To alleviate the dire shortage of special education teachers in rural areas, teacher preparation programs must address the teaching requirements and environments in rural schools and encourage student teaching experiences in such settings. Long commutes to remote sites present obstacles to the frequent supervision of the student teachers. Today, technology enables such placements and faculty supervision via two-way, live, audio, and visual communication. In this article, we describe one university's efforts to supervise student teachers, utilizing a distance education system known as GSAMS (Georgia Statewide Academic and Medical System). The costs, technical aspects, and processes are discussed. Results show that the North Georgia College and State University's method provides benefits to the pre-service teacher, to the university supervisor, to the cooperating teacher, and to the school district.
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