Not texting in class? You’d better get started

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/03/2011 (5313 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hey, guy in the back row, pay attention and start texting in class.

You, the girl in the third row, get busy surfing the web.

Huh?

Dakota Collegiate believes it will be pioneering a Manitoba first in September when it requires every Grade 9 student to come to class with a personal electronic device and be wired into the Internet.

“This is exciting for us,” said Louis Riel School Division’s superintendent Tery Borys, whose staff studied similar projects in Edmonton and the Eastern Townships of Quebec before selling trustees on the idea. “I don’t think this exists anywhere in Manitoba.”

“We want to empower students, to start using technology as a tool,” said Brad Biehn, LRSD’s director of information systems. “Ideally, this is how school will look in five to 10 years.”

The Student-Owned Technology One-to-One High School Pilot Program for Dakota Collegiate would see each Grade 9 student bring his or her own personal laptop, handheld device or other Internet-ready gizmo to school each day and use it in class.

The division has been testing the concept with older students in Archwood, Marion, Victor Mager and Lavallee schools. Biehn said LRSD wants students to grab the present and the future by learning how best to use the tools they’ll use in their careers and personal lives.

Biehn said teachers and students can use email to pass notes, information, and assignments back and forth easily. “It’s certainly a lot easier to edit on the computer.”We’ve reached the tipping point now with the i-Pad, Apple and other devices coming down. These tools are everywhere — you can’t go anywhere that you don’t have connectivity. Nobody teaches how to use social networks,” Biehn said.

Biehn said limiting online school time to the computer lab, or expecting kids to share the handful of terminals in a classroom, just doesn’t cut it.

“It’s like trying to teach science with one microscope — we’re giving every student a microscope.”

That doesn’t mean the web is wide open in the school, he pointed out. The division will still decide which sites a student can access within the school.

“We’ll continue to block some sites. As maturity moves along” Dakota will open up more sites to the students, he said. “We’re certainly not going to go 100 per cent technology,” Biehn said. “We don’t want to ever completely remove kids from books.”

The Edmonton schools found student engagement is higher and students are more collaborative when they’re online at their desks, Biehn said.

Some tests will still be done with pen and paper, with no electronics available.

Borys said the overall response from parents has been very positive.

Students are expected to pay for their own device, Borys said, but the division has funding available if families need help. He expected students could equip themselves for about $200 — the division is contacting local retailers about bulk buying.

Having a laptop or handheld would cut other costs, such as calculators and notebooks, Borys pointed out.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca