Global Reach:
Drawing world-wide experince into the classroom

by Chris Thatcher

Alberta’s ministry of education has found an intriguing way to tap the expertise of the private and public sectors – to the benefit of students, parents and teachers. Through an online venture, LearnAlberta. ca, the ministry offers curriculum-based, interactive digital resources on everything from languages to math, social studies and sciences, all developed or acquired through a series of innovative approaches. And unlike many such arrangements where access is restricted to the classroom, Alberta is able to provide password-protected access at home.

“We always want to start with the learning outcome and then look at how increasing access to technology assists students, parents and teachers to effectively meet students’ learning needs,” said Lois Hawkins, assistant deputy minister and CIO of the Information and Strategic Services Division of Alberta Education.

LearnAlberta.ca, developed over the past five years by a team of in-house staff and external contractors, consulting with teachers on content development, aligns digital learning objects to Alberta’s curriculum, by grade and subject.

“For some students, it’s very difficult to understand scientific concepts without interacting with the material. For example, we have one piece on ‘circular motion and gravitation’. Students can see the mathematical equation and then adjust the three variables of speed, friction and bank angle and actually see what happens to a car on a racetrack depending on the relationship of the variables. With this opportunity, a teacher has a new way of presenting ideas to students.”

Among the more innovative agreements to support LearnAlberta.ca is a memorandum of understanding with Australia capitalizing on commonalities – a strategic perspective to integration of learning technology, small populations over a large area, immigrant populations with specific needs, aboriginal communities without ready access to learning opportunities or new technologies – to create or share digital materials of mutual interest. “There is a lot we can learn together in some of those areas,” Hawkins said.

To expand French content, the ministry struck a deal with New Brunswick to translate and contextualize some of Alberta’s digital objects in exchange for use of the material. And it signed an agreement with National Geographic to access video and a vast array of photographic images aligned with the province’s curriculum. Alberta also negotiated with Cervantes Institute, the Spanish language standards organization that has specialized in the integration of technology and language learning, for support to the second language program.

“We want to provide quality learning resources through technology to support teachers, especially in our rural areas.”

Quality content, of course, is only part of the equation. The province’s learning and technology policy framework consists of three addition components: a reliable and robust infrastructure, professional growth in using technology effectively and research.

The backbone of this architecture is the province’s SuperNet, a high capacity broadband network linking government offices, schools, health facilities, and libraries. As communities – and school jurisdictions – come online, the possibilities for interaction between teachers, parents and students in a secure and private environment are immense.

“Once you have a virtual private network, and this broadband capacity, you can provide innovative learning opportunities, nurture communities of practice among teachers and explore administrative efficiencies,” Hawkins observed.

In addition, the Government of Alberta has established an ICT Strategy that fosters expanding access to services, adoption of standards and common solutions as well as taking advantage of the strategic value of information.

To support interoperability within the learning sector, the Technology Standards and Solutions initiative brought stakeholders together to set standards and identify possible opportunities. Recognizing that most school jurisdictions and postsecondary institutions were using MS Office, Alberta negotiated a province-wide licensing agreement with Microsoft and expects savings between 30-40%. But the importance of interoperability extends beyond the education sector. For example, video conferencing is valuable to teachers and school boards in supporting school programs, but may also become an even more valuable resource in a community if video-conferencing systems are interoperable with those used by health authorities or municipalities. Therefore, the ministry established H323 as the video-conferencing standard to match the standard in those sectors.

To address the principle of strategic use of information, the ministry has begun to rethink what data is collected and how it is collected.

“We have had a number of new policy directions introduced such as a new funding approach that provides greater flexibility for school boards to meet local needs, a new accountability process that focuses on outcomes rather than inputs and interest in gathering information on the effectiveness of initiatives that change the way we organize information,” Hawkins said of the new province-wide approach to student information. “It’s not just about upgrading technical systems. What kind of information do school jurisdictions need to support decision- making? What kind of information does government or the department need for planning?”

To ensure teachers can most effectively use the latest in technology and apply it in the classroom, ministry initiatives to develop and implement learning technologies involve teachers. This practice has created de facto professional development opportunities and helped the ministry identify the best practices for incorporating technology. A memorandum of understanding with the faculties of education identifies outcomes in a number of areas including those related to ensuring graduates have a certain degree of tech savvy.

“The development of skills for teachers is a really important part of our strategy,” Hawkins said. “You can have quality content and robust infrastructure, but if nobody knows how to use the technology to effectively support student learning, nobody is going to use it.”

Lastly, investment in emerging technology is backed by a research agenda. Alberta follows developments nationally and internationally and builds on world-class standards to ensure it is creating the foundation for getting the best returns on investment.

“What are the most effective ways to use computers to support learning? To use video conferencing to enhance classroom experiences? Which emerging technologies hold promise – we always build in a research component,” Hawkins said.

“What we learn can inform teaching practice. As an example, we’ve put together some pilot projects on video conferencing to find the most effective ways to use it with students as well as pilots on how it can assist in supporting communities of practice, where teachers, from across the province, work together in a subject area. Technology holds the promise of providing new opportunities to engage kids in learning, some who may have been unable to participate in a regular classroom. Or to visit an historic site or archeological dig that students would otherwise never experience. Or assist a teacher in conducting lab experiments that replicate reality where there are no lab facilities, perhaps in a small rural or remote community. We see our research agenda as providing us the environment for all to better understanding the most appropriate use of technology.”

Feedback to date has been positive though Hawkins admits it is often accompanied with the challenge: “can we go further?” Alberta’s approach of ensuring technology and leaning integration is based on enhancing learning opportunities, incorporates a standards approach that will foster interoperability across education and other sectors.

It means Alberta will likely face fewer compatibility problems down the road. “You need to be at the leading edge, you need to be innovative, but never put students’ learning at risk,” Hawkins advises.

“That’s one of the underlying foundations of what we’re doing…we focus on alignment with our curriculum. Nobody believes technology will be the silver bullet or panacea to address all the challenges in meeting students’ learning needs. But the more we understand about how students are using technology to learn, both inside and outside the classroom, the better value we will see from our investments in the integration of learning and technology.”