The following report is a ramble of thoughts and ideas . . . my goal is not to offend, it is to express my views. You English types, please excuse the grammar, spelting mistakes and run on sentences.
This year has been a whirlwind of fun and growth. We are at the stage where we are moving forward very quickly and growing at a speed that is hard to contain. Daily we are getting questions and word of mouth is advertising the project around the system. We have 106 students registered for the first semester of next year already and will see that number climb up to more than 150 by the beginning of the semester. I am very excited about the development of the courses and the level of courses we are getting. I am a little concerned about a couple of things. As this list grows, it should be known that these are not major problems and is part of the growing process. Also it is nice to know we are at the same stages or a little ahead of most other partners who are venturing down this path. Ok, to the concerns, many of the misunderstanding and frustrations this year have come from a lack of communication. The filtering down of information from SaskEd to the Superintendents to the principal to the assistant principal and then finally to the developers has left a lot to be desired. I am not pointing fingers at any of these parties it is just something that has been a source of frustrations for all involved. On a personal level, I am very uncomfortable entering into a meeting with SaskEd or any partners without all the facts. This being a new venture makes it very hard to have all the facts but we are fast approaching the state where if we are going to be looked upon as the experts we need to start to make some of those decisions. The wheels turn slow and my patience is not what it once was so it makes it very difficult to be on the phone with parents who have children interested in being part of the project and I am stammering because I don't know the answers, some of this is bound to happen but some of it is just a lack of planning. It might be an area that I am lacking in and I should be more forceful in obtaining the answers from SaskEd, Principals or the Superintendents. Again Just a Growing Pain
SaskEd has been scrabbling to find answers the same as we are and they are recognizing some of the things that we have suggested but they are also changing the rules or we did not know the rules and this has created a source of frustration for the developers. It might be because we have three of us who are communicating with them or SaskEd and we are not communicating enough. The statement was made at the SaskEd meeting "You at the Saskatoon Catholic have taken the money and used it for something that we did not want, now it is time for the contract that you signed to be honoured." This has caused a little stress, but I do believe it has to do with the way the communication has been set up. Again Just a Growing Pain
My lack of ability to find time to become more a part of the Holy Cross staff has been a source of concern, I very much enjoyed the coaching so I got a chance to meet some students but the workload has made it near impossible for me to give anything to the administration team at Cross. I am thankful to Dennis for allowing me this, I do realize I am 25% assigned to Holy Cross. As we revisit this, realistically with the cyber school job the way it structured I cannot give that 25% to Holy Cross, if this is an expectation then my job at cyber school has to change or the 25% has to, something has to change.
The secretarial time assigned to the cyber school has been a great thing. She has been a great help and has taken part of the load off my shoulders. However, she has not been able to assist the developers with their workload, which was the original plan. Having a secretary that is assigned to Holy Cross and Cyber School did not work because the busy time at Holy Cross is the busy time for us then we did not have the secretary. I like the solution where we have a full or half time secretary that will be assigned only to the cyber school, so thank you in advance for this. Not having the secretary at the beginning of the school year will cause some problems, but I am aware of the reasons why this was not possible and I am very excited about the fact we are getting a secretary.
This year I went through the steps of becoming certified for WebCT and have found that to be a very interesting process, expensive, but interesting. A certified trainer for WebCT is paid 650-1000 dollars a day plus expenses so when we are offering my services let us make sure we get part of the money back that we paid for certification. The province is starting to lean toward WebCT and in no time we will have a large number of people around who are using it.
Maintaining the machines and network has been a lot of fun each of the developers has taken responsibility for their own machine and the group of techies at the board office has done a wonderful job keeping the server up and running. We had a total of four days where our cyber school service was not up and running for the first year this is a remarkable achievement.
Our developer's surveys and Warren Noonan's survey have found the same thing. Our first year has been a very successful venture. The number of students taking classes and the needs that we are meeting within our own system in my opinion makes this a successful project. A lack of benchmarks and goals has made it difficult in deciding if we have been successful or not. This is one of the many problems encountered as we head off into uncharted territory. I had my own set of goals for the course I have developed and for the cyber school and they have been achieved.
The developers as a group have been outstanding, to be placed in such tight room and to have not killed each other is a testament to the type of people involved. They have given over and above what has been asked of them and have done very little complaining. My one concern is my lack of ability to give each one of them the attention they sometimes need. They are very good at building on each others strength and this I think has made the synergy in the room something to see. We are all looking very forward to our new pod and the ability to see daylight.
I have voiced my opinion about the development time the developers need to complete courses. I believe the 25% release that we give our developers is not enough time but the pay off for the developers, I think off sets this deficiency. The other supports that have been put in place have helped, the High Speed at home, nice chairs, learning skills and good machines. Machines at home are still a concern for some of the developers and my understanding is that it is being looked into. I am not comfortable with the amount of time that was given to Christian Ethics. We have set a formula for release time and to change that now is not a good plan with some of the developers who have already given their summer and evenings trying to complete their courses. If this is a new formula we are going to start to apply then we need to know this. Realistically a person cannot develop more then two courses in a year, giving more release time will not change this. The developers old and new are asking questions and I still do not know the reasoning.
We are looking forward to the introduction of women into the pod, I have talked to some of the developers and they said they will clean up their act. We might have to divide the new pod into two areas one for the fairer sex and one for the others. I am not sure which group some of the original developers would fall into.
I am excited about starting to look at part of the international market this project might be able to tap into, but it needs to be an organized effort and we need to set a plan in place. I think this could be an area that will assist us in our overall plan for the cyber school.
Ownership is an issue that needs to be resolved, I am very aware that it is black and white in some people's eyes but it is not for everyone and to avoid future issues we need to make a concerted effort to clarify this issue.
I have heard that we are getting to the stage where we are tapping out our system for teachers that we can afford to release for the main stream to work in this area. I think the way some people are viewing this project is that it is outside of our mandate and we need to treat it differently. If we open a new school in our system we would staff that school to fit its needs, I am wondering why this is viewed differently. If we are teaching 200+ sections in our system to our students why is this not viewed like any other program. I do not know of another area in our school system that is treated like this. I have on many occasions been told well we have to make sure this happens or that happens or this project will not continue or if we do not get to the stage where SaskEd is . . . Again, these are outside factors that we cannot control we can influence and should do everything in our power to influence but we need to plan for success. To build a project while the whole time covering our butts so that if it fails, we will be prepared for it is not the way I function, beyond a shadow of a doubt if we plan for success we will be successful. I am not sure what we have to do to get to the stage where we will be able to view this project as something other then a pilot. It is meeting the needs of students, the caliber of education has not dropped, it is not costing us any more to offer classes this way then it does to offer them in a class, so what is needed to get this to the stage where we will quit wondering if it is going to be a success. I have heard from all levels and I am as guilty as the next person that I wonder if the students are going to be able to learn this way, I wonder if . . . We will continue to hear this from the people who are not sure of what this project is all about, but if you are involved with this project you need to educate yourself to the stage where you believe in this project or you need to step out of it and let some get involved who believes in it. This is not pointed at anyone in particular but if you are reading this and you can see some of these characteristics in yourself, then talk them out and get passed them or this project is going to remain in the pilot stage forever. We will continue to be successful. If you don't believe, we are successful or going to continue to be successful then you need to re-evaluate your role in this project.
In conclusion, I have done presentations all over this province and all over Western Canada and the standard response from people as we explain what we have achieved is WOW. We need to build on this feeling.
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