The+Context

=The Context=


 * // **Peggy - Saskatchewan Green** //
 * Mary - Burlington, ON Eastern time
 * Brian - Rouge, EST time
 * Ifeoma - Toronto-ET, Blue

June 24:

 * Hey all! Mary, you had some excellent thoughts in the Context. I ended up adding onto a lot of your thoughts, rearranging some things, and filling in some details. I hope that was okay! I think this will make writing the rest of the paper a lot easier. Thoughts? Should more references be cited in this section? Feel free to make any changes! The version of the context I wrote is in red.
 * Brian i think you did a great job adding new ideas to the context. Please, feel free to make the modifications you need! i think we will still be making some changins anyway to get the final result. thanks a lot!!
 * This is coming together well. I've added a few thoughts at this point, added to the paragraphs. Good evolution at this point.

**June 19:**
Hi Gang – Brian & I did manage to meet up for awhile Saturday morning, around 10 AM your time. Ifeoma – your email just came in – I’ll send this then read your message. Sunday – I’ll try to log on to the virtual meeting room ( [] ) from 10:30 – 11:30 Eastern time tomorrow, in case anyone else can make it then. (We are finally getting some decent weather in Saskatchewan, so I like to get outside for part of the day!) Brian & I talked a bit about the rationale of our school, some of the literature we want to include, a bit about organization for our paper. I’ll copy this to the wiki – we’ve added a few extra pages. Some of the key points (all still open for discussion) (and Brian, I’ve added a few additional points): We also thought we could arrange the paper in a similar way to Assignment 1 – Context, Environmental Scan, Vision, & Implications, although we should also perhaps build it more as a strategic planning document perhaps. Lots of examples on the web. Your thoughts on sometime like this: · Our school is a private Ontario high school, and our new vision is not only to go online & offer blended instruction to our resident students, but also to go international – truly a “School without Boundaries.” We welcome students of all nationalities from around the world who are interested in a quality education. We set and expect high standards and have a strong faculty committed to excellence in education. · Some points of our rationale for re-organization would include (from Sangrà, Guàrdia, & González-Sanmamed, 2007, in Bullen & James, pg 287): o to widen targets by expanding from a locally offered high school to provincially, nationally, and internationally o to improve economic expectations due to projected increases in tuition income o to respond to the technical imperative o to improve the quality of education, in part by offering a global perspective & student body · Equally important is to prepare our students for a knowledge-based economy by providing the 21st Century skills they will need as leaders in society o Easy to find references to 21st century skills, but see here for an exampl e - []

· Increased revenue from tuition will help pay for any new infrastructure (although we are already doing well in that regard), and pay for hiring and maintaining an instructional design team needed to help develop our online program. · Our paper will be sure to focus on Educational Design Approach: o learning needs and the environment in which they occur are analyzed o training needs are defined o the most appropriate resources with regard to the learning processes are chosen o contents and activities are developed o the learning process is evaluated
 * As a private school, at present we are fairly well along the technological path and funding is largely covered through tuition. Key stakeholders including parents, faculty and our Board are excited about the new vision. There are technology leaders within the school, specifically some e-Learning leaders. Support of faculty’s technical needs will be an important consideration to ensure that faculty can focus on instruction, as well as professional development on pedagogical shifts required for effective online teaching.

> I thought this might support education quality as a rationale >> >> **Contextual factors:** A description of the economic and social forces that have an effect on the education system, but are beyond the direct control of the system. I.E. socio-economic status, enrollment, language background, geographical location and categories of special needs, and student mobility. //(I guess most of this has been covered in the context)// >> >> **Input factors:** description of the resources that go into the system. e.g teachers’ qualifications and experience, accessibility and use of instructional materials, student attendance, support personnel, and use of computers in selected subjects. >> >> **Process factors:** description of the resulting activities from the use and management of the input indicators within the school. Among these process factors are teachers’ professional development, planning, and collaboration. >> >> **Output factors:** description of students’ development while they are still in school, including students’ attitudes and achievement results. Other Context Items? (Some of these may not belong in the Context section of the report)
 * **Rationale** - why does our institution want a "school without boundaries"?
 * Some suggestions from the readings (Bates, pg 16) - but give a thumbs up or down & add others.
 * **improve quality of learning**
 * **provide students with everyday information technology skills they will need in their work and life**
 * **to widen access to education and training** **to respond to "technological imperative"**
 * **to reduce costs of education**
 * **to improve cost-effectiveness**
 * **Other?**
 * ** Foster a sustainable Learning community **
 * Develop and facilitate higher-order learning skills, such as problem solving,decision making, and critical thinking (Bates,p.28 see also p.11 for other skills)
 * Whaever we decide for rationale, it must be sufficient enough to decide to undergo a major organizational change - that is, we'll have to be able to explain why maintaining the status quo is no longer sufficient.
 * The EQAO Education Quality Indicators Framework examines a range of factors organized into four categories:
 * **Student population** - not all of these may be important.
 * number of students
 * ages
 * motivation for enrolling in the "school without boundaries"
 * Geographic distribution of the students? Just in the city? Rural area? Entire province? Beyond the province?
 * Financial status of students - is that relevant? Will there be a wide range, or are most likely to be wealthy or poor? Could impact on things such as - how do we ensure access for students (will they need or already have computers? wireless access?)


 * Particulars about the school**
 * School Name: Jhon Macdonald Secondary school
 * Location - Toronto, ON
 * can I suggest we are a large high school (what grades?) in some urban area in Ontario? Ifeoma or Mary, can you get some or make something up about a large high school - student population size, staff population size, support staff, etc. Or Brian?

__Context:__

John MacDonald Secondary School (JMSS) is a private high school located in Toronto, Ontario that caters to students in grades 10 through 12. The school consists of approximately 300 students (maybe more students than this - not a critical point), 30 instructors, and 3 administrators. The mission of JMSS is to "maximize student learning in the changing global society." In order to achieve this goal, the curriculum at JMSS is based on standards set by the Canadian Ministry of Education and Ontario's Education Quality and Accountability Office. Educational technologies are also widely used amongst the instructors to maximize student learning, including one computer lab, two mobile labs, and a SMART Board in each classroom. Technology training is available to every teacher on an "as needed" basis by a math teacher whose role doubles as the technology chair. Given that nearly of of JMSS's graduate enroll in 4-year universities and receive university scholarships, enrollment in JMSS is extremely competitive and student motivation to succeed is high.

To meet the changing demands of the global marketplace, JMSS has set a school-wide technology goal of being fully online in the 2011-2012 (maybe a longer time line than this) academic year in a "School Without Boundaries" (SWB) scenario. Currently, JMSS implements a mixed instructional approach in which all the courses are taught face-to-face but include online modules to maximize student learning. The "School Without Boundaries" approach would enable not only students in Toronto but also students from around the world to enroll in an online learning community created by JMSS. The SWB scenario would also provide faculty with opportunities to improve the quality of learning and provide students with technology-based skills needed in the real world, as outlined by Bates (p. 16). (in the rationale section we can expand on benefits of eLearning for the students)

Funding for JMSS is based on student tuition rates; however t he school has also received a 5-year corporate sponsorship by Apple implement the SWB vision. As part of the sponsorship deal, Apple has agreed to suppply the school with all the initial computers and start-up programs for students and staff to implement this vision at no cost to JMSS. I n addition, Apple has offered technical support for the staff and an 80% discount on the purchase and upgrade of new computers and equipment for the first year. After this period of time, a 60% discount is available to all teachers and students towards the purchase of any additional personal laptop and a similar reduced rate for technical support. As part of this exchange, Apple reserves the rights to sell, distribute and advertise their services and products in the school as agreed upon by the administration and school board at JMSS. (I'm going to think a bit more about this arrangement) This agreement means that students registered JMSS only need to procure high-speech internet access in order to take advantage of SWB. ___ Students already do some coursework online. The school also offers some training for staff on computers use and online e-learning materials to be used in the classroom. JMC has three computer labs that are open for students not only during class, but for tutorials regarding the use of different programs. Students would like to enroll in the" school without boundaries" because it offers them the possibility to have access to not only to pure content related to the subject of study, but also be able to connect with other students from different institutions to create a learning community.


 * Current technology infraestructure

John Macdonald school has received corporate sponsorship from " Apple computers". As part of the sponsorship deal, Apple will suppply the school with all the initial computers to carry on the vision of a "school without boundaries". There will be a zero cost to the school. In addition, it will offer 60% special discount to all the teachers and students for the purchase of personal laptop. Apple computers will offer technical support for the staff for the first year. After two years, Apple computers will offer the school 80% discount on the purchase and upgrade of new computers and equipment. Apple computes will have all the rights to sell,distribute and advertise all their services and products in the school as agreed upon by the school and school district.

I am not sure what "participating institution" means but as a high school we must be operating under certain rules and regulations set by
 * **What departments will be involved?**
 * I suggest the entire school, all departments?
 * I suggest the entire school as well as we are using "equiping the students with 21st century skills" as a rationale
 * funding (environmental scan?)
 * How do we describe our financial funding?
 * Any other participating institution? (external support)
 * The Ministry of Education
 * EQAO (Education Quality and Accountability Office) in the case of Ontario
 * There are initiatives by private corportions that come into agreement with schools (E.g Microsoft and the initiatives for their Learning Gateway) Do we consider such organisations as participating institution?