Online Democratic Schooling, Interested Anyone?

Hi,

i'm wondering if anyone is interested in pursuing the possibility of an
online democratic school. I've worked at an online school for 2 1/2 years. I
would like to discuss this possibility with interested people- parents,
students, possible staff members. I termed it democratic rather than a Sudbury
school because it would be different- no building, etc. But I would like to
keep the democratic foundation, exploring what could be done democratically
online.

Here are some possible ideas:
-National school, but with local groups - the local groups meet in person
periodically and get to know each other (in our school we have monthly field
trips, but I don't know how often these local groups would meet).
-Daily online group meetings- regional, probably, at a time the group agrees
on. There are programs like Elluminate where people can talk by mic, use
webcams if they want, and share a whiteboard and presentations.
-The school would hire experts in areas students are interested in
(decisions made by participants) , and those experts can hold online classes or
tutoring sessions, complete with powerpoints, shared whiteboards, etc. I ve even
been teaching Specail Education online, teaching basic reading, writing, and
math. "Normal" online schools just post reading assignments and tests
online. But ours might have a larger synchronous- (online at the same time)
component - to keep the personal touch available.
-Students could also do their own projects at home and in the community. If
they want help in designing projects or finding resources the school staff
would be available to help and support them. Students could also share
videos, powerpoints, and other results of their projects online to other staff and
students if they wanted to (not mandatory)
Not sure of the ages:Young children probably couldn't supervise themselves
at home alone, so this might be some kind of combo with homeschooling if young
ones were included. But probably by grade 5 or 6 until grade 12 students
could be involved independently


Info meeting online:
I have an "office" on Elluminate through my present online school. I would
like to host an online meeting sometime in October or November for anyone
interested in seeing an online school and discussing this possibility.

Contact me:
_wsdmnature@ gmail.com_ (mailto:wsdmnature@gmail. com)

Best wishes,
Karen