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Chinook School Division IT Supervisor, Ron McConnell

 

The days of chalkboards, paper notebooks and overhead projectors in schools are essentially over.

More and more technology is making its way into the classroom, and the Chinook School Division is doing what they can to keep up.

"We do get pressure from our staff that can see good learning areas that could be used by utilizing technology, as well as parents that want us to not only embrace it but constantly keep up with it and use newer technology that is available at home," says Information Technology supervisor Ron McConnell who also feels it's important for schools to adapt as the world changes.

Part of making the adjustment is by increasing bandwidth in several of the school division's high schools, in partnership with Sasktel and the Ministry of Education. In particular with the growing use of teaching

"In a lot of our high schools, we have supplemented the educational process with distance learning and so we have got teachers teaching from afar," McConnell says. "Of course you would need video and sounds to be transmitted in both directions from the external high schools in southwest Saskatchewan to the central high schools where the teachers are".

Over the last year, Chinook installed 39 SmartBoards, replaced around 400 computers and monitors, and installed second Internet lines at 11 different schools to keep up with bandwidth demands.

IT Supervisor, Ron McConnell talks about adapting to changing technology in the Chinook School Division...



Part 2...