At the Western Institute of Technical and Further Education (WITAFE) in New South Wales (NSW), vocational education and training (VET) courses are being delivered to students in isolated homesteads and remote Aboriginal communities by Interactive Distance eLearning (IDL). IDL provides satellite-supported two-way broadband voice, one-way video and…

While there has been research into the provision of "distance" and "off-campus" education, both in relation to technology and to curriculum, little attention has been given to the experiences of students studying in geographically remote locations, where the remoteness has been an aspect of investigation. This study aimed to…

Remote Networked Schools (RNS) is an initiative by the Quebec Ministry of Education, Leisure and Sports (MELS) to investigate solutions that the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) can offer for the preservation of small rural schools in Quebec, Canada. The implementation of RNS mobilized then--as it still does now--the local…

In Leslie Marmon Silko's 1977 novel "Ceremony" the "primacy of the geographical" has often been interpreted as a particularly holistic and healing sense of place--what the critic Robert M. Nelson has characterized as the "spirit of place." This heightened awareness of the spiritual and redemptive power of the natural and the imaginative in…

This paper studies the relationship between geographic remoteness and the quality of primary education in rural Northern India. It then discusses this relationship in the context of educational technology. There is a significant negative correlation between the quality of education and the distance of a school from the nearest urban centre. No…

Impoverished populations and schools in rural areas face special challenges that are different from other settings. Among these are the distances from social services, the sparse availability of assistance programs, and the shortage of resources to support educational programs and student learning. Rural schools, do, however, have assets that can…

Teacher shortages are essentially a problem of distribution (Darling-Hammond, 2001; Ingersoll, 2001; National Association of State Boards of Education, 1998; Olson, 2000; Reeves, 2003; Voke, 2002). According to recent studies, hardest to find are teachers who are both qualified and willing to teach in hard-to-staff schools, which included those in…

The eight early childhood educators who participated in this study were admitted into a 60-credit statewide distance-delivered Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree program at the University of Alaska. All eight educators were women of Alaska Native ancestry who lived and worked in remote and rural Native communities. Seven of these teachers…

The present study examined the occupational aspirations and career development influences of children attending Years 6 and 7 at a sample of rural and remote primary schools in the central western region of Queensland. Data was collected by means of the "Revised Career Awareness Survey" (McMahon & Patton, 2001). Australian and New…

How does one effectively and ethically conduct research with community members who are steeped in histories of economic and social dependency, so that the people themselves take charge of their futures? This question is explored in a Canadian context as the authors study the potential of new technologies to bring hope to traditional coastal…

A case example is used to illustrate ways of adapting service provision for a range of difficulties to suit a person with learning disabilities and also where there may be limited access due to a remote and rural location.

This article identifies problems, issues and insights through critical reflection on the rules, written and unwritten, which encroach on the research process in the "Both Ways" project. The project investigates the development and sustainability of remote Aboriginal children's services in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia.…

I present a case study of the influence of rurality and a sense of place on leaders' beliefs about purposes of local schooling and their concomitant theories of action in one rural school district. Interview data show that despite their portrayal of life in the valley as a privilege, most leaders viewed their place as presenting more problems than…

Leaders of programs serving rural America need to act strategically to ensure the long-term success of their initiatives. This strategy brief describes the funding landscape of rural programs and highlights the unique challenges confronting rural program leaders. It describes the different public and private resources that can support…

Reviews lessons learned from research in Antarctica with relevance to understanding human behavior in other isolated and confined environments. Outlines four distinct characteristics of psychosocial adaptation to such environments and discusses some of the benefits for individuals seeking challenging experiences. (Contains references.) (SLD)