Internet opens remote areas to new learning opportunities
Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (May 07/01) - The Government of the Northwest Territories is investing millions on a compter network that administrators say will deliver enhanced education opportunities to isolated Northern communities. It will save money, but it won't replace teachers or the classroom, they say.
Today's Nintendo generation is "lapping up," courses offered by computer, according to Jane Peart, Computer Systems Manager for the Education Department.
A wide palette of courses is available, from math to English, and even phys-ed. For now the courses are aimed at secondary school students, but the department also has senior citizens and elementary students in its sights.
Most courses are on a well-regarded website run by the Calgary Board of Education. Elliott illustrates the opportunity for cost savings:
"If there are two students in Inuvik wanting to take physics, it would be really foolish to hire a $75,000 a year teacher, when we could do that course very easily from Calgary and that's exactly what we would do."
Distance Education has been around for a long time in the form of correspondence courses.
Paddy Elliott, the Education Department's operations coordinator, said that no more than 15 per cent of students pass old-fashioned, snail mail courses.
With those, teachers are not always available but with computers "feedback is immediate. If a person always knows how well they're doing it while they're doing it, it's a motivator."
The territory has trained 30 teachers to be "facilitators" who help the kids study on-line. So far, 336 NWT students have learned on-line in an experiment. Over 200 of those were internet familiarization courses, and 76 were for full school credits.
Administrators are enthusiastic about delivering distance education via the internet, but teachers and their union leaders are cautious.
"Generally the experience has been when you introduce technology, it doesn't mean you'll need fewer teachers," says Julius Buski, Secretary-General of the Canadian Teacher's Federation.
He points to the downside of learning by computer: without classrooms, "you lose the human touch and the ability to guide the student." He adds that schools are very important to a child's "socialization process."
Elliott counters teachers' concerns by pointing out regular school settings are not for everyone, and it will be easier for single parents to take courses offered on-line.
At the same time he says GNWT is "very sensitive" to the fear of brick and mortar schools being by replaced computers.
"That's not the way to go. The face to face aspect of education is so crucially important," Elliott said.
On the Hay River Reserve, students at the Chief Sunrise Education Centre can choose between computer-based or regular classroom learning.
Principal William Kaulback said 20 students there have taken at least one course on-line, and have discovered that it isn't for everyone.
"You have to be a pretty independent worker and be able to budget your time well," he said.
"If the student is not motivated or organized or you don't have a teacher on their back, there's more chance of failure."
A few students are simply "not comfortable" with the computer format.
Sometimes it's the same students who don't fit into classroom settings, but Kaulback is happy he can offer the on-line option.
Not many families in remote communities own home computers, and the on-line courses are all offered
in schools. Most are well equipped with computers, and all 51 schools in NWT have internet hookups.
Elliott would like schools to loan laptops so more students could learn on-line at home.
"But they have to have an internet hookup."
The biggest education issue in Northern communities is lack of basic reading and writing skills. A literacy worker said people who have never used a computer won't easily learn how to read and write on one.
Cate Sills, NWT Literacy Council executive director, said the prospect of the uneducated being left even further behind by the emphasis on computer-based learning "is a concern shared by literacy organizations across the country."
The GNWT is working on computer programs for the on-line learning network aimed at helping teach basic reading and writing, said Jacqueline Burless, distance learning systems officer for the education department.
Using the network for education hinges on making computers accessible. All NWT schools and justice
facilities have them, but 17 NWT communities have no public library, the internet's main point of free access.
The GNWT hopes to get more computers from Microsoft founder Bill Gates' charitable foundation.
Last year the foundation made a $323,000 contribution toward library computers in the North.
