Education in the time of COVID-19 By: Maggie Macintosh Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Tuesday, Mar. 24, 2020 Last Modified: 8:01 PM CDT Tuesday, Mar. 24, 2020 Updates

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This article was published 23/03/2020 (1694 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

E-learning tools accessed via the family tablet are teaching the Valencia siblings lessons of literacy and numeracy — and, at the same time, patience.

Jiahna, 6, Jian, 7, and nine-year-old Jyzella Valencia are sharing a tablet to complete their online assignments while in-person classes are suspended in Manitoba due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“They need to wait for their turn,” said Jennifer Valencia, whose three children attend Kent Road School in Winnipeg. “It would be helpful for the families, for the parents who really can’t afford to buy another extra gadget, if they can lend us (devices from school); it’s a chance for me and my kids to learn more.”

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As classrooms shift into a virtual sphere while educators teach from afar, school divisions are taking different approaches to address the digital divides across Manitoba.

Since public libraries have also been shuttered, some students without access to a device at home have been allowed to borrow laptops. Others, who don’t have access to technology or enough devices for each student in their house, are being handed a stack of paperwork until regular classes resume.

Across the province, school communication is being done both online and via phone. Within Winnipeg city limits, River-East Transcona, Pembina Trails and St. James-Assiniboia divisions are offering hard copies of learning materials if students have limited access to technology.

The general decision among the Winnipeg School Division’s 79 schools was not to send hardware home with students either, because no school has enough devices for each student, said Radean Carter, senior information officer. Approximately 33,000 students are enrolled in the division.

David Livingstone Community School principal Tim Cox said his K-8 school has opted to focus on supplying families with physical learning packages and kits of pencils, crayons, erasers, scissors and glue. Staff have also been doing in-person check-ins around Lord Selkirk Park.

In the Maples, administrators in the Seven Oaks School Division have long been drawing up plans to support students who rely on school Wi-Fi and hardware to complete assignments.

Before the final bell rang Friday at Maples Collegiate, a team of staffers determined approximately 120 of the high school’s 1,600 students wouldn’t have access to the internet or a device when they left the campus.

Vice-principal Jennifer McGowan said teachers printed out worksheets for students returning to Berens River and Poplar River First Nations during the break, as well as others who hail from Winnipeg communities. Students in need have also signed out Chromebook portable computers, McGowan said — although, the challenge of reliable internet access for all is still of concern.

“We’re bringing care packages to about 350 families across the division — that’s food, but also books and games,” said superintendent Brian O’Leary. “We’re trying to keep connected with everybody. Often, the people who are left on the other side of the digital divide are the families we need to be serving the most.”

In the Louis Riel School Division, superintendent Christian Michalik said Tuesday the division has put 50 laptops in the hands of students at home, in addition to pen-and-paper packages. Students may also request to enter schools to use facilities and connect to their Wi-Fi network, which has been opened to the public.

Outside Winnipeg, the Hanover School Division has supplied a total of 1,100 Chromebooks to students in recent days. That’s in addition to approximately 4,000 handed to students between grades 9 to 12, who receive a Chromebook to use throughout their high school tenure.

Meanwhile, in the Winnipeg neighbourhood of Elmwood, the Valencias are making do with a tablet. (The siblings claim their old desktop is too slow to use.)

“I work in a daycare, so I know how to be crafty, so I have lots of ideas to make sure their brain is active, their body is moving,” said Valencia, who is out of work during the COVID-19 pandemic response.

The mother of three added she’s sure she won’t have any problems keeping her children busy during the next three weeks, thanks to her keen students and the abundance of materials sent home from teachers.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Maggie Macintosh
Reporter

Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Winnipeg Free Press. Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.

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