Aurora Leaning Community Association


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ALCA Expansion

Funded through the US Department of Education, ALCA originated as a Technology Innovation Challenge Grant project, involving a university and eight public and private K - 12 schools. The project engaged many Oklahoma teachers in creating innovative lessons with locally-collected data which would ultimately be shared through ALCA.

During the project's first years, groundwork for a collaborative online educational community was laid, as ALCA ensured Internet access to the original school sites, then selected teachers, recruited web masters, and purchased the equipment necessary to bring technology to the schools.

While the design and creation of the flexible system progressed, news spread about its unique features and capabilities. It began to expand to include numerous other TICG projects and additional K-12 schools, universities, career and technology centers, for-profit organizations, and content experts throughout the US, all connected through the ALCA server.

At the end of the five-year grant period, ALCA became a nonprofit association and began the process of setting up individual communities for groups which paid minimal membership fees. Those groups included education, business, and agency personnel. The services provided by ALCA proved to be invaluable to them.

More than 8,000 online resources are currently housed on the ALCA central server alone, readily utilized by community members in different areas of the country. Additionally, over two thousand K-16 online lessons, on all subject areas and grade levels, have been created by ALCA educators. These lessons, plus other resources which are continually being developed, provide professionals a remarkable opportunity for such things as data sharing with distant communities.

Other features available through ALCA include professional development workshops, an eSchool, virtual meetings, portfolios/presentations, online forms and surveys, gradebooks, assignment pages, message boards, a virtual library of images and resources, links to other web sites, and more.

ALCA is committed to keeping costs for memberships low in order that the needs of technology users may be met in a cost effective manner. Through the collaborative efforts of a very small staff and many professionals, ALCA is now a dynamic online community of lifelong learners.