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OUR MONTHLY MEMBERSHIP BUY R PRICE AND GET ak nenanr 4/2 PRICE! ae | EXPIRES JULY 30/95 HOOTER'S FITNESS 199 Columbia Ave. «365-6161 You won't believe what we're putting on sale. Starts Friday, July 7 ¢ 9:00 am BONNETTS MEN'S WEAR = 233 Columbia Ave., Castlegar 365-6761 —7 a EXTERIOR OIL BASED SOLID HIDE STAIN ope eT ee 611 Columbia Avenue VinyL & FABRIC REMNANTS PRICED TO CLEARI! 20% OFF Im STOCK UPHOLSTERY FABRICS RECONDITIONED FURNITURE ON SALE NEW LOVESEAT STURDILY BUILT BY SPRINGBACK UPHOLSTERY OPEN TUES. TO FRI. OR BY APPOINTMENT SPRINGBACK UPHOLSTERY MFG. 601A Columbia Avenue — Downstairs * 365-7787 —Redefining The Classroom The classrooms of tomorrow will be unlike any you-or I have known. Gone will be the tradition- al walls, tables and desks. In its place will be the stuff that we used to read about in sci-fi books. By Ron Norman Everybody knows what a classroom looks like, right? Four walls, some windows if you’re lucky, fluorescent lighting, a chalk- board, tables and desks, pens, pencils and notebooks, and more recently, a computer or two. That’s more or less how classrooms have been for the last century or two— even longer. But no more. Forget about tables and desks,. Forget about pens, pencils and note- ks. ; Forget about chalkboards and erasers. Even forget about walls. That’s right, walls. The classroom of tomorrow won’t have walls. It won’t even be a “room”. Instead it will be a series of satellite links or electronic connections between individual students flung across the region, province, country, continent and, yes, even the world. But that’s all in the far-off future, right? Sometime in the next century? Wrong. Tomorrow is closer than you think. Thanks to recent advances in infor- mation technology, the traditional classroom is about to undergo its most dramatic transformation since Socrates first pulled up alog and sat down at one end and plunked a student at the other. And Selkirk College is leading the way into this brave new world. The local college has proposed a series of funda- mental changes to how it delivers edu- cation within the region. And with changes in how education is delivered, come changes in education itself. The biggest change will be the way students have access to their instruc- tors. No longer will students be forced to gather together in one room at the college campus in Castlegar. Instead, they will have a variety of “classrooms” from which to choose how they will learn. These classrooms can be in their own homes, in a nearby ele- mentary school, in a college satellite centre located in some remote part of the region or, in the traditional manner, at the college campus itself. It all depends on what technology is used. Technology is the engine that will drive the new college education system. “It certainly is a major component,” agrees Selkirk College president Leo Perra in an interview in which he talked about the college’s new direction. Perra speaks of an “integrated” learn- ing system, which, if approved by the provincial government, will be the first of its kind among community colleges. This integrated system will electronical- ly connect the college with area schools, businesses and community groups using a variety of technologies. So far these technologies include interactive video , computer-assisted learning and distance education. WEDNESDAY, July Interactive video is where an instruc- tor is in one location (say, Selkirk Col- lege’s Castlegar campus) and the students are in other locations (such as other college centres, high schools or elementary schools). They interact via video screens, just as if they were all together in one “classroom”. “People in Burton will be as close to the technology as their elementary school,” says Perra. This kind of “classroom” is similar to the present distance education programs offered through the provincial Knowl- edge Network—but on a regional scale and with an interactive component. The college recently received provin- cial funding to put an interactive video network in place. It has installed the nec- essary equipment at its Castlegar, Trail and Nelson campuses, and will have it in the Grand Forks centre this fall. As well, a regional network involving several West Kootenay school districts and businesses is in the planning stages. The college is also proposing to pilot a university transfer course this year using new interactive video technology. That would mean students in Grand Forks wouldn’t have to drive to Castle- gar to take a course in English (if that is the course that is piloted), but would instead-drive to their local Selkirk Col- lege centre and hear the same lecture and be able to ask the same questions as if they were sitting in a classroom in Castlegar. The problem with interactive video is that the students still have necessary. When the new classrooms are up and running, the college will have net- worked (or linked) all its campuses and learning centres for data, voice, fax and interactive video. It will also have computer systems to enable students to have easy access to education programs. But the technology is only a part of ‘The classroom of tomorrow won't have walls. It won't even be a room.’ the new classroom—the part that allows the changes to take place. What is taught and who teaches it is as important as ever—if not moreso. And the college hasn’t overlooked that aspect. “We need to redesign the curriculum so that it becomes much more self-con- tained,” says Perra. At the same time, instructors will have to be trained to teach in these new “classrooms” of the future. It is all part of a different educational focus, where the student is the centre of the learning experience and not the col- lege and instructor. “What emerges is a design for the future of the college, a design which places the learner first and foremost,” says the college in an extensive opera- tional review completed just last month. The title of the review reflects the role the student will have in the college edu- cation system of tomorrow. The review is called “The Learners’ Perspective.” The operational review is the blueprint for carrying out many of the changes to build the “classroom” of the future. However, the review doesn’t dis- card the traditional classroom with its four walls and chalkboard. It tries to build on it by proposing that there are many versions of the “classroom”. But building the classroom of the future isn’t cheap. The operational review lays out a five-year plan with a total cost of close to $7 million. Some $1.6 million will be used to put the necessary technology in place, another $3.5 million to revise the cur- riculum to fit the new technology, and $1.4 million for staff development and administrative support. While the provincial government hasn’t given the green light to the col- lege’s proposals, Perra says it has indi- cated it likes the idea of the classroom of the future. “The ministry has certainly indicated solid support,” he says. In the meantime, the college has established a transition team to help develop priorities that will allow the classroom of the future to move from concept to reality. to come together in one place: a Selkirk College centre, whether it is Grand Forks, Nelson or Trail. So the college has plans for yet another form of a “classroom”. “There are a variety of technologies at work that allow for a classroom envi- ronment,” explains Perra. One such technology is the home computer and modem, or what the col- lege ‘calls “computer- assisted” ;earning. “The student does a lot of work on their own and when they-need help they contact the college,” explains Perra. “You will communicate when you have a need.to communi- cate.” He points to a recent course he himself took where the students’ “class- room” was their computer terminal which was linked by modem to an instruc- tor. The instructor had the top two-thirds of the com- puter screen to deliver the material. The students used the bottom third of the screen. When a stu- dent wanted to ask a ques- tion, he. or she simply punched a key and the instructor would stop. The student would then enter his question. The goal is to enable the college to be accessible to as many people in the region as possible. Perra points out that people who want to take courses from Selkirk Col- lege live in places like Kaslo and New Denver and simply can’t make the drive to Castlegar or Trail or Nelson every day, espe- cially in the winter. With the classroom of the future, that drive won't be Se ee