Technology and the small school

A couple weeks ago I ran across this article from eSchool News about the Governor of West Virginia and his take on the importance of technology to small rural schools. Just now getting around to writing about it, though. The article quotes Linda Martin of the organization Challenge West Virgina and says,

She said equipping each school with distance-learning technology would cost about $20,000, but it would save millions of dollars in school construction and transportation costs.

It is amazing when you think of it that way, isn't it? $20,000 is nothing these days.

In my very small college, we used to offer French. We don't offer it any more because we only had two students who took it the last time it was offered. If we could make distance learning a normal part of what we do, it would be easy for the students who want to take French to do it. It would require technology, but even more, it would require a mindset that we don't have yet. I congratulate West Virginia on electing a governor who is on the ball -- at least on this point.