in the province.
But he quickly credits two other advantages.
B.C. government
One was the timing – the B.C. government became
more accepting of religious curriculum as long as it was not within the
public system and more interested in distributed-learning experiments.
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“British Columbia is the best place in the world
to home school with respect to support from the government,” Bitgood
says.
Heritage has also benefited from a deep understanding
of the needs of home-schoolers. Staff took this seriously enough to hire a
consultant to help design programs that would fit the home-school model.
Heritage’s annual Christian Home Educators
Convention in April brings together hundreds of families to learn and
share.
Visionary
Bitgood is a self-described visionary who never stops.
He is passionate about education, discipleship of youth and technology
– themes he brings together in his recent book Discipling This Generation for a Digital World (available at christianthinker.org).
“It’s crucial information because the
world is undergoing unprecedented change,” he says.
Faith Today, August 2008
February 2009
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