Access Lab Visit

The ACCESS lab that I chose to visit was the Robertsdale High School ACCESS lab. Mr. Mitchell, an Assistant Principle and head of the ACCESS lab at RHS, allowed Kristen and I to tour the ACCESS lab on Friday, March 27, 2009. Because of the earlier blog I completed on ACCESS, I knew a little about what ACCESS was, but being able to tour the lab allowed me to really understand all of the components of the ACCESS program.

The first thing that Mr. Mitchell showed us on our tour of the ACCESS lab was the computer system. He said that the system that RHS had was a Tanberg system, which costs about $85,000. Some of the things that this system includes are an instructor cam, a student cam, twenty-five laptops, a projection system, and a document cam (ELMO). All of these things make it possible for instructors to teach their classes in schools in two different areas. According to Mr. Mitchell setting all of this equipment up was not an easy task. There were many people involved in the setup of the ACCESS lab, and there were many decisions and changes that had to be made in order to make the ACCESS lab work. Everything from wall color to desk type had to be taken into consideration in order to create the optimum ACCESS lab. And of course with all of the different technical equipment, they were encountered with many technical difficulties. Mr. Mitchell said that it took almost the whole summer to get the ACCESS lab up and running properly.

Having the ACCESS labs in the schools opens up many doors for both students and teachers. With this type of technology, there are many things that the ACCESS lab can be used for. The ultimate goal for the future of the ACCESS lab is to be able to provide all students with an equal opportunity to take all courses. There are many schools in Alabama that do not provide College Preparatory or Advanced Placement classes to their students due to a lack of money for teachers, so the ACCESS program has been established to allow these students to enroll in these classes at other high schools. The problem schools are running into now with offering these courses to their students is that the schools cannot afford to purchase the equipment needed to set up the ACCESS labs. According to Governor Riley, the ACCESS budget is not going to be cut for the 2009-2010 school year, so hopefully over the next year more schools will open up these ACCESS labs allowing the ACCESS lab to move forward towards reaching its goal for students.

According to Mr. Mitchell, some of the other things that they have used their ACCESS lab for have been virtual field trips and teacher in-services. One virtual field trip that RHS students were able to take was a trip to the Museum of Natural Science. Students were able to take a tour of the facility and learn all of the facts of the museum just like if they had visited the museum in person.

In my opinion, this system is a great new addition to the Alabama high schools. I hope that the State of Alabama meets its goal of providing equal opportunity to all students, and hopefully many more uses come from having this system available to students.