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....anyone … anywhere … anytime with Laurie Hogle!

The students arrived at Richland High School at 4 a.m. to watch gorillas feeding near a Rwanda camp. Through the course of the videoconference, they heard from youngsters their own age discuss genocide. 

“Many of these students had witnessed family members that were taken from their homes and killed,” Laurie Hogle said. “They shared stories and cultures and even saw gorillas in their natural habitat.”

Hogle serves as a distance learning specialist for Region XI. She is TxDLA’s president-elect and will coordinate the 2007 conference. During her seven years as an educational consultant, the Rwanda videoconference was a moment that convinced her of the value of distance learning. 

“It was extremely moving and was an experience that our students would never have had without the technology,” Hogle said.

As an advocate for expanding technology in public education, Hogle said distance learning broadens resources and creates opportunities to be more collaborative. She credits the natural drive in teachers to be clever and creative along with those who plant the seeds for growing interest in this field of work.

“Moving beyond the textbook is difficult and this allows them to connect with experts, expand their curriculum and make the learning student-centered instead of teacher-centered,” Hogle said.

Hogle has noticed that teachers are not as intimidated by the technology, especially as they see the possibilities these tools have to eliminate boundaries.

“With the proper technical support, they can focus on the instructional value of the tools and not have to worry with how it works,” Hogle said. 

Technical support is key to the success of district goals to implement distance learning, Hogle has observed. She would advise public school administrators to find the money and provide the technical assistance to improve access. The technology department needs to be “on your side,” she said and willing to open up the network, install software, and provide services so the technology works seamlessly.

“If the technicians are not happy, they can stop any progress you hope to make,” Hogle said.

Prior to working with the service center, Hogle taught middle school science for 11 years. Her last year she taught computer literacy and rather “fell into technology.” Hogle first attended a TxDLA conference six years ago. She started to get involved in leadership and served as entertainment chair in 2002 and treasurer in 2003. She has been track chair and helped edit the program guide for several conferences. As president-elect she hopes to show more people the value of networking with TxDLA members.

“There is a wealth of expertise and many of those ‘in the trenches’ will benefit greatly from sharing and learning from others,” she said. “My hope is that distance learning becomes the norm and much more mainstream and that will take getting the word out, especially in the K-12 constituency.”

Contributed by Cheryl LaRue, North Lamar ISD