Sun West Distance Learning Centre

February 2009 by ML Whittles and Darren Gasper

Have you ever thought, “If I could start my life all over again, knowing what I know now, I would do things differently.” Well, if I could start all over again, it would be as a high school student in Kenaston, or any school for that matter within the Sun West School Division.

Technology is rapidly changing every aspect of our lives and it has hit the Sun West School Division big time.

Commencing with the Fall semester of 2008, the Kenaston School expanded its role as an educating institution by taking on the role as the Sun West Distance Learning Centre. Both print based correspondence courses as well as online broadcasts of live classes are available to students within the Division.

For years the correspondence school has been run out of Regina but come June 2009 this will come to an end. Students will still require these courses and the Board of the Sun West School Division began looking for a solution earlier opposed to later. Initially proposed by Ralph Eliasson, the former Superintendant, a model of instruction was included that met the diverse set of needs for the students of Sun West. The program is currently supervised by Tony Baldwin, the new Superintendant for the area and Darren Gasper, principal of the Kenaston School.

It’s all good, but what caught my eye and made me sit up straight was the SmartBoard. Gone are the days of ‘blackboards’, chalk and chalk dust. Walking into the classroom, a large white board is affixed over the old blackboard. A switch is turned on and the SmartBoard turns into an interactive computer. In the second semester, students in Eatonia, Lucky Lake, Elrose, Beechy, Lorenburn and Margeno are included in classes broadcast out of the Kenaston School, via a SmartBoard with audio/video feed. The courses allow for continuous feedback between the receiving schools and the host so students can ask questions at any time. The courses are also made available on the Internet using a hosting program called Moodle. This allows the students to access the course notes, assignments and related instruction at anytime and from anywhere with Internet access. The Information Processing 10 course is currently being delivered in this format and students can often be found completing and submitting assignments in the evening or on the weekends. Plans are also in place to record all of the lessons and make them available to the students as well for use as review or for students who are absent on the day of instruction and can then get caught up in their courses. Grades are also available within Moodle which allow students to check their standing on a regular basis. This feature also allows parents to check on their grades for those courses at anytime.

As the technology available changes, the ability of distance courses to become more interactive with their students also increases. The Smartboards allow students in each of the receiving schools to view the instructional material that is displayed on Kenaston's smartboard and they can share information back and forth quickly. Students can write a math question for example on their smartboard and have the teacher in Kenaston walk through the question and explain how to solve it. They can also highlight key points, show instructional videos and basically anything else that is done in a regular classroom. Document cameras allow science teachers to broadcast dissections, petri dish labs and other small activities and then display them in full screen size for better student viewing and understanding. Writeable tablets allow students to write in questions or answers and display them on the smartboard in any location as well. Computer lab software allows the teacher to view all computer stations at one time, track their activity or web logs, take over the function of any computer from a remote site to explain a question or demonstrate how to complete a task. All of these abilities act as tools for the teacher to enhance their instruction. In the Distance Education world, they allow for the quality of instruction to remain very high and have a good level of interaction between the teacher and students.

As the Distance Learning Centre grows, the number of available courses will also expand over the years. This current school year sees 12 courses being broadcast, while the next year will see an increase up to 20 courses. The third year of the existing plan will see that number rise to 36 available courses. This list of courses will include many of the core classes such as Math, English and the Sciences, but will also include many interesting option courses such as Psychology, Law, Media Studies, Forensic Sciences, Tourism and many others are possible depending on student needs and interests. This diverse set of option courses makes the Sun West model unique across the province and provides programming to students across the division that may not normally have been available.

As declining student enrollments impact rural schools, distance education courses can help by supplementing their programming and provide those unique learning opportunities in courses normally only offered at larger schools. This enables small schools to maintain a wide range of programming and integrate technology to prepare their students for the changing world they will be moving into. A number of universities utilize distance learning courses and Internet based programs such as Moodle to host their courses, so exposure to it will help students of Sun West transition into post-secondary plans.