The British Columbia Distributed Learning Administrators’ Association

The British Columbia Distributed Learning Administrators’ Association

The British Columbia Distributed Learning Administrators’ Association (BCDLAA) is a relatively new organization. It was established in the fall of 2010 at the annual Distributed Learning Administrators’ meeting sponsored by the British Columbia Ministry of Education.

The BCDLAA was conceived as an organization whose purpose is “to coordinate and promote the interests of Public Distributed Learning in the province of British Columbia in all its facets” (BCDLAA Constitution, 2011).

Membership in the BCDLAA is open to all public school districts, which include distributed learning schools within their ranks. The administrators of said schools are eligible for individual membership in the Association. Specific projects of the BCDLAA have included:

• Co-hosting the British Columbia Distributed Learning Spring Conference
• Attracting delegates and presenters from British Columbia and beyond
• Co-hosting various provincial meetings
• Advising the Ministry of Education on a number of policy and legislative initiatives
• Participating in a variety of meetings to discuss the provincial Education Compliance Audit programme
• Representing British Columbia’s distributed learning community at various national and international conferences and meetings.

Distributed Learning in British Columbia is an ever-evolving field, both from the perspective of best practice and from the perspective of governing policies as established by the British Columbia Ministry of Education. The BCDLAA serves as a vehicle through which new and experienced administrators can pose their questions about policy and share ideas about best practice in annual face-to-face meetings, in monthly online meetings and via the BCDLAA website’s discussion forums (http://bcdlaa.ca). There are also opportunities for discussion about what role distributed learning will play within the context of the British Columbia Education Plan. As “flipped classrooms” and “blended learning” become more mainstream and as the focus on trades education and secondary/post-secondary partnerships takes a more prominent place in the educational landscape, distributed learning is uniquely positioned to support colleagues in neighbourhood schools and to provide students with a myriad of opportunities. The BCDLAA is committed to supporting distributed learning administrators as they navigate new waters and to providing educational leadership to the dedicated distributed learning teachers in British Columbia.