Many educators are aware of changes taking place in educational systems as computers, the Internet, interactive television, satellite dishes and an ever expanding range of software provide new and often exciting ways of bringing teachers and learners together. The development and convergence of information and communication technologies provides opportunities for leaders in education to organize inter-school networks, collaborate with one another and administer schools in new ways. This has been particularly important in rural areas with very small schools. The viability of small schools has been the subject of debate in both Canada and New Zealand and the provision of education to rural communities has, accordingly, been a policy issue in both societies. The 'cost effectiveness' of small schools (Bray, 1987) has to be considered in relation to the issue of equity if young people are not to be disadvantaged by the location of their homes.

The following observations are from the author's recent experience working with several regional telelearning networks in New Zealand. Most of the issues raised are relevant to electronic networks that link schools in other parts of the world, while others are peculiar to the unusually deregulated and decentralized system of education in New Zealand.

Telelearning was adopted in many rural areas of New Zealand as a means of keeping schools open in small and isolated communities. By sharing teaching and learning resources through the electronic networking of small schools over wide geographic areas, many small schools have become, in effect, constituent parts of a large school (Stevens, 1995b). In the process, many learners in rural areas are provided with a considerably enlarged range of curriculum choices as well as extended on-line peer groups. In a report on the development of rural school networking (Stevens, 1995a) it was noted that leadership by Principals who recognized the potential of new technologies in classrooms is critical to the survival of many small schools.

The academic and administrative interfacing of schools into local, provincial and even national networks using audiographic and video technologies, satellite dishes, the internet and interactive television is changing the way in which education in whole regions of New Zealand is organized. The networking of small schools on dispersed sites into virtual classes has the potential to provide rural students with access to an increased range of teaching expertise and with learning environments comparable to those available to their peers in large urban institutions. According to Tiffin and Rajasingham (1995), a virtual class is "where two or more people can come together as telepresences for instruction." This involves a situation " where everyone can talk and be heard and be identified and everybody can see the same words, diagrams and pictures, at the same time. This calls for the use of telecommunications and computers. At its simplest, it can be done using two conventional tele phone lines at each site, one to link telephones and one to link computers."

Schools that are networking with one another and thereby providing a basis for virtual classes to develop, use computers and other technologies as integral parts of the day to day life of both teachers and learners. By integrating information and communication technologies in classrooms and by applying these to the development of educational networks, schools can provide students and teachers with access to non-local industrial and commercial environments. Links with industry, commerce, polytechnics and community colleges considerably extend the scope of the education that young people, particularly those in rural areas, can experience from their schools. These technological developments provide students with expanded horizons when considering their educational and vocational futures. The introduction of computers, the internet, email and, in some schools, satellite dishes, to develop virtual classrooms covering dispersed sites has the potential to redefine the ways in which teachers and learners interact. Within a virtual class there may be more than one teacher with a telepresence at a particular time. Decision making, teaching-styles and inter-personal relations are much more public in electronically-networked classes than they are in conventional classrooms and for some teachers this may initially be threatening. For other teachers, new communication technologies are liberating as they have their skills exposed to an expanded audience. Virtual classes can be a vehicle for professional and public recognition.

There are a number of leadership issues in the interfacing of schools and the development of virtual classes. As one school culture meets other school cultures in the academic and administrative interface of the virtual class, leaders have to be particularly sensitive to potentially competing agendas. In networks that have been developed in schools across rural New Zealand, for example, it has been necessary to have a hub school as the administrative, technological and curriculum centre. Not all teachers want to teach on-line and school leaders will recognize that some teachers will adapt to the emerging tele-environment more readily than others. Tele-teaching is essentially collaborative when provided within school networks and, for this to succeed, a well-developed inter-school framework is most important.

In a one-room, usually rural school, consisting of a single class of less than twenty students under the care of one teacher, we are likely to find a complex educational environment. Learners in a one room small rural school, however, unlike their counterparts in other educational institutions, usually range widely in age and in educational level while all sharing the same space. It requires considerable organizational and pedagogical skill of the teacher if all students are to receive educational opportunities equal to those of their urban counterparts who are educated in much larger institutions where they will share classrooms with a cohort of peers of approximately their own ages.

It is not necessarily appropriate for all students in a one-room school to participate in the same lesson with their teacher. It is sometimes appropriate for certain students to take time out, without leaving their classroom, if they have access to a computer that is attached to a network which will provide them with access to classes in other schools. It is possible for a small, geographically isolated and diverse grouping of students to be together in a single classroom under the direction of one teacher while participating in a range of other classrooms simultaneously, none of which is necessarily located in the student's own district. Through judicious application of modern information and communication technologies, teaching and learning can be increasingly individualized and the educational significance of the location of the student's home and size of his or her school becomes unimportant. This, however, requires a considerable measure of organizational skill.

In some of the very smallest schools, teachers have developed organizational and teaching skills with direct application to networked, on-line learning. For many years teachers in these schools have taught students of different ages, with varying levels of academic achievement, different learning styles and different levels of interest in what is presented to them, within one room. The study of multi-grade classrooms (e.g. Mulcahy, 1993) has particular relevance to rural school teleteaching and telelearning.

As an increasing range of technologies becomes available, some teachers recognize the possibility of combining traditional face-to-face teaching and on-line learning in the course of a school day. In New Zealand, some teachers in rural networked schools initially attempted to teach in a traditional classroom fashion when their class was 'on-line' with other schools. A common problem was talking on-line as though they were in front of their traditional classes, something that was not always appreciated by distant learners. Questioning skills become particularly important in the course of an on-line lesson to ensure participation by all students. A degree of independence in a student's learning is required when on-line, including the ability to work without a teacher in the same room.

At present many teachers require assistance in preparing learning resources in ways that are suitable for delivery to students across electronic networks. There are a number of questions to be considered by educational leaders: How is the curriculum to be developed in a multi-media format? Is teaching across networks to be made available to all students in secondary schools or just senior students? How should professional development be provided for teachers within an electronic school network?

Positive outcomes have been found by some rural networked schools in terms of increased student motivation when learning is provided by audiographic technology (Stevens, 1995a). The student's need to concentrate very closely on the audio-graphic lesson as it is taking place to fully participate in it was noted by some principals. Students cannot anticipate when they would be asked a question on-line and, accordingly, usually came to these classes very well prepared. Particularly positive outcomes were reported in the learning of other languages using audio-graphic technology, including Maori.

There is considerable scope in the development of rural school networking for the provision of individualized learning programs for students. However, as one skilled on-line teacher pointed out to the writer, "it is what goes on in the head of the teacher that matters." The teacher is the essential resource base of a successful lesson taught over any electronic network linking schools.

There can be considerable expense involved in maintaining hardware, including the costs of repairs, on-line time, preparation time, 'down time', staff training time as well as the cost of software. Not all schools in New Zealand have computers that can be dedicated to audiographic teaching, an issue that is symptomatic of the bigger problem of the co-ordination of hardware and software across all institutions participating in an electronic network. The abolition of regional school boards in New Zealand has not helped in the development of school networks. Many regional networks began to take shape before the need for inter-school co-ordination of hardware and software was fully appreciated. The constant changes in the design of hardware and software and the need for continuous upgrading is now recognized by networked schools as a shared cost. "Bulk buying" for a network rather than for an individual school is now widely accepted by principals, as is the need for a close relationship with the suppliers of technology to obtain expert advice and support.

It is often difficult to coordinate the timetables of schools across a network and, accordingly, a considerable measure of inter-institutional and intra-institutional cooperation is required. Much of the success of rural school networks to the present time has depended on the goodwill and enthusiasm of participating teachers and principals. In an educational system in which educational institutions often compete with one another for students, many small rural networked schools have developed collaborative teaching and administration structures. Rural school networks in New Zealand have, remarkably, developed in the absence of any national program to support them.

At present small rural schools that are networked are providing a model for teaching, learning and the delivery of the curriculum that makes considerable use of new technologies. The advent of electronic networking of schools has encouraged a view of the school that is academically and administratively open to other schools. In many parts of rural New Zealand, communities have schools which are, in effect, sites within teaching and learning networks. Some parts of a small rural school, such as the teachers of subjects not provided locally, may be located in widely dispersed locations. Many of the students in a networked rural school in a particular location attend only 'on-line' - as tele-presences for part of a day.

School networks are ceasing to be regional in nature as telephone costs are reduced. Increasingly, regional networks share resources with one another and links have been forged with other educational institutions - community colleges, polytechnics and selected large urban schools. The management of tele-learning in New Zealand has been critical to the survival of many small schools in rural communities. In the struggle to keep small schools open in many parts of the country, a new phenomenon has been created - the virtual class.

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