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In the 21st century, mastering the use of computers and other information and communication technologies (ICTs) has become as important as traditional academic skills.
In its 2009 report, State of E-Learning in Canada, the Canadian Council on Learning identifies several powerful e-learning tools that today’s educators are integrating into regular classroom activities.
One such initiative is the web-based literacy software, ABRACADABRA (A Balanced Reading Approach for Canadians Designed to Achieve Best Results for All). Kindergarten through second-grade students can practise specific skills such as reading and hearing stories, and spelling and sounding out words through the internet. Teacher resources are available, including a feature for monitoring students’ progress. The ultimate goal of the software is to enable these children to become independent readers. Early results have been positive: a 2006 study of first-grade students shows significant improvement in key literacy skills such as letter-sound knowledge, phonological blending, listening and reading comprehension. ABRACADABRA has also proven effective with students with attention difficulties. “What makes this learning tool revolutionary is that it’s carefully based on evidence and validated,” said Dr. Philip Abrami, director of Concordia University’s Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP), which developed the software. The program is built on cutting-edge science of learning acquisition, brain development and early childhood literacy.
Moreover, Abrami adds, “ABRACADABRA is available without charge.”
Today, teachers across Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and Manitoba use ABRACADABRA, generating 6,700 student visits a month. CSLP conducts training sessions for teachers three times a year and plans to continue deploying ABRACADABRA across the country. The program is also being accessed internationally—for example, by Australia’s Charles Darwin University, where it is being adapted for Aboriginal children.
Today, students in kindergarten through grade 12 (K–12) are far more technologically savvy than their parents—in fact, these students are younger than laptop computers and more comfortable with keyboards than pen and paper. Even in 2000, Statistics Canada reported that 82% of Canadian parents said their school-age children used the internet.
At home, school and in the neighbourhood, K–12 students’ lives are immersed in internet devices, cell phones and iPods, sophisticated game and other software programs, social networking websites and on-demand entertainment.
This dependence on technology is facilitated by Canada having one of the world’s finest telecommunications infrastructures. More than a million computers are now available for 5.3 million K–12 students in Canadian schools, creating a significantly better ratio than the average among industrialized countries. One computer is available for every 13 students in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.
School boards across Canada are designing curricula for students to include online courses, reaching 36% of secondary and 3% of elementary schools in 2004—and these proportions are growing. As CCL indicates in State of E-Learning in Canada, provincial e-learning initiatives include a range of high-quality multimedia resources and interactive courseware with individual feedback and assessment. Teachers and middle- to high-school students can control the timing, location and pace of studies. More rural than urban students are participating in online courses, since distance education diminishes remoteness with the click of a mouse.
It is important to remember that e-learning consists of a cluster of digital tools; it is not a pedagogical method. There is a need for more research on the relationship between e-learning and teaching practices, as well as on the interdependence of digital and traditional literacy. As digital technologies are being harnessed in an effort to improve conventional skills, the inverse also appears to be true: research shows that comprehensive reading and problem-solving skills, for example, are essential to developing digital literacy.
Print-based, mathematical and scientific literacy facilitates optimal use of the complex software and higher-order knowledge available electronically. However, the ability simply to look up complicated math problems does not equate learning how to solve them.
As CCL points out, research findings that do exist offer a variety of opinions and conclusions regarding e-learning’s effectiveness. Student satisfaction surveys suggest that the quality of teaching and learning are affected positively; and enthusiastic educators make claims regarding the value of e-learning’s complementary role in schooling. Massive investments in educational technology continue to be made, yet neither academic achievement nor student motivation appears to improve merely because there are computers in the classroom.
For e-learning to fulfil its potential, Canada needs a stronger understanding of the “digital divide,” which has not been fully researched. Home computers have become a common educational resource, and students from more affluent families are more likely to have access to one. Parents with higher levels of income and education tend to treat home computers as essential cultural capital. Their children are more likely to have a positive attitude toward computers and reap whatever educational and long-term economic advantages they confer. Whether computers reduce or augment socioeconomic inequalities continues to be debated.
As CCL’s report highlights, many other countries have implemented comprehensive e-learning strategies and made digital learning a national priority. In contrast, Canada lacks a coherent framework to shape e-learning’s development. Coordinated efforts among stakeholders across the country are called for, along with relevant empirical and longitudinal research, to realize e-learning’s vast potential.