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Teachers’ union president opposes online-learning bill Carole Rooney Free Press
Arlene Jongbloets photo
Riding into the future... Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School grad class of 2012 members Bo Stich, left, and Kirsty Bock kept their arrival to prom simple on the weekend. Others came on horseback, in fancy cars and hopped-up trucks to the gala celebration, which took place May 26 at the South Cariboo Rec. Centre. See more grad coverage on pages A19 - A22.
The province has passed new legislation that gives students the ability to take a mix of online and traditional school courses from kindergarten to Grade 9. Bill 36 expands an option now only open to grades 10-12 students. Cariboo-Chilcotin Teachers’ Association president Joan Erb says students need guidance and scrutiny to keep them on the learning track, especially with Internet “distractions and dangers.” “The thought of elementary kids taking courses online scares the daylights out of me.” The success rate for grades 10-12 students doing online courses is “very, very low”, she says, adding these courses also require supervision. “Let’s get stats on how successful these [current] online courses are with the secondary kids, and then let’s see if that would be appropriate for the elementary kids.” Younger children, particularly, need to be supervised to keep them motivated and on task, Erb explains. However, Education Minister George Abbott says amendments to the
School Act are intended to support British Columbia’s education plan for personalized learning and allowing greater flexibility and choice in terms of where, when and how students learn. Erb says the province is doing this to cut costs, and doubts the savings would make it back into the budget to fund other areas of education. “This is just a blatant way to put less money into public education and fewer services for kids in a system that’s already inequitable.” If students are completing online courses from home, she notes those computers may have no limitations applied to what can be accessed on the computer. “I’m just very, very concerned about the safety of younger kids taking online courses.” It’s easy to browse the Internet and just as easy to switch your computer display under conditions of occasional supervision, she says, adding that assumes parents are at home. “If there’s no teacher around, who is going to make you accountable for what you’ve got on your computer screen? There are all sorts of ugly
Feds to streamline resource applications Recent changes for resource development in Canada included in the 2012 federal budget will maintain a “strong integrity” in the environmental assessment process, says Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo MP Cathy McLeod.
“It’s just to get rid of a lot of unnecessary duplication that’s been happening over the years and put some reasonable timeframes around these projects.” In his budget speech, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty committed to streamline the review pro-
cess for resource projects under a principle of “one project, one review, completed in a clearly defined time period.” McLeod says these changes to the review process have been “needed for a long, long time. Whether the answer is a ‘yes’
or a ‘no’, I think we need to be moving these things forward in a much more seamless way.” Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett says she agrees “it’s about time” for the See DEVELOPMENT… page A3
stuff out there on the Internet.” The thought of children as young as five or 10 years old having their personal information stored on Facebook or Twitter for up to five years is “dangerous,” Erb says, adding there’s the added risk of what they are exposed to in a potential chat situation. “Who knows what these kids are going to be open to? Even older kids have a hard time shutting that screen off when [other] stuff comes up.” Meanwhile, Abbot says the change offers options to students in smaller schools that aren’t currently available, and adds the purpose is not designed to encourage home schooling. Erb argues there isn’t anything in the Bill 36 she has found that indicates there will be any benefits to rural schools, but rather it points to allowing alternative online learning locations and after-hours scheduling. Other changes in Bill 36 eliminate the standard school year calendar to enable school districts to offer custom scheduling options to meet the needs of their students, while still adhering to the minimum number of instructional hours.
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