Lethbridge School Division introducing pilot project for online learning

By Herald on March 9, 2021.

Lethbridge School Division Board of Trustees chair Christine Light speaks to reporters about the divisionÕs new e-learning pilot project during a press conference on Monday. Herald photo by Tim Kalinowski

Tim Kalinowski – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – tkalinowski@lethbridgeherald.com

The Lethbridge School Division will be introducing a pilot project which will explore the option of allowing certain students to continue learning online even after the current COVID-19 pandemic ends. “One thing we have learned is there are students who learn differently,” explained Christine Light, chair of the LSD School Board of Trustees, in a press conference on Monday.

“Some students thrive within the school context, and some students have actually thrived within the online learning context. So it is really important for us to listen to that, and look forward and see how we could engage those students better– and give them the quality education they deserve.”

Light said one of the interesting features of the pilot program, which right now is only available for eligible students from Grades 1-8, is that it will be linked directly to two centralized local school communities no matter which area of the city the students come from.

“So even though they are online, they are tied to a school community,” she said. “For elementary students their school will be our new school, Dr. Robert Plaxton, on the southside, and everything will move through that school. And for middle school students their home-base school will be Senator Joyce Fairbairn on the westside.

“Anyone in the city is able to apply,” Light added later, “and we are really hoping to include students from all over Lethbridge. We are not aiming at one demographic or neighbourhood of student population.”

A high school pilot program will also be introduced in a few months, she stated.

Middle school students attending online classes during this year-long pilot project, said Light, will be given the option to attend option classes and school sports in person at Senator Joyce Fairbairn– giving parents maximum choice and flexibility in their child’s education.

Light said the online technologies and resources developed by the school division to provide at-home learning options during the global pandemic have “catapulted” an idea forward which had already been years in the making. “I think the conversation has always been there, but there has always been lack of momentum in moving forward,” she explained. “I think the pandemic has thrust us ten steps forward in many ways, and it has allowed the education system to really land in the online arena.”

Parents wishing to write an expression of interest in having their children take part in this e-learning pilot project have until March 23 to submit it to the school division. For more details visit the Lethbridge School Division website.

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