Distributed Learning
Alberta’s Distributed Learning Strategy—Discover Phase Update
Since April 2008, the project team, expert working groups and steering committee for Alberta’s Distributed Learning Strategy have been involved in a comprehensive public involvement process to gather information on:
- the current state of distributed learning in Alberta
- perceptions and emerging trends in this area
- possible futures for distributed learning in Alberta.
Overall, the public involvement activities included the following:
- Online surveys (English and French) were accessed by 1774 respondents. Participants and respondents were contacted through open invitations to school jurisdictions that encouraged involvement of current distributed learning stakeholders as well as non-users.
- There were 28 focus groups. These groups included teachers; principals; home educators; Treaty 6, 7, 8 First Nations educators; school authority technology contacts; high achieving students; and representatives of the College of Alberta School Superintendents (CASS), Francophone school authorities, industry, private schools and an institutional program for students at risk.
- There were 21 site visits spanning all six zones in the province.
- Sixty-seven interviews were conducted as follows: 21 parents, 5 technology vendors, 16 professional development providers, 12 post-secondary professors/administrators and 13 experts in the area of distributed learning from across Canada. The experts included representatives from the National Research Council – Institute for Information Technology and from education ministries in Prince Edward Island, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, Ontario and Yukon. They also included researchers from the University of Manitoba, Mount Royal College, La Cité collégiale and the Centre for Distance Learning & Innovation in Newfoundland/Labrador.
Preparations are now underway for the Alberta ECS-12 Distributed Learning Forum, to be held online from October 20 to November 3, 2008, and live in various locations across the province on November 4, 2008. View the Alberta ECS-12 Distributed Learning Forum brochure. Interested participants are encouraged to register for the November 4 forum and to participate in online discussions through the Distributed Learning Forum Online Community.
Details regarding information collected during the Discover Phase will be made available on an ongoing basis, prior to the Distributed Learning Forum, through the Distributed Learning Forum Online Community.
For more information regarding Alberta’s Distributed Learning Strategy, contact Hélène Fournier at 780–674–8700. To be connected toll-free inside Alberta, dial 310–0000.
New Distributed Learning Resources
Several new distributed learning resources are available, including resources for mathematics, science and social studies. To view details regarding these resources, click the relevant link below:
For more information regarding Alberta Education’s distributed learning resources, including details on how to obtain these resources, refer to the May 2008 edition of Connection.
Note: Links to other sites are provided as sources of information to users on an "as is" basis without warranty of any kind. Alberta Education is not responsible for maintaining these external sites.
