Feature Article October 16, 2002
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Technology Program succeeds; but where is the funding?by Jeff Green (Two days after being interviewed for this article, SHS teacher Dick Hopkins died of a heart attack. See "Sadness at the passing of a great teacher") As reported in The News on Oct. 2, the Technology Program at Sydenham High School (SHS) has won a Canadian Information Productivity Award. The award doesn't bring any money with it. Dick Hopkins, who was to receive the award along with his colleague Brian Rombough, said that it would just pay for their trip to Toronto for the ceremony. It is recognition, however, of the work the two teachers had been doing on a voluntary basis over the past two years. Dick said, "The internet had been promoted as a potential educational tool for several years, but nothing seemed to be coming of it locally. Two years ago we started trying to develop pilot projects to explore how the internet can be used as a teaching tool. We have been doing this at the school but we would like to see the initiative move to the board level." The E-Learning centre at SHS doesn't have a physical space; it exists in the heads of those who work on it, and is ongoing at any time at any one of the four computer labs in the school. Hopkins explained that of the 40 or 50 teachers in the school, 20 or so were doing some sort of E-Teaching. One of the projects at SHS is the Rural Virtual School, which is offering Geography and World History this semester, and will be making further offerings next semester. Through this program, students get a code and then go to the school's website and start working on the course. The instructors check in with the students on a regular basis, effectively communicating one-to-one most of the time. "The same teaching principles apply whether a teacher is in front of a classroom or working with a student through the Internet," said Hopkins. One of the elements slowing down the development of online courses is the work required to write them. Courses are written by teachers on a contract basis, outside of their regular teaching time, and this work must be funded. Once written, the courses can then be modified by individual instructors for their own use. The online courses from SHS are available to any student in the Limestone Board, benefiting rural students who cannot get the course they need at their own location. It also helps those who cannot attend regular classes because they are working, or cannot get to a school for health or distance reasons. Another aspect of the SHS Technology Program is robotics. Students at the school built four robots last year, the last of which competed in an event in Kitchener and did well. Another service, the Edu-net program uses the school website to make resources available to help students improve their reading levels as they prepare for the provincial literacy test. This year, the Technology Program, with the aid of the Cataraqui Golf Club charity, has been able to equip three classrooms with computers and cameras in order to offer classroom courses for Andrew McPherson of Kingston, who has a major Latex allergy and cannot attend school. By virtue of this technology, he can participate in classroom life from his home computer, which has also been equipped with a camera. Many of the projects that have been undertaken at SHS have been funded by sources outside of the school board, with Rombough and Hopkins acting as voluntary fundraisers. They put a lot of effort and enthusiasm into the Technology Program, and Hopkins said that they had nothing but support from senior school administration, and verbal encouragement from the school board. What they had not received was any funding. Throughout the past two years they both maintained regular teaching loads. With the recognition that came with this award, Hopkins had hoped that the Limestone Board would see the value in what is going on, and some of his and Brian Rombough's paid time could be devoted to these ongoing technology-related projects.