The Foreign Service Journal, June 2012

64 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U N E 2 0 1 2 S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT University has reported extensively on her experience using telerehabili- tation with a pediatric population in Kentucky. Through the use of video- conferencing, she was able to pro- vide effective help on a regular basis to children who had only been receiving occupational therapy on a monthly basis due to the remoteness of their location. As stated earlier, speech therapy is the most widely available online ser- vice today. In 2007, the Ohio Master’s Network Initiatives in Education, Speech-Language Pathology & Edu- cational Audiology project launch- ed a program to determine the effica- cy of delivering speech therapy via telepractice. The program, designed in response to the shortage of speech pathologists in the state, began with 30 students and grew to 190 in five years. The results have been overwhelmingly positive, with children, speech thera- pists and parents reporting that they are happy and satisfied. My Experience My own venture into telepractice began two years ago, when my hus- band’s posting in Brazil came to an end, and I faced leaving behind yet another private practice in speech therapy. I’d heard of online therapy companies, but never gave them any The Employee Consultative Services also accepts telepractice as a means to fulfill the special education needs of dependents going abroad. J ust as today’s Foreign Service families cannot imagine how their predecessors lived without the Internet, we may soon be wondering how we ever got along without online education. Distance learning, as it is sometimes called, offers an unparalleled oppor- tunity for FS family members to target and tailor their educational needs to their cir- cumstances. Last year nearly five million students took at least one online course from a degree- granting institution of higher education in the United States. The technology for deliv- ering online courses and degree programs is rapidly growing more sophisticated. Professors are becoming more adept at teaching online. And most propitious of all, postsecondary institutions are passionate about the opportunity to present educational opportunities to a global “campus.” Universities offer online undergraduate degrees in nearly every possible topic — from interior design to accounting. Online master’s degrees cover the fields of business, health care, management, government, human services, legal studies, education and information technology. Online doctorate programs include education, public policy, business admin- istration, religion — and more. In fact, the plethora of opportunities for online students means that the buyer must beware. The online student must identify his or her educational goals clearly — a degree? a postgraduate degree? a certificate? continuing education credits? — and then carefully choose the appropriate institution and program. This is excerpted from the article of the same title by Kristi Streiffert, a Foreign Service spouse and freelance writer, that was published in the June 2010 issue of the Foreign Service Journal. The complete article can be accessed online at www.afsa.org/fsj. F ROM THE J UNE 2010 FSJ S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT Online Education: Unprecedented Opportunities