Peggy Revell
Senteos, SmartBoards, sympodiums, and Moodle would seem like words from a strange language for the average person but they’re everyday fare for students and staff at Fort Frances High School as it continues to expand its use of technology to improve student learning.
“[Students] don’t think twice about it any more,” Fort High teacher Shannon Produniuk said about shift towards using technology in education, which brings with it a whole new vocabulary.
“Instead of using an overhead projector, you’re using a smart board now and making it more interactive [with] easier to use tools,” she noted.
One of the most recent and biggest technological investments has been in SmartBoards—touch screen whiteboards connected to computers. Already present in many classrooms, there are plans to have 24 more installed at Fort High by September.
“I think it’s been really awesome that the Rainy River District School Board has made technology such an important component of the board’s approach to supporting students and enhancing their learning, and by ensuring that many classrooms, and almost all as of next year ,will have smart board technology,” echoed math and English teacher Denise Rybuck.
“I think it’s allowing us to provide better instruction for our students.”
Having a SmartBoard means having the ability to share information with students that is really current and relevant, Rybuck explained.
“It might mean something that just happened on the news or in the world this morning, before we came to school,” she noted, citing the example of when the earthquake struck in Haiti back in mid-January.
“Some of the kids aren’t really aware of all that goes on in the world, so we were able to pull up information immediately on the SmartBoard, take a look first at where is Haiti, what happened, number of people affected, what was going on in terms of Canada’s role in support in that situation,” Rybuck said.
“And so it helps to bridge gaps in terms of their understanding.
“I may be an English teacher, I may be a math teacher, but we were able to incorporate aspects of science and geography by just exploring that information,” she added.
Another way students in Rybuck’s class used the SmartBoard most recently is following the Olympics—right from when the cross-country torch run first began.
“We were able to call up the interactive map relay and the kids were able to manipulate that,” she explained. “So it made them more aware of their surroundings and where they fit in society.”
This type of process meant that students were able to “create their own understanding” of the event and develop their own questions, Rybuck noted, and then be able to look up and learn the answers to them.
Another program Rybuck is using in her classroom is “Senteos,” which allows her to hold quizzes and ask students in the classroom multiple choice questions in a “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” style.
And along with the SmartBoards, document viewers and sympodiums also are being brought into the classroom. This technology allows textbooks, documents—even dissections—automatically called up.
“All these pieces of equipment have been really helpful in terms of meeting different learner’s needs,” Rybuck said about the shift to using SmartBoards and other technology in the classroom.
“Some students are visual learners, some students are auditory learners, some students are kinescetic, so having all these opportunities gets into the multiple intelligences, as well, drawing upon their strengths and incorporate those into my instruction,” she remarked.
Part of bringing technology into the classroom also means giving students the opportunity to use the tools people in the workforce are working with right now.
Students at Fort High, for instance, have access to Autocad (the 2-D and 3-D design, drafting computer program), 3DS Max, which is used for 3-D modelling and rendering by animators, and, in putting together the yearbook, use Adobe Indesign—the software used for graphic design and publishing.
Geomatics and geographic technologies have been incorporated into all of the school’s geography classes, noted Fort High teacher Robroy Donaldson.
“In particular, I have a Grade 11 and Grade 12 class where we focus on what we call geotechnologies,” he explained. “We use Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and we use GPS.
“We learn how to use them, not just for navigation but to map out and record sort of spatial information.
“We’re using the same software, essentially, that people in the industry are using. The Town, AbitibiBowater, the Ministry of Natural Resources—they’re all using essentially the same software,” he added.
The high school also has six computer labs, a library lab, and computers available in the main library that students and staff can utilize, noted Donaldson.
“We’re pretty well set up in terms of our ratio of computers to students,” he said, adding Fort High’s accessibility often is better than what he has seen in other boards, including some in southern Ontario.
“I think, in some ways, the ‘wow’ factor is going away for some students,” said Donaldson, referring to the “big changes” that have been seen in how technology is being used in schools.
“Today we were just talking about the earthquake in Chile, and on the SmartBoard I brought up the CBC News site, we were looking at some of the pictures, I brought up Google Earth and we zoomed in and looked at the subduction fault all on Google Earth, and it’s right there and it’s just accepted as part of their existence now.
“It’s what we would be using if I were their age, so I think it’s a great thing.
“I think the basic concepts are always there,” Donaldson stressed. “Which is really at the heart of what we do—no matter what the tools are, whether they’re looking at a book or a computer screen, it’s really about teaching them to think for themselves and that discipline of thought that’s so important.
“I suppose maybe the biggest shift now is because students are surrounded by so much information, a lot of it is really disjointed because of the nature of the Web,” Donaldson added.
“We have to teach them to be good filters of information,” he warned.
And using this type of technology also means teachers can help teach the students how to be safe online, Produniuk said.
Along with all the new technology, Fort High has a wireless system, noted Computer Science teacher Sherree Denby, meaning laptops and PDAs can be used. As well, students and staff have their own school e-mail that can be accessed from anywhere.
The school’s online website also is meant to help out staff and students in getting information, including current news, an interactive calendar, and checking out their timetables by typing in their student number.
Teachers also can use the website for booking out rooms and equipment.
Currently, Fort High is piloting an online textbook tracking program, Denby added, and the Rainy River District School Board also has implemented a video on demand program for teachers to use in classrooms.
But one of the biggest online interactive tools the school is using is Moodle–an open-source program “virtual learning environment.”
Through Moodle, teachers can post assignments, quizzes, create discussion groups, Wikis, quizzes, and much more that students can access.
“It’s a real extension of our classroom,” noted Fort High teacher, Shane Beckett, who uses Moodle extensively in his classes.
The program allows students and educators to access course content 24/7 from any location, he remarked, pointing to how—when he was on medical leave for a day—he still was able to help out students from home when they had questions about their work.
Moodle also has been useful when it comes to the music program at the school, said Donaldson.
“When we have a number of students—for example, right now [we’re] in the midst of a musical [and] all learning music—we’re able to share, and give students access securely to the music online so that they can practise,” he explained, noting the program also allows easier communication and organizing of groups together.
“I’m also using Moodle in my guitar course right now, as a way of not just posting all the information that we have in the course but a way for kids to review,” Donaldson added.
“Prior to a quiz or a test, I can actually post just visuals of the notes on the fret board and kids can practise ahead of time and see that this is an ‘F’ this is a F# and they can actually do a little online quiz just to practise even listening to sampling of songs and do it that way.”
One of the other helpful technological developments in the classroom is the use of the Phonic Ear System, which amplifies a teacher’s voice across the whole classroom.
Seen in many of the local elementary schools already, teachers are given a cordless mike—either hand-held or which can go around their necks—which then carries their voice out through the speakers around the classroom ceiling.
“In terms of the students hearing me, no matter where in the room [they] still get my instruction or my direction,” said Rybuck, noting this means students all have the same opportunity to hear the lesson no matter where they sit.
“And it’s been really helpful for students who have auditory proficiency issues,” she added.
“Regardless of where I am in the classroom, you’re able to hear me without necessarily seeing me, which has been a benefit to all students regardless of their diagnoses or not.”
Rybuck said the technology also means teachers can talk in a normal voice and not have to shout.
“Our voices are still the tool we use a lot, so it helps save our voice,” agreed Donaldson.
And the use of technology isn’t just limited to the hallways and classrooms of Fort High thanks to the Schoolhouse parent portal.
“That’s where any parent can log in as long as they’re registered with the main office here in our trillium system,” Denby explained, noting by registering, parents will receive their own login name and secure password to sign into the site.
There parents have access to tools such as viewing attendance information “as it happens,” Denby noted.
“Because the teachers are doing online attendance, seconds after the teachers record the attendance, the parents can log in and see it,” she said.
Besides seeing school pictures, parents also can check all the contact information for students so it can be kept up to date—as well as ensuring there is no one who has access to a student that a parent doesn’t want to be.
The latest report card marks also are available through the Schoolhouse parent portal, for both elementary and secondary information, Denby added, as well as a student’s individual education plan.
“Then there’s a list of the credits that the student has that are compulsory, so you can see how far they are from getting their graduating certificate and what they still need,” she explained, citing another example of how this technology can be used by parents.
