Partners reach out to remote communities

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Soon a computer with Internet access will be all a person living in a remote community will need to receive industry recognized information technology training, thanks to the First Nations Distance Learning Program.

The program is being developed by Cisco Systems Canada, a worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, in partnership with Industry Canada, Human Resources Skills Development Canada and First Nations SchoolNet regional management organizations (RMOs).

The RMOs involved in the project include Keewatin Career Development Corporation (KCDC) in La Ronge, Sask., Sunchild Cyber school on Sunchild First Nation, Alta., The First Nations Education Steering Committee in B.C., Keewatin Tribal Council in Manitoba, K-Net in Sioux Lookout, Ont., the First Nations Education Council in Quebec and Mi'kmaw Kina'matnewey in the Maritimes. Through the project, introductory information technology (IT) training is currently being offered to 50 First Nations students from across the country on a pilot basis.

Cisco has been offering IT training through its academy since 1998 and currently offers programs at the entry level, mid level and higher levels. Many high schools and post-secondary institutions have been teaching the Cisco Academy programming for years. The company provides the curriculum free of charge and regularly updates what's being taught, explained Anne Miller, Cisco's Canadian education marketing manager. Another advantage is that the curriculum in designed by Cisco and the educators who use it, helping to ensure it meets the needs of the students enrolled in the training programs.

The program being piloted through the First Nations Distance Learning Program is the Cisco Networking Academy HP IT Essentials curriculum, which teaches students about computer hardware-how to take a computer apart and how to put it back together again-and software-installing the operating system. As Randy Johns, general manager of KCDC the lead RMO for the program explained, the curriculum being offered through the pilot isn't new, but the method of delivery is.

Through the First Nations Distance Learning Program, the curriculum that has been used to provide IT training on a face-to-face basis is now being done via the Internet and video conferencing to link a teacher in one location to students in a variety of locations.

The new delivery system has meant some fine-tuning of the training program to make up for the lack of face-to-face delivery, Johns said.

"When you get into the distance delivery mode, you maybe want to illustrate your lessons in different ways because you're not right there with the student to be able to teach it. So you may want to work in some graphics or animations or these kinds of things into the lessons. And that's what the First Nations instructors have been doing," he said.

"And also there are subtle communications differences that you might be able to incorporate because the First Nation student audience might have slightly different learning styles than sort of the mainstream and the face-to-face audience. So this is something that we're able to do. Of course we're pretty excited that we were able to certify First Nations instructors and then they're adapting the course for the needs of their community."

Those instructors are not only certified to deliver the Cisco training courses, but they are also certified to certify other instructors as well. That will help ensure that, as demand for the training increases over time, there will always be enough certified instructors to provide the training. And, once more communities have trained instructors in place, the program could also expand to include face-to-face delivery of the training programs, Johns said.

One piece of knowledge that has come out of the pilot so far is that more work needs to be done up front to make sure that prospective students are actually looking for what the Cisco curriculum has to offer.

"Som people that work with computers don't want to know and don't care what goes on inside the box, the computer box. They want to work with pictures and images and so on, and that's fine, but that's not what this course is about. Other people, on the other hand, that really interests them. So you need to make that distinction. This is one of the things we're learning through the pilot," Johns said.

While the distance learning program means all a person needs to access the certification training is a computer and an Internet connection, the hands-on portions of the training also means they need another computer to dismantle and rebuild. Thanks to the Computers for Schools computer refurbishing program, that's not a problem, Johns said.

"Wherever there are students working we're able to provide older computers for them to take apart and put back together ... I guess you can learn some things from drawings and diagrams that are part of the course material, but you actually have to be able to get your hands inside the computer box."

The program development portion of the pilot began a couple of years ago, Johns said, with the actual piloting of the course with students starting about one year ago. Johns expects that by the time the new school year begins in September the pilot run of the IT Essentials program will be over and the training will be made available to a broader audience. When that happens, work will begin anew on piloting the next level of Cisco certification program. Miller said the goal is to eventually have all of Cisco's certification programs available through the distance learning program.

The end goal of the program is to have the Cisco certification training available to any community that wants to offer the training and that has the necessary infrastructure in place to support it, Miller said.

"Absolutely ... it should be available to any community that would like to take advantage," she said. "Through video conferencing and technology you're actually adding another learning medium to the students and that says a lot, because they're not isolated, and they're not learning and only doing online learning and that's it. They have a number of other vehicles now with which to communicate and collaborate and sort of join the group if you will. It is quite a good experience."

While the main objective of the distance learning program is to provide people in First Nation communities with opportunities to develop marketable skills that can translate into meaningful employment, the program will likely have the added benefit of improving community capacity, Johns said.

"The bigger picture, I guess, of information technology in rural and remote and First Nation communities is that we think it can make the communities more viable in terms of quality education programs being available and the networks to support them being up and running. And also health care, you kno. There's a whole field of tele-medicine that's expanding now through technology. And what this training does is put the people in place to support those networks."