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Dakota Collegiate ramps up e-learning

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 08/16/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

There'll be even fewer pencils and Duo-Tangs at Dakota Collegiate this year -- the move to electronic learning is becoming permanent.

Last year's pilot project requiring every Grade 9 student at Dakota to have a laptop or similar device is expanding next month, to both last year's students now going into Grade 10 and to the incoming Grade 9 class.

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And that will continue each year until all grades at Dakota are learning on laptops.

And other schools in the division may follow in the future.

"We are looking at further expansion, but there won't be further expansion in other high schools this year," said Louis Riel School Division superintendent Terry Borys.

Dakota piloted the 21st Century Learning Project last year, and it was success, said Borys.

"The intent was to support young people with ethical, appropriate, and responsible use of technology in the learning environment," he said. Borys said it is antiquated to write notes when students spend so much time online. So much information "is right there at your fingertips," he said.

Students learn to "sift through what is fact, information, and what is blatantly stupid" on the Internet. They file essays and written assignments online.

All school divisions control which sites students and staff can access within schools -- the Dakota students can't get on Facebook and other social sites, or inappropriate sites, Borys said.

When LRSD first brought up the idea a year and a half ago, parental response was mixed, he acknowledged. But this year's incoming Grade 9 families were far more positive about the plan, Borys said.

The division has lined up "community supporters" who will help out families who can't afford a laptop, he said.

The day has come when a school's use of electronic learning should go far beyond having a single computer room with 25 or so machines, Borys said.

The division also has a program providing laptops for in-school use to students in lower grades in four lower-income neighbourhoods, including Archwood, Marion, Lavallee and Victor Mager schools, he said.

"Each student in grades 4 to 8 has a laptop provided by the school board. They don't go home," he said.

Borys said officials from other divisions have talked to LRSD about the Dakota project, but there is no sign yet of any city division duplicating the fledgling program.

In Seven Oaks, "We do not require any students to bring laptops and have no plans to do so," said superintendent Brian O'Leary. "We are working to improve our bandwidth so that we might support students who do bring their own devices. To institute a mandatory bring-your-own-device initiative, we would need to find a way to make it accessible and affordable for all students."

St. James-Assiniboia has no plans, said superintendent Ron Weston: "It's not something we contemplate at this time."

Pembina Trails doesn't plan to implement the LRSD project, said superintendent Lawrence Lussier, but, "We have been working on having enterprise wireless in all our schools... serviced schools have taken steps toward a bring-your-own-device strategy."

Winnipeg Scchool Division has no immediate plans in this area.

-- Nick Martin

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