The U.S. Department of Education has encouraged schools to consider different forms of education delivery should they need to close this flu season. For the state of Oregon, the solution comes in the form of a website embedded with digital teaching tools and a web conferencing feature that will automatically activate in the event the school is closed for an H1N1 outbreak or other reasons.

The Oregon Department of Education has developed this set of communication and on-demand web services for schools through the Oregon Virtual School District, a classroom instruction and professional development portal available to all Oregon educators. The project, known as Accelerate Oregon, is made possible through a public-private partnership supported by Intel and Cisco.

"While these digital tools cannot replace direct classroom instruction and won't make sense for every school in Oregon, they provide a safety net of basic resources essential for maintaining continuity in teaching and learning in the event of a school closure," said Susan Castillo, the state's superintendent of public instruction. "Working with Intel and Cisco, we are able to make these digital tools available to any school in Oregon that needs them."

Every school principal in Oregon has been emailed directions for activating their school's website. This website hosts teacher forums, audio conferencing and web conferencing tools for instruction. The website is built on a web content management software system developed by the Oregon State University's Open Source Lab, which is designed to allow users with little knowledge of web programming to create and manage web content with relative ease.

"Intel's unique public-private partnership with Oregon is building a model for catalytic change in education," said Dr. Eileen Lento, Intel Education and Public Sector Strategist. "This is a model that can be replicated throughout the United States. Educators must have the tools in order to build a model 21st century system. When business and education come together to build an infrastructure for student success, we are able to leverage our collective expertise into innovative solutions quickly and effectively."

Source: US Department of Education Press Release