New kind of online learning ahead for Sudbury students

For Norm Blaseg, it's the same school year, just in a different format.

The director of education for the Rainbow District School Board said teachers are already reaching out to parents and students to lay the groundwork for distance learning as it becomes increasingly likely that students won't be back in class anytime soon.

But outside of the online component, Blaseg said he's not sure what shape the distance learning approach would take.

"We're looking at different types of distribution of materials," Blaseg said. "But what does that look like on Manitoulin Island or out in Monetville? So that is something that we're working on with our staff to try to figure out."

Blaseg does, however, say they will be giving special consideration to the needs of Grade 12 students who near graduation.

"What we're trying to do is establish a timetable," he said. "So if we think of a fourth period timetable out of high school what we would be asking our staff is let's train and reflect that in terms of when we're administering our classrooms so that we're able to reflect the needs of both the staff, and of course, the students, in terms of trying to access those teachers."

One of the challenges, Blaseg said, will be finding out how many students have access to the internet at home, and that enough bandwidth is available.

"I think that everyone sort of recognizes that we need to do the best we can in order to facilitate learning from a distance," Blaseg said. "And so this is the format, knowing full well that in our community and when I say our community, much of it is rural that could be a challenge."

The plan also means that teachers will need to wire their homes for connectivity, if they plan on teaching from there.

"Last week we actually had all of our principals contact their staff to establish if all of our teachers have computers," he said.

"What I can tell you is that the vast majority of our folks do have that."

Blaseg said he's also been pleased with the initiative shown by several teachers who continued communicating with their students as the pandemic struck.

"Many of our staff have already initiated connections with their students and they've already continued with their distance learning which I think is wonderful," he said. "They've already got a head start on the rest of us."

"And I will tell you right now, everybody for the most part at least in our board, [has]really risen to the challenge. So I really appreciate their efforts."