They're connected, but are they learning? - computer instruction in Canada's schools

UNESCO Courier, March, 2001 by Sean Fine

Canada's ambitious vision of computer learning has made it one of the most connected nations on Earth. But in the country's classrooms, teachers are not getting the help they need to make the most of new technology

At Toronto's Holy Family Catholic Elementary school, grade eight teacher Irene Korbabicz-Putko yearns to help her students-make the most of computers. Her school instruction to the board offers teachers, but in a suburb a good 45 minute-drive away in rush hour. Not surprisingly, Ms. Korbabicz-Putko sometimes has other commitments.

Halfway across the country, at Calgary's Glendale Elementary School, the local school board has received funding not only for on-site teacher training but for an innovative programme that sends experts in computer education into classrooms to serve as mentors to the teachers.

Schools like Glendale are finding that new technology holds extraordinary promise. But Canada's experience with computers is very much a tale of two schools. Holy Family, for instance, has just one computer connected to the Internet for 600 students from kindergarten to grade eight. Glendale has several per classroom. Nationwide, the computer revolution is still in its early stages.

"Clearly we're in pioneering days," says Richard Smith, the director of Simon Fraser University's Centre for Policy Research on Science and Technology, who is studying the introduction of computers into the country's classrooms. "There will be missteps and mistakes made, but something is changing in education and clearly computers are part of it."

Back in 1994, Canada set a goal of having a computer connected to the Internet in every school and library. Federal politicians felt that for Canada to thrive, it must move beyond its traditional resource-based economy and prepare its young people for the knowledge-based world. By 1999, the country could boast that it was the first to hook up every willing school and library to the Internet. Only Sweden has a higher percentage of its students logging on at school.

But education in Canada remains the responsibility of the provinces. Each one has its own education budget to allocate. And each has its own views on how and when to integrate computers into the curriculum. In Alberta, for instance, computers are integrated in grade one, while in Ontario they are not generally given that kind of prominence until as late as grade seven. Alberta, after years of squeezing the schools for money, is now making extra funds available for innovation, and Calgary's school board has been quite bold in tapping into those funds. The Galileo Educational Network is one of its innovative projects designed to bring schools into the age of the knowledge-based economy.

Explore and discover

The three-year project, funded by $600,000 from the province and matching funds from industry, is in place in ten schools, including Glendale Elementary. The idea is that teachers learn to use computers not only as a means of instruction, but as a tool for changing the very nature of the classroom. "Schools are setup on the industrial model. Children are educated to be workers for industry," says Pat Clifford, the president of Galileo. "They learn very early on the virtues of compliance. They are moved on every year. The learning is very structured and hierarchical."

Now, she says, students must take more responsibility for their own learning, with the teacher acting as a guide and facilitator. But it is unrealistic to expect that teachers can do this alone. The Galileo programme works closely with school principals and the local school boards, and allows teachers to take time off to chart out new approaches. When given this support, teachers can afford to confidently test out different ways. Susan Marinucci, a Grade Five teacher at Glendale Elementary, has woven computers into projects involving team work and real-life situations. When I recently visited the school, her 28 students were enthusiastically involved in a math and chemistry project. With their teacher's help, they had made soap and were discussing the best price to sell it at. The whole exercise had involved searching for recipes and pricing information on the Internet. In another class, younger students had to imagine they were on a desert island and design survival tools with very few resources at hand. Ag ain, with the teacher's help, they drew some inspiration from pictures of tools found on the Internet.

These fledgling efforts reflect Smith's vision of computers as "providing an opportunity to engage students in a new style of learning--the explore and discover style." This includes opening up connections to new people and information sources. For Marinucci, the prime benefit is obvious: "we're connected to the world," she asserts.

An end to the sage?

Connection, so far, is probably the key word to describe a flurry of initiatives across the country, inside and outside the classroom. The Writers in Electronic Residence programme, for instance, connects budding student-writers at several schools to far-off professional authors who act as readers and mentors. In the eastern province of New Brunswick, a programme keeps teenage mothers in electronic contact with their schools after they give birth. In numerous schools, students are developing CD-ROMs documenting environmental and heritage issues, creating web pages and producing online magazines. Through its SchoolNet programme, the government works with the private sector and education groups to finance and promote these innovations.