Canada:Newfoundland
From WAET
Province
In Newfoundland, the province's Department of Education has a mandate for the kindergarten to grade 12 system, while the province's public post-secondary institutions and private training institutions fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Youth Service and Post-Secondary Education. Typically, the K12 system is divided into primary (K-3), elementary (4-6), intermediate (7-9) and secondary (10-12). However, in rural areas it is not uncommon to have all grade schools or regional K-7 and 8-12 schools.
The funding of schools in Newfoundland is done in a variety of ways. There is an allocation made for education by the provincial Government in its annual budget, with the government's fiscal year running from 01 April to 31 March. The Government pays the salary of all teachers, administrators and support staff directly from this allocation. In addition, a portion of this allocation is given to each of the school districts based on the percentage of students in each district. Each school district then must cover the cost of maintaining a central office. This would include the cost of maintaining the physical building for the central office (and any auxiliary offices), the supplies used in those offices, the cost of maintaining all of the school buildings, the cost associated with the travel of district staff to schools around the district (i.e., computer support staff, itinerate teachers for various special needs students, etc.), along with other administrative costs. Once these costs have been covered, each district will allocate a certain amount of funds to each of the schools in their district based upon student population. This figure has typically been between $25-$70 per student and varies between districts (with the larger, urban districts typically able to allocate more money per student than the smaller, rural districts).
Over the past decade, the education system of Newfoundland and Labrador has undergone a number of structural changes. The most comprehensive of these was the transformation of the system from a denominationally controlled system of education to a single, publicly funded system.
Denominational System of Education
The first traces of education in Newfoundland can be found at John Guy’s colony of Cuper’s Cove (later known as Cupids). These first instances came in the form of apprenticeships. The next real trace of any form of education in the province was during the French colonization of Plaisance (later known as Placentia) from 1689 to 1713. While there are no records of formal schooling, given the acknowledged presence of Roman Catholic clergy and their traditional activities in other French colonies, it is assumed that they provided some sort of schooling in the Plaisance colony as well. The first well documented education activities in Newfoundland were those of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts that became active in about 1702. The Society was an outreach of the Church of England, which taught basic reading skills through the use of the King James version of the Bible. The first actual school in the province was established in Bonavista by Reverend Henry Jones in 1726, with the second one coming four years later in Trinity under the guidance of Reverend Robert Kilpatrick. The first school in the capital, St. John’s, was established in 1785 by Reverend John Jones (J.W. Pickersgill, personal communication, 28 June 1995). Given the rural nature of Newfoundland and Labrador, many of the schools throughout the province historically (and well into the late twentieth century) have been one or two room schools.
The first school act for Newfoundland was passed in 1832, shortly after the establishment of Representative Government in the colony. The first Education Act, 1836 attempted to set up a secular school system. The “Act provided for grants for schools which were intended to be non-denominational, and established a public school system administered by nine local school boards” (Government of Newfoundland, 1992, pp. 50-51). This system was acceptable for a short time, but a controversy developed on the local boards concerning the reading of the bible.
At the time, Roman Catholics were forbidden by their church to read or listen to anyone reading from a Bible other than the official Roman Catholic Douay version. Protestants [largely Anglican], on the other hand, were encouraged to read and discuss the King James Version. ...[This caused] the government to pass its 1838 amendment to the Education Act banning, in effect, Bible readings from any version…(Govt. of NL, 1992, p. 51)
At first the Government held firm on its commitment to the 1838 amendment. However, with continued protests and the violence during the 1840 by-elections, the House began to apply pressure to resolve the issue. After religious violence in two by-elections held in 1840, the British Government decided to dissolve the Legislature and devised a system of administration. One of the early measures of the new Assembly was “to counter the view that [it] had been instituted to reduce Catholic influence in political affairs, a new Education Act divided the grant for the schools evenly between Roman Catholic and Protestants” (Smallwood, 1994, p. 101). This amendment marked the beginning of a denominational education system for the island that would continue almost to the end of the millennium.
Newfoundland and Labrador Join Canada
At the time of Confederation (the term used to describe Newfoundland and Labrador entry into Canada), there were eight different denominations recognized by the Education Act: the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church in 1843; the Congregational Church, the Free Church of Scotland, the Kirk of Scotland and the Methodist Church in 1874; the Salvation Army Church in 1892; and the Seventh Day Adventists in 1912 (Gardner, Smith & Porter, 1987, p. 53). Following Confederation, the Pentecostal Assemblies of Newfoundland were added in 1954 (although not constitutionally). When the Terms of Union were signed on December 11, 1948, a provision was included for, among other things:
endorsed the existing denominational education system as the recognized and approved state system for the country [of Newfoundland], and identified four areas of denominational or church control in education. They were:
- a right to denominationally-based school boards which could own and operate schools;
- the right of these boards to appoint and dismiss teachers;
- the right of these schools to receive public funds on a non-discriminatory basis; and
- the right to establish denominational colleges. (Gardner et al., 1987, p. 53)
When Newfoundland entered Confederation, the process of modernizing the province began with such activities as the building of roads, the new social welfare system, and mandatory school attendance. All of these activities removed traditional barriers that had previously existed in education, such as isolationism and family poverty. This process of modernization caused a great increase in the number of schools in the province and an extension of the systems that were in place to support such schools. This increase in schools and bureaucracy caused an expansion of the denominational system of education.
However, by the late sixties the education system was becoming expensive and beginning to exceed its ability to be effective. This led to the creation of a Centralization Program by the Smallwood Government. The success of the Centralization Program also led to the revitalization of the movement for amalgamated schools. When Newfoundland entered Confederation, there were 1187 schools (of which 778 had only one room). By 1962-63, schools had been rationalized to the point where there were 361 Roman Catholic schools, 391 Anglican, 307 United Church, 86 Salvation Army, 53 Pentecostal, 4 Seventh Day Adventist and 47 amalgamated schools (Smallwood, 1994, v.6, pp. 104-106). Within five years, the Smallwood administration established a Royal Commission on education and Youth, the Warren Commission, which reported in 1967-68. The Royal Commission also recommended that school boards should be consolidated. Three of the Protestant denominations went a step further than that in 1969, when they established a fully integrated system of schools and school boards (McKim, 1988, p. 88). This reduced the number of Protestant school boards from 229 to only 22.
In 1990, then Premier Clyde Wells established the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Delivery of Programs and Services in Primary, Elementary, Secondary Education to consider an in depth study of the state of education in the province. The Williams Commission, which tabled its report in 1992, stated that the denominational system wasted up to $50 million annually and recommended reducing “the number of schools boards from 27 to nine publicly-elected boards, the dissolution of the three denominational education councils, and limiting the role of the churches to overseeing religious education and pastoral care programs” (Govt. of NL, 1994, p. 106).
By 1995, after more than three years of negotiations with the denominations involved in the education system, the Government decided to call a referendum on the issue. After two referendums and two constitutional amendments, in 1997-98 the system of education in Newfoundland and Labrador was made into a public system of education with ten school districts representing the province. Since that time, there has been a ministerial panel that has called for and saw the creation of a virtual high school to service the province.
In 2003-04, there were eleven school districts in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador: ten English speaking district and one Francophone district that covered the entire province. There were 305 schools and 81,458 students spread out over the 405,720 km2 of the province, only 5 of these schools and 210 of these students attended Francophone or French language schools (Government of Newfoundland, 2004). This is down from 106, 205 students in 1996-97, a decline of 23.1% (Government of Newfoundland, 2003, p. 14).
In the past six months, the Government announced a further decrease in the number of school districts from eleven to five (a measure which has only taken effect this school year).
Provincial Technology Policy
Like the federal programs listed above, the educational technology resources in Newfoundland and Labrador have largely come about from schools participating in provincial programs. In fact, for many rural schools, these provincial programs provided not only access to educational technology resources, but also access to educational opportunities for their own students.
Like many successful programs, many of the province-wide educational technology programs were a continuation or an expansion of earlier projects. The five programs described below had tremendous effects on the level of educational technology in schools in Newfoundland and Labrador, particularly in rural areas. The Lighthouse Project was a pre-cursor to the province-wide STEM~Net initiative, while the lessons learned in delivering web-based distance education through the East-West Project and the Vista School District Digital Intranet were invaluable in the creation of a province-wide virtual high school in the Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation.
Lighthouse Project
The Lighthouse Project was designed to foster and facilitate the integration of computer technology into the province's curriculum. In order to accomplish this, the Department of Education placed 12 computer workstations, along with a series of peripheral and network devices, into 31 different schools across the province (essentially on school per school district at the time). In addition to the physical equipment, the Department of Education provided seven days of in-service to lead teachers in each of the schools and created year long technology education courses in grades ten, eleven and twelve which were introduced into the provincial curriculum.
As the lead teacher became the computer technology expert in the Lighthouse School, they would be responsible for assisting other teachers in their school in the process of technology integration. As each school became a center of excellence in computer technology at the secondary level, they could then assist teachers at other schools to facilitate the integration of computer technology into their curriculums.
STEM~Net
The success of the Lighthouse Project in the early 1990s lead to the creation of the Science, Technology Education and Mathematics Network (STEM~Net) STEM~Net was originally created for active professional K-12 educators to provides computer network connectivity among these educators and specific network services. However, as time passed it became the clearinghouse for all educational technology in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. For example, it was STEM~Net that worked out the agreement with SchoolNet/Industry Canada, NewTel Communications/STENTOR, the Canada-Newfoundland COOPERATION Agreement on Human Resource Development (the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and the Department of Education) to place a DirecPC satellite dish on every school in the province for the purpose of Internet access.
The DirecPC system consists of a satellite receiving antenna connected to an ISA interface Card which is installed in a PC. This machine can be connected to a small network via Proxy Server software. Web browsers, FTP clients, Telnet and email can be routed through this server. The DirecPC setup is asynchronous in that burst speeds of up to 400 kilobits per second can be achieved into the site while web requests and mail go out at modem speeds in the 19,200 kbs - 28,800 kbs range. When a request is sent to some web site via the modem, the return address is encapsulated in such a way that the document is not sent directly to the requesting site. It is instead routed to Telesat in Ontario where it is uploaded to the Anik E1 communications satellite and downloaded to the school which made the original request. These DirecPC satellite dishes provided greater bandwidth (i.e., down-link) for students and teachers to access the province, particularly in locations where a dozen computers were calling long distance on the same telephone modem to connect to the Internet (The Satellite Project, 1997).
By the 2003-04 school year, STEM~Net provided every student in the province a free e-mail account and every teacher in the province a free e-mail account and web space. In addition, it was also the provincial partner in the Grassroots program, hosted school websites for every school in the province, provided students and teachers with access to the SchoolNet News Network, a TuCows mirror site, free WebCT server (along with licensing) and curriculum related resources.
East-West Project
In 1996, Open School, representing British Columbia, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and Alberta entered into a joint project to produce a course based on information technology curriculum (The East-West Project). The course offers five modules: web publishing; graphic design; telecommunication networks; telecommunications; and computer applications. Each of the four provinces produced a module dealing with predefined topics and a well defined framework. While this project focused upon adult learners, it did produce authoring standards and templates that have been used as the basis for further web-based distance education initiatives.
Vista School District Digital Intranet
In 1999, the Centre for TeleLearning and Rural Education was in the process of initiated the Vista School District Digital Intranet The Centre for TeleLearning and Rural Education was interested in pursuing additional research concerning its involvement with the National Centres of Excellence (NCE), specifically Theme 4 of the TeleLearning NCE. The prime focus of Theme 4 "is to develop effective technology-based approaches to the major educational challenges facing Canadian schools" (National Centre for Excellence (TeleLearning), 2000). In order to conduct further research on a sub-theme of Theme 4, Theme 4.3 which considers the use of "interactive computer-based laboratories in science, technology and mathematics," (Centre for TeleLearning and Rural Education, 2000) the Centre proposed an extension of an existing partnership with the Vista School District. This new project would develop a district-wide intranet to offer university-level mathematics and science courses to all schools within the Vista School District.
The Vista School District Digital Intranet, or by its full name The Vista School District Digital Intranet: The Delivery of Advanced Placement Courses to Young Adult Learners in Rural Communities, was a project initiated by the Centre for TeleLearning and Rural Education at Memorial University of Newfoundland, with the Vista School District as an initial partner. The Vista School District Digital Intranet, which was funded through a grant from Industry Canada in 1998, saw the school district and the Centre develop four Advanced Placement courses for online delivery to students throughout the entire school district.
Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation
In September 1999, the Government appointed a ministerial panel to, among other things, “examine the current educational delivery model and consider alternative approaches” (Sparkes & Williams, 2000, p. 2). In their report, the ministerial panel recommended the creation of the Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation to be based upon the web-based model not “totally dependent on high bandwidth technologies [and have a] minimal reliance on synchronous communications, fixed schedules or other constraining elements” (Sparkes & Williams, 2000, p. 65). The vision of the Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation is to provide access to educational opportunities for students, teachers and other adult learners in both rural and urban communities in a manner that renders distance transparent; eliminate geographical and demographic barriers as obstacles to broad, quality educational programs and services; and develop a culture of e-learning in our schools which is considered to be an integral part of school life for all teachers and students
The panel also noted that, “technology must be embraced for a variety of reasons” (Sparkes & Williams, 2000, p. 71). Technology can be utilized for much more purposeful reasons and it, “can be viewed as a liberating force capable of placing more resources in the hands of students than could ever be accomplished by conventional means” (Sparkes & Williams, 2000, p. 71). In their recommendations the panel described a system and method of delivery using information and communications technologies as the backbone. The birth of the Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation provided students in rural Newfoundland and Labrador the opportunity to enroll in high school courses which they may not have access to otherwise. The curriculum is delivered utilizing information and communications technologies , thus dubbed ‘e-learning’.
The method of e-learning that was introduced by the Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation was very similar in terms of delivery to the Vista School District Digital Intranet, while the structure of course design that was utilized was a combination of what had been used for the Vista School District Digital Intranet and the East-West Project.
St. Mark's School
Mark's School is located in King's Cove, Newfoundland. The community of King's Cove has two main religious denominations: Roman Catholic and Anglican. At one time both denominations had separate schools, but later they were consolidated into one Roman Catholic school. In 1963 a new facility, Saints Peter and Paul School was opened and in 1968 an elementary section was added thereby making it an all-grade complex. In 1974, another new Saints Peter and Paul School was opened. However, with the reduction in enrolment both schools were again combined to become a K-12 school named St. Mark's School in 1994. The school continues to serve eleven communities along the northern section of the Bonavista Peninsula.
Like many rural schools, in addition to being a school St. Mark's is also a community centre. As one of, if not the largest building in the community, the physical school building serves as a focal point within the community. The physical building is often used by community-based organizations, such as the local cadet corps, as a meeting place. In addition to use by community groups, the school is the center of the community's activities inside and outside of the school year.
 Figure 9. Map of the northern section of the Bonavista Peninsula. Used with permission of St. Mark's School |  Figure 10. The local cadet corps participating in the school's annual Remembrance Day assembly. Used with permission of St. Mark's School |
The school and its surrounding property is used as a facility during the community's annual Lighthouse Festival (the first weekend of August) and during the community's Canada Day celebrations (01 July). At present, the school consists of 167 students and 16 teachers that are divided into two sections: the lower section (kindergarten to grade 6) and the higher section (grade 7 to grade 12).
 Figure 11. A picture from the annual King's Cove Lighthouse Festival. Notice the school building in the background, indicating that the event is taking place at or near St. Mark's. Used with permission of St. Mark's School |  Figure 12. A picture of the annual Canada Day celebrations in King's Cove. Notice the school building in the background, once again indicating the importance of the school in community activities. Used with permission of St. Mark's School |
Vista School District
As of the 2004-05 school year, St. Mark's School is located in the Eastern School District. The Eastern School District is an amalgamation of the former Avalon East School District, Avalon West School District, Burin Peninsula School District, and Vista School District. St. Mark's school was located in the former Vista School District portion of the new Eastern School District from 1996 up until the creation of the Eastern School District.
 Figure 13. Location of the Vista School District within Canada. Used with permission of Vista School District. |
The region which Vista School District serves is a large geographic area covering about 7,300 square kilometers. As of 2003-04 school year, the region has a population of about 35,000 located in 24 municipalities and about 80 unincorporated communities. The district has approximately 3971 students being taught by 312 teachers in 15 schools. According to the Vista School District's website:
Some of the oldest settlements on the island of Newfoundland are located in the region. The Town of Bonavista was first settled in the late 16th century, and until the early part of the 18th century was the most northerly English settlement on the island. In 1534, Jacques Cartier visited nearby St. Catherine's harbour (Catalina) where he was forced to berth because of heavy ice conditions. In 1763, Captain James Cook visited the region and produced a map which included Bonavista and Catalina, as well as other communities such as Trinity. Located 70 km along the peninsula off the Trans Canada Highway, Trinity is one of the most beautifully restored settlements in Canada. The Clarenville-Shoal Harbour area has the second largest population in the region, next to the Bonavista-Catalina area. Clarenville was named in honor of Clarence Whiteway, son of Sir William Whiteway, prime minister of Newfoundland during the 1870s. In 1892, the Clarenville-Shoal Harbour area got its beginnings as a service centre when the Reid Newfoundland Company brought the railway through and built a terminal. Eventually, a Bonavista branch line was constructed.
Prior to 1996, St. Mark's School was located in the Gander-Bonavista-Connaigre Roman Catholic. This was before the end of denominational education in Newfoundland and Labrador (when there were thirty one school districts in the province). This also underlies the fact that this small school, like many other rural schools in the province has been under the administrative jurisdiction of three different school boards in less than a decade. These changes have had an impact on a variety of issues; from the geographic closeness to the district's central office to access to district-wide services to funding allocated to the school from the district.
King's Cove, Newfoundland
 Figure 14. Photograph of King's Cove from Sarah Brien's Hill. Used with permission of St. Mark's School |  Figure 15. Photograph of King's Cove from Flagstaff Hill. Used with permission of St. Mark's School |
King's Cove is a fishing community nestled between Flagstaff Hill and Sarah Brien's Hill on one side and a range of granite rock on the other side. King's Cove was once the capital of the area. The earliest settlers in King's Cove came from Devon, Dorset, other counties in Southwest England, and Ireland beginning in the late 1700s. By the early 1800's, King's Cove was a thriving business community due to the worldwide demand for salt fish. King's Cove was one of a few communities on the Northeast coast of Newfoundland to attract Irish immigrants that arrived between 1800 and 1815. According to Smallwood (1994), in 1836 there were 283 Roman Catholics in King's Cove (out of a total of 413). Under the watch of Father William Veitch, from 1872-73 and 1875-91, a new Catholic church was built that is still in active use by the parishioners today.
 Figure 16. Photograph of St. Mark's School and Sts. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church in King's Cove. Used with permission of St. Mark's School |
By 1869, this had increased to 550 and to 582 by 1901. After 1901, however, with the decline of the fishery the population gradually decreased as people moved to find work. By 1935, the population had declined to 346 and to 201 by 1961. The number had declined to 175 by 1996. Life in King's Cove has changed considerably over the years. There are only three full time fishermen left here. Other occupations of the community include teachers and skilled trades people. A large number of the community's residents are retired. Once a young person reaches Grade Twelve he/she cannot further their education in King's Cove. To receive a higher education students have to leave. Two thirds of the young people who leave never return to take up residence here.
 Figure 17. Photograph of the King's Cove Lighthouse, built in 1893. Used with permission of St. Mark's School |  Figure 18. Photograph of the old Forge in King's Cove, built sometime during the 1800s. Used with permission of St. Mark's School |
Educational Technology at St. Mark's School
The purpose of describing the various federal and provincial technology programs that are discussed earlier in this chapter are due to the fact that, like most other rural schools in Newfoundland and Labrador, much of the resources and many of the initiatives undertaken by students and teachers are focused upon those federal and provincial programs. St. Mark's School is no different.
 Figure 19. Photograph of the computer lab in the high school section of St. Mark's School. Notice the computer technology teacher at his laptop in the picture. The classroom teacher standing is lucky to have brought his class to the lab during the one slot when the computer teacher has assigned preparation time. During the six other slots in the timetable (based upon a total of seven slots in a timetable with five classes a day that meet ten times during a fourteen day period), teachers would be left by themselves and without the assistance of the computer teacher (because he would be responsible for teaching another class somewhere else in the building) if technical problems arose. Used with permission of St. Mark's School |  Figure 20. Another photograph of the computer lab in the high school section of St. Mark's School. Notice the size of the class that has been brought to the lab. Small class sizes are typical of most all grade schools in rural Newfoundland. Used with permission of St. Mark's School |
As a small, rural school, St, Mark's School receives limited resources from conventional sources, such as its per student allocation from the school district. With less than 200 students, the school's annual budget has typically been around $10,000. Over half of this allocation is spent on printing and photocopying. This requires that the school and its administrators be creative in terms of seeking sources of outside funding.
In addition to funding, human resources provided for educational technology in the schools is quite limited for most rural schools and St. Mark's is no exception. At present, there is one teacher responsible for running the computer labs and all of the classroom computers in the school. This individual is a full-time teacher who receives no course reprieve for his technology duties. In addition to this individual, there are many others in the school who will try to incorporate educational technology (and the information and communications technology resources and facilities that the school has available to them) into their teaching. However, this is at the discretion of individual teachers and they receive no additional support for doing these activities.
Traditional Distance Education
In September of 1988, the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Education implemented a program of distance education for rural high school students. The main purpose of this initiative was to provide access for students in small schools to secondary level courses that were important for post-secondary admission but that were difficult to offer in rural schools due to low levels of student enrolment. In its first year of operation, the program consisted of just one course - Advanced Mathematics 1201. This course had an enrollment of 36 students in 13 rural schools. The experiment proved successful and the program grew to the point where in 1999-2000, 11 courses were offered with 898 course enrolments. A total of 703 students in 77 different rural schools were taking one and sometimes two courses in Advanced Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and French (Brown, Sheppard, & Stevens, 2000). St. Mark's School was one of those seventy-seven rural schools.
 Figure 21. View of a traditional distance education room in a rural Newfoundland school. see a short video of a student in a distance education class. |
It is unknown exactly when St. Mark's School first began offering distance education courses to their students (the school's principal was also unsure). However, it is known that St. Mark's School was one of the first schools in the province to offer distance education courses to its students. Over the fifteen years that the Tele-medicine and Educational Technology Resources Agency (TETRA/Tele-medicine) distance education system was in operation, students at St. Mark's School completed courses in Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, and French as a second language.
In addition to the opportunity to expand its curriculum offerings to include these course, the TETRA/Tele-medicine system brought technology into the school. The system ran using bridging technology to provide conference calling facilities that were accompanied by the use of a telegraphic device for reproducing handwriting by converting the manually controlled movements of a pen into signals that, after transmission, control the movements of a similar pen. However, it should be noted that this technology has largely limited to use by the students in these distance education classes.
STEM~Net
The original purpose of the STEM~Net initiative in the early 1990s was to provide Internet access to teachers across Newfoundland and Labrador. This mandate was expanded to provide access to services such as e-mail to students in the mid-1990s. In addition, STEM~Net also worked to ensure that every single school in the province had access to the Internet. In the early years, this meant a dial-up connection that in many rural instances was accessed through a long distance telephone call through one or more operators. Later, STEM~Net partnered with SchoolNet, Industry Canada and NewTel Communications Inc. to connect the school Intranet using a Windows NT computer system that was linked to a DirecPC satellite dish. These DirecPC satellite dishes provided greater bandwidth for students and teachers to access the Internet in rural communities.
The first access that St. Mark's School had to the Internet was provided by STEM~Net through their dial-up connection program. This was later transformed to the DirecPC satellite system provided by STEM~Net (and later supplemented through the Community Access Program - see next section), which continued to serve the school until two years ago (when their participation in the CDLI took over this service - see section below).
In addition to the connectivity that STEM~Net has provided to St. Mark's School, through additional programs all of the administrators and teachers at the school have home access to the Internet and e-mail accounts, along with a web server that the school has been able to use to maintain its own website (see http://www.k12.nf.ca/stmarks).
Community Access Program
In 1997, the King's Cove and Area Community Access Project Committee submitted a proposal for the creation of a Community Access Program (CAP) site to be located in St. Mark's School. In reality, the King's Cove and Area Community Access Project Committee was the technology teacher, the principal and a group of other teachers at St. Mark's School. The application came as a concerted effort by rural schools within the Vista School District to obtain computer resources, connectivity and additional funding for their schools, while at the same time extended some of their services to the larger community (as these schools have done as community-based centers for so many other organizations and initiatives).
 Figure 22. Photograph of the main entrance to the high school section of St. Mark's School. Notice the name over the door has not been updated since the time when the portion of the school was a separate building that was exclusively the high school. Also note the green Community Access Program site indicator on the side of the building. Used with permission of St. Mark's School |  Figure 23. Photograph of the inside of the high school section of St. Mark's School. Notice the red Community Access Program site indicator on the wall indicating the directions to the computer lab which is accessible to anyone in the community. Used with permission of St. Mark's School |
St. Mark's School was successful in their application and received $30,000 from Industry Canada, along with over $30,000 of in-kind contributions from the school, the Vista School District and other community groups to maintain the King's Cove and Area Community Access Program Site for the first three years. In return for this funding, which assisted the school in purchasing computers and additional connectivity time, the staff at St. Mark's opened up the school during the school day and during three to four evenings a week to provide those in the community with the following services:
- Public Internet Access - want to browse the web? need some information? wish to send email to family and friends far away? The internet can help.
- Word Perfect Access - need to type something up? Word Perfect can help.
- Printing - typed your resume up and need copies printed? Find some information on the internet that you want to have a hard copy of? Just print it off.
- Scanning Services - Scan photos or anything else you need a digital copy of.
- Computer Training - Inquire about our computer courses.
The computer hardware and software purchased from this program has allowed both the public and the students to avail of many new technological opportunities. The most important of these opportunities is Internet access which has allowed the public to do courses online and the students, among other things, research various information.
Since its creation, St. Mark's School has been able to apply for additional funding to continue to maintain these services to the community. Some of these funds have been for purchasing new computers and/or peripheral devices, for upgrading existing computers, or for purchasing additional connectivity time. Including the initial $30,000 investment by Industry Canada, St. Mark's School has received approximately $47,500 for this service. This does not include the fact that St. Mark's School has also been able to successfully apply for three hiring post-secondary students during the Spring and, particularly, the Summer to staff the Community Access Program site through the Students Work and Service Program (SWASP) - a federal initiative designed to respond to the particular difficulties faced by youth in trying to make the transition from school to work by assisting participants in getting career-related experience in return for tuition vouchers to help individuals to attend full-time post-secondary studies.
Finally, in addition to these services that are provided to the community, the fact that the school has once again been opened up to everyone in the community has furthered the role that is assumed by so many rural schools of being more than "just a school," but also as a community center within rural these Newfoundland communities.
Grassroots and Other Curriculum-Based Programs
While St. Mark's School had been involved in the Grassroots and other provincial and national curriculum based programs (such as Pollution Solutions, Generations CanConnect, and Communities@Ca), it was during the 2001-02 school year when the Vista School District appointed a former teacher from within the district to the position of Partnership Co-ordinator. This individual worked with the administration and staff at St. Mark's School to assist them in turning many of the classroom projects that they undertook as a part of their normal course curriculums into web-based projects that were eligible for funding under the Grassroots program. This assistance took the form of help with completing the Grassroots applications form, uploading the projects to the school's website and completing the Grassroots final project report.
The end result of this collaboration was an increase of approximately one thousand percent over their funding of less than $2500 during the 2000-01 school year. The table below indicates the Grassroots funding received by St. Mark's School through the Grassroots program from 2001-02 to the present.
| Year | Funding Received | |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | $21,300 | |
| 2003 | $6,900 | |
| 2004 | $1,500 |
As mentioned above, the annual budget of St. Mark's School each year is approximately $10,000, with over half of that being allocated to administrative costs. By receiving over $20,000 through their participation in the Grassroots program, the administration and staff at St. Mark's School was able to invest more heavily in educational technology than it has been able to in any previous year leading up to 2001-02.
Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation
During the 2001-02 school year, the Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation (CDLI) began its implementation phase. The purpose of the CDLI is to eventually offer all of the secondary school curriculum in a web-based format to every school in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. However, for the implementation phase each of the ten school districts was asked to pilot the delivery of one course with approximately twenty students in each course.
School districts were also requested to create three positions within the district to facilitate the delivery of this one course. An electronic teacher (e-teacher) would be responsible for the actual delivery of the course. A mediating teacher (m-teacher) at each school would be responsible for the in-school supervision and co-ordination of this new distance education program. Finally, a Web-Based Initiatives Facilitator (WBIF) would be responsible for to the district-wide co-ordination of this new program and chair a district implementation team.
The Vista School District was asked to pilot the delivery of the Canadian History 1201 course. Mr. Lyndon Williams was seconded by the CDLI for the purpose of developing a web-based version of this course and was also selected to be its first e-teacher. The district decided that its five smallest schools, all of which had relied upon traditional distance education methods in the past, would be involved in the implementation phase. Student computers were placed in each of the five schools by the CDLI and m-teachers were selected for each of the schools. Finally, the Vista School District selected the author as the Web-Based Initiatives Facilitator.
While the year started slowly at St. Mark's School, with some delays in set-up of equipment mainly because of the support staff strike, it was a tremendous learning experience for students, parents, m-teacher and technology person. After initial bugs were worked out and a virus that hit the school mid-year was taken care of, the pilot year was a very successful one. There were four mature, above average students who thoroughly enjoyed the course and didn't experience any major problems. In conversations with students throughout the year, it was obvious that they enjoyed this method of delivery. Since that initial pilot year, students at St. Mark's School have enrolled in the Mathematics 2205, Mathematics 3205, Mathematics 3207, Physics 3204, Chemistry 3202, Art Technology 1201 and French 3201.
In addition to access to these courses that students at St. Mark's School would not otherwise have the opportunity to take without this web-based distance education initiative, the school has also received seven computer workstations (with appropriate computer desks), HP3200 all in one-printer/fax/photocopier with an HP 170X Jet Direct Print Server, and access to the Internet. These workstations; which are currently Pentium 3 or 4 processors with 17" monitors, Wacom graphire graphics tablets; come equipped with MS Windows 2000 Professional, Microsoft Office XP with Front Page, Corel Draw 8, HP Imaging Software, Java Web Start, Clean Slate, McAfee Virus Scan, Painter Classic, Acrobat Reader, and Copernic. These workstations are connected to the Internet through a frame relay modem connection to a Cisco 1721 router then to the school network, so that not only the CDLI workstations, but the entire school can take advantage of increased bandwidth (nominal speeds are 512 kilobits/sec bidirectional).
 Figure 26. Students working in the new distance education lab. The computers and peripheral devices, along with the Internet service are provided by the Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation. Used with permission of St. Mark's School |  Figure 27. Notice that the new distance educational laboratory is much larger than the original room utilized during the TETRA/Tele-medicine years or even during the initial year of the Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation. This speaks to the growing importance of distance education for St. Mark's School and other rural schools in Newfoundland and Labrador. Used with permission of St. Mark's School |
While these machines are located in a distance education room specifically utilized by the students taking CDLI courses during the school day, they are available for use by any student in the school when not being used by CDLI students or outside of the traditional school day.
Network of Innovations Schools
In 1999 the federal Government began the Network of Innovation School (NIS) program. That year four of the 24 schools that were admitted as NIS members were from the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Over the next two years another 61 schools were admitted, including nine more from the province. The class of 2001 also saw the first school from the Vista School District,Discovery Collegiate, admitted. As one of the mission of NIS is to have member schools mentor prospective schools, St. Mark's School became one of the mentor schools selected by Discovery Collegiate. In the Spring of 2003, during Discovery Collegiate's second year as a member, St. Mark's School submitted its own application for membership.
While unsuccessful in its application, the process of defining the important values and future plans for educational technology within the walls of St. Mark's School proved to be valuable for setting priorities and goals. One of the main goals of their NIS application was tying the process of integrating technology into the curriculum with the performance of the students at St. Mark's School on the Canadian Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) and the Criteria Referenced Test (CRT). The CTBS and CRT are the standardized examinations taken at regular intervals (roughly every three years beginning in grade three) throughout a students' K-12 career. By linking how the teachers are using technology in their curriculum to the students' performance on these external measures, it sought to create a professional culture at St. Mark's School where technology was integrated into the curriculum based upon sound pedagogical reasons and not simply because a teacher had the ability to do so.
In addition, it also allowed St. Mark's School to provide equal, high quality educational opportunities to all learners to develop skills, attitudes, knowledge, and values which will prepare them to meet the challenges of a diverse and ever changing technological society.
As mentioned above, in the process of completing their NIS application the administration and staff at St. Mark's School were able to sit down and envision what these educational technology goals were for the future of their school. The NIS program provided this unique opportunity, which was the first time since the submission of their Community Access Program application in 1997, that those involved with educational technology in the school were able to chart a course for its continued development. This course would become the Technology Integration Plan for St. Mark's School.
Plans for the Future
Since the 2003-04 school year, St.Mark's School has embarked upon a Technology Integration Program (TIP). This plan was initially developed in conjunction with the school's Network of Innovative School's application. The logic at the time was that with a shared, common vision for school it would be easier both to seek and apply for external funding and to allocate any funds that may be received.As outlined on their website, the TIP is describe as:
The main goal of the technological thrust at St. Mark's is to maximize the effectiveness of student learning, instructional management, and staff development. The technology committee has decided that the next step in continuing this endeavor is to acquire a wireless mobile classroom. We hope to start with six laptops and build that up to 20 over a three year period. With appropriate software on this network it will be much more feasible to teach classes throughout the building catering to all grade levels. This is especially true for the primary and elementary students who presently find it very difficult to adjust to the larger seats and myriad of software that we have on our high school network.
The acquisition of the wireless mobile network will address curriculum objectives throughout all grade levels of the school. On numerous occasions teachers have stipulated their desire for the wireless network saying that with such a high quality educational tool they will be better equipped to achieve curricular objectives. These objectives range from improvement of typing skills using our licensed version of Typing Tutor in the primary and elementary grades to being able to carry out a virtual dissection of a frog in high school science.
The key to maximizing the benefits of the wireless system is that teachers across all grade levels should improve upon instructional management. A well planned lesson incorporating a wireless laptop network in the classroom will undoubtedly motivate students to grasp concepts quicker. Creative lessons utilizing appropriate software will create avenues for more "fun in learning" and in many ways improve both fundamental and higher order thinking skills without students actually realizing that they are learning. With the ever increasing number of teachers incorporating technology into program objectives this network will be used across all grade levels and in all course disciplines.
The strategies that will be used to assess the effectiveness of this initiative are dictated by the results of Criterion Reference Tests. The staff at St. Mark's rely heavily on the results of these scores when assessing the learning of students across the curriculum. If it is determined that students are weak in writing skills, as was the case this past school year in the primary and elementary CRT's, then all avenues, including software and hardware, will be explored in an effort to fix it. Placing the software on a mobile network will be an effective medium for achieving objectives.
As stipulated in the ICT vision statement our goal is to provide equal, high quality educational opportunities for all learners to meet the challenges of a diverse and ever-changing technological society. The staff at St. Mark's feel that in the near future the majority of computer networks will be wireless and having our students proficient in the usage of such a network will better prepare them to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
With an ever increasing number of ICT knowledgeable teachers this mobile network will be an innovative tool for achieving curriculum outcomes. Teachers throughout the school in all disciplines have expressed a desire to avail of such a resource. As indicated above the specific curriculum outcomes which this tool will focus on will be dictated by CRT results. The technology committee will determine which courses and grade level will have priority access to the wireless network based upon those results. For example, the recent Primary and Elementary CRT results in writing have indicated major weaknesses in this area. This mobile network with appropriate software will be used in the Primary and Elementary grades as an innovative tool to help students achieve writing curriculum outcomes and skills.
Motivating students to master curriculum objectives is sometimes a challenge for teachers. Creative teachers will employ a variety of teaching strategies to stimulate student interest in a topic in order to achieve desired curriculum outcomes. We believe that the wireless network will provide many opportunities for effective and fun learning. The results of surveys conducted in our school as part of our School Improvement Plan indicate that our students enjoy using computers to learn. With effective software and hardware resources meeting curriculum objectives, the staff at St. Mark's believes students will increasingly be exposed to fun learning experiences and grasp concepts more readily.
Approximately sixty percent of teachers encompassing ten classes (K-9) will use this technology in relevant curriculum areas. The numbers and percentage of teachers will change as priorities are determined by the technology committee. (St. Mark's School, 2004)
Initially, the plans for a wireless mobile classroom had been placed on hold, pending external funding for such an initiative. However, in an effort to better serve the primary and elementary students and teachers at St. Mark's School, there has been the construction of a computer lab in the elementary portion of the school specifically designed for use by students aged twelve and under.
 Figure 28. Photograph of the computer lab in the elementary section of the school while still under construction. Used with permission of St. Mark's School |  Figure 29. Photograph of the computer lab in the elementary section of the school upon completion. Used with permission of St. Mark's School |
While the wireless mobile classroom was still a goal for the school, the administration was able to use monies that they received through their participation in the Grassroots program to build this lab in the elementary section of the school to both provide the primary and elementary school students with access to facilities that weren't "difficult to adjust to the larger seats and myriad of software that we have on our high school network," among other accommodations.
Since the completion of the computer lab in the elementary section of the school, St. Mark's School has also purchased the first eight laptops towards the creation of the wireless mobile classroom.
 Figure 30. Photograph of the computer lab in the elementary section of the school. Notice that the chairs are smaller than in the high school lab and the desk are lower, both age appropriate accommodations. Used with permission of St. Mark's School |  Figure 31. Photograph of the computer lab in the elementary section of the school. Notice the difference in the posters on the walls of the lab in the elementary section and the lab in the high school section (images 19, 20 and 22). Used with permission of St. Mark's School |
Along with these additions to the resources available for student use, St. Mark's School has moved closer to its goal of "sixty percent of teachers encompassing ten classes (K-9) will use this technology in relevant curriculum areas." According to the school administration, they have not quite reached 60% at this time, with only about 40% of the K-9 teachers using technology in relevant curriculum areas. However, the school currently has a professional development in-service day in December of this year on integrating technology into the curriculum. The administration is confident that by the Christmas recess they will have achieved their goal.
With this portion of the TIP nearly accomplished, the school's technology committee will have to update the plan, but is still seeking funding opportunities that will continue the completion of the wireless mobile classroom.
Conclusion
St. Mark's School, like most schools in rural Newfoundland and Labrador, has seen dramatic changes in their access to and use of educational technology over the past two and a half decades. Like these other schools, St. Mark's School have seen these changes not due to policies or programs that were implemented across the province by the Department of Education or individual school districts (the TETRA/Tele-medicine and CDLI distance education initiatives being the exception), but largely due to their own ability to seek out opportunities for technology or technology-based funding and to be successful in their applications to such programs (such as the Community Access Program, Grassroots, and the Network of Innovative Schools).
The time and dedication of the teachers and administrators at St. Mark's School have provided access to and opportunity for students at their school to enjoy a technology rich curriculum. Without time being allocated to classroom teachers for such things as writing Grassroots proposals and final reports, to technology education teachers for the normal maintenance of computers in the school or regular troubleshooting duties, or to the administration for leading the application processes to larger national initiatives like the Community Access Program or Network of Innovative School, these groups of professionals at St. Mark's have been able to directly obtain technology resources or to supplement their meager school budget to purchase these resources.
From the inception of the Lighthouse Project and the STEM~Net initiative, it has been documented that the province of Newfoundland and Labrador has been a leader in educational technology in Canada. This has also been the case with distance education, through first the TETRA/Tele-medicine project and now the CDLI. This has been a remarkable feat for the province that has the highest unemployment rate, the highest out-migration of population under the age of 50, and the province generally accepted as the poorest in the country. It has been this time and dedication that make St. Mark's School, and many small rural schools throughout the province, leaders in educational technology in Canada.
References
Avalon East School District. (2004). Retrieved on October 1, 2004, from http://www.aesd.ca
Avalon West School District. (2004). Retrieved on October 1, 2004, from http://www.awsb.ca
Brown, J.; Sheppard, B.; & Stevens, K. (2000). Effective schooling in a tele-learning environment. Centre for TeleLearning and Rural Education, Faculty of Education, MUN. St. John’s NL.
Burin Peninsula School District. (2004). Retrieved on October 1, 2004, from http://www.bpsb.nf.ca
Canadian Communities Atlas Project. (2004). Retrieved on 12 September 2004 from http://atlas.gc.ca/site/english/learningresources/ccatlas/index.html
Centre for TeleLearning and Rural Education. (2000). Research projects. Retrieved on July 10, 2000, from http://www.tellearn.mun.ca/fresearc.html
Communities@ca. (2004). Retrieved on September 12, 2004, from http://www.communities.ca
Community Access Program. (2004). Retrieved on September 12, 2004, from http://cap.ic.gc.ca
Discovery Collegiate. (2004). Retrieved on October 1, 2004, from http://www.k12.nf.ca/discovery/
Eastern School District. (2004). Retrieved on October 1, 2004, from http://www.esdnl.ca
Generations CanConnect. (2004). Retrieved on September 12, 2004, from http://www.schoolnet.ca/grassroots/gcc/about/overview_e.asp
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. (1992). Royal Commission of inquiry into the delivery of programs and services in primary, elementary, secondary education. St. John’s, NL: Queen’s Printing for Newfoundland and Labrador.
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. (2003). Department of education: Annual report, 2002-03. St. John’s, NL: Queen’s Printing for Newfoundland and Labrador.
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. (2004). Educational statistics, 2003-04: Elementary-secondary. St. John’s, NL: Queen’s Printing for Newfoundland and Labrador.
GrassRoots. (2004). Retrieved on September 12, 2004, from http://www.schoolnet.ca/grassroots/
McGreal, R. (1997). Information technology and telecommunications: A course on the World Wide Web. Journal of Distance Education, 12(1). Retrieved on September 12, 2004, from http://cade.athabascau.ca/vol12.1/mcgreal.html
McKim, W. A. (ed.). (1988). The vexed question: Denominational education in a secular age. St. John’s, NL: Breakwater Books.
National Centre for Excellence (TeleLearning). (2000). TeleLearning NCE research themes. Retrieved on July 08, 2000, from http://www.telelearn.ca/g_access/research_projects/noframe_introduction.html
Network of Innovative Schools. (2004). Retrieved on 12 September 2004 from http://www.schoolnet.ca/nis-rei/
One-room school in Newfoundland and Labrador - Oral history project. (2004). Retrieved on November 20, 2004, from http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~dmulcahy/res_dev/one_room/one_room.htm
Pollution Solutions. (2004). Retrieved on September 12, 2004, from http://www.stemnet.nf.ca/pollution/
Profiling Canada. (2004). Retrieved on September 12, 2004, from http://www.statcan.ca/english/kits/grassroots/grass1.htm
SchoolNet. (2004). Retrieved on September 12, 2004, from http://www.schoolnet.ca
Sparkes, R & Williams, L. (2000). Supporting learning: Report of the ministerial panel on educational delivery in the classroom. St. John’s, NL: Queen’s Printing for Newfoundland and Labrador.
Smallwood, J.R. (Ed.) (1994). Encyclopaedia of Newfoundland and Labrador. (vols. 1-6) St. John’s, NL.: Newfoundland Book Publishers Limited.
St. Mark's School. (2004). Retrieved on September 12, 2004 from http://www.k12.nf.ca/stmarks
The Satellite Project. (1997). Retrieved on July 19, 2006 from http://www.cdli.ca/training/satproject/info1.htm
Vista School District. (2004). Retrieved on October 1, 2004 from http://www.k12.nf.ca/vista/
Notes
- It should be noted that in 2003 and 2004 the Grassroots program limited the number of projects that one school could submit due to the dramatic involvement of St. Mark's School and others in the Vista School District during the 2001-02 school year.
Related Chapters
Canada
Newfoundland is a province of the country of Canada.
About the Author
| Originally from Newfoundland, Canada, Michael K. Barbour was a second year doctoral student at the University of Georgia at the time this chapter was published. Prior to his doctoral studies, Michael was employed at Discovery Collegiate (a school in the Vista School District which neighboured St. Mark's School) for four years. During this period, he served as a classroom teacher, Partnership Development Co-ordinator for the district, and the Web-based Initiatives Facilitator for the Centre of Distance Learning and Innovation in the district. It was through the latter two positions that Michael was actively involved with St. Mark's School. Michael's current research interests focus on the use of web-based distance education a way to provide equitable access to mandated curriculum in rural school settings. |  |
Citation
APA Citation: Barbour, M. K. (2005). Canada:Newfoundland. In M. Orey, T. Amiel, & J. McClendon (Eds.), The web almanac of educational technologies. Retrieved <insert date>, from http://www.waet.uga.edu/
