Name of Educational Institution: Pacific Academy Middle School (grade 6-8)
Location of Educational Institution: Surrey, BC
Middle School Population: 340
Entire School Population: 1,400 (K-12)
Community of Learners: A range of multicultural students of both genders – some with diverse learning challenges (e.g. autism, asperger’s, etc.)
Background Information:
Pacific Academy Middle School (PAMS) is one of four schools housed on the same property. Since Pacific Academy (PA) is a K-12 school, the primary school building consists of grades K-2, the intermediate is 3-5; the middle is 6-8; and the high school is 9-12. The founder of PA, Jim Pattison, had a vision over 20 years ago to develop a leading Christian school for those who are less fortunate and could afford Christian education. The Fraser Institute has always rated PA in the top 20 schools in BC and PA has been rated as high as third within the last 10 years.
Back in 1999, a teacher attempted to start an online school at PA. However, due to lack of interest and the community not having the technological support (e.g. internet subscription, slow internet connection, etc.) the online program was terminated. Now, with the advancement of more affordable technologies and an upgrade in staff who understand the software and hardware aspects of educational technology, digital networking (e.g. email) among staff has been set up successfully and more recently – the school portal system has been developed and maintained. This digital portal has created a paperless environment where parents and students can login anytime to find news about what is happening at PA and more specifically in the classroom (however, not every teacher has a class portal page created and s/he is not forced to).
With the servers at PA maintained by www.hostings.ca – a company started and run by a PA alumni – digital systems such as the school portal can run smoothly. Also, new ventures can be started such as integrating a learning management system (LMS) to recreate an online class community at PA – possibly similar to what is used for the University of British Columbia Master’s of Educational Technology (UBC MET) program (i.e. WebCT Vista).
The Case for Action: WebCT Vista
At this initial stage of planning, implementation of WebCT Vista is intended for the 2012-2013 school year at the grade 6 level. The process of completely having WebCT fully operational is estimated to take a period of five years. It is intended that grade 6 students be participating in-class Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and at home participating in online classes through WebCT Vista during Friday and Monday. In this way, this online schooling through WebCT Vista can provide and grant families valuable time to spend together without being constrained to the Monday-to-Friday schedule and use of daily resources (e.g. photocopying, electricity to power the classrooms, janitorial cleaning of the classroom, etc.) can be reduced.
The administrator, technology director, and a staff member, who has recently graduated from the UBC MET program, are exploring the advantages and challenges of employing a learning management system (LMS) such as WebCT Vista. The pursuit and assessment of such a LMS has created discussion surrounding the affordances of WebCT Vista. In order to assist in the evaluation, the decision makers will utilize Bates and Pool’s technology selection framework (2003). Another approach in deciding includes inviting Blackboard (the owners of WebCT Vista) to provide a complete and thorough demonstration of the LMS. As mentioned above, WebCT Vista will have to be maintained and sustained over five years based on the needs of the staff and students.
According to Blackboard (2003), WebCT Vista is designed to be quickly accepted and utilized within an institution (e.g. PA) and provides immediate usefulness to staff. Blackboard (2003) promotes that WebCT Vista enables: “easy course preparation, efficient course management, and impact learning outcomes.”
On the other hand, is the implementation of a LMS even necessary? Among the reasons stated above, a LMS will give the grade 6 program more freedom to capture learners of different learning styles. Also, through a LMS, students learn to become better local and global digital citizens and international learners.
To explore this question in greater detail, a literature review into the topic of WebCT Vista will be carried out along with this proposal.
Cost of Ownership:
At the moment, there are four servers used by PA. With a trustworthy and knowledgeable educational technology (ET) department in place at PA, there are no hidden costs to consider in terms of hardware to implement WebCT Vista. However, there is a one-time licensing fee of $530,000 (UBC, 2005). Because the Jim Pattison Foundation completely covers the operational costs of PA, after he approves and believes that this platform for learning is valuable and a significant investment of how PA can successfully provide education through an online community – he will hopefully grant the amount to pay for this one-time fee.
Initial groundbreaking setup of WebCT Vista and the LMS training for faculty and staff at PA will be provided internally through the teacher who graduated from the UBC MET program and through the support of the ET department.
References:
Bates, A.W. & Poole, G (2003). Chapter 4: a Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education; Foundations for Success. (pp. 77-105). San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers.
Blackboard (2003). WebCT Vista. Retrieved July 5, 2009, from http://www.webct.com/service/ViewContent?contentID=9102515
UBC (2005). Considering an Enterprise Course Management at UBC. Retrieved July 6, 2009, from http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:76rLskW_X4wJ:www.e-strategy.ubc.ca/__shared/assets/ECMAC-Course_Mgmt_System_Summary_CoD_Jan_12_200519883406.doc+implementation+cost+webct&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=safariwww.iste.org: http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_for_Teachers_2008.htm