Technology at S.J. Willis

Because I never got around to summarizing the technology progam of my observation period...

There were lots of computers in use around S.J. Willis, but these were mostly for the distance education program, meaning they were used as tools towards teaching other (mainstream) subject areas as opposed to learning directly about computers or technology.

Some alternative computing courses were offered in the distance education program.  They had a keyboarding course and a basic computer skills course that were designed to help adults deficient in computing skills become more functional in computer skills tehy may need for their jobs.  These courses were useful for the adults who took them, but would seemingly be completely redundant for the younger generation of typically computer-literate kids.

In terms of the formal computing skill "pathways" laid out by the PLO's we studied in the class before leaving on observation, there were no courses developed along the lines of government-directed subject material.  Computer education was either very basic or self-paced.

If the some students seemed relatively backwards with technologically backwards, this seemed even more to be the case among the staff (so I fit right in!).  For example, the school had multiple smart boards, but teachers either didn't know how or didn't want to use them.  The most extreme example was my mentor teacher, who is part of the small minority of Canadians who still doesn't even use e-mail!