Distance education in rural schools: Technologies and practice

In recent years, the use oftelecommunicated distance learning has become increasingly popular in rural schools for providing curriculum equity to students and staffdevelopmentfor teachers. Here, we report findings from a national survey ofthe nation's smallest rural school districts: single campus, K-I 2 public school districts enrollingfewer than 300 students. We report the extent ofdistance education use among these schools and the types oftechnologies usedfor distance learning (or available for use). Investment dollars in distance education technologies and programming costs are reported. as are programming priorities for students and staff. Precise data on the use and availability of educational technologies in rural schools is lacking. The myriad defini-tions surrounding "ruralness, " the diversity between rural schools in different regions of the country, and the fact that most federal data for schools are not broken down by school district size or community population make it difficult to ascertain what technologies exist in rural schools and how they are being used. Yet, depending on the data cited and definitions used, America's rural schools enroll between 17 % and 33 % of all school-aged children and compris