SchoolNet Performance Measurement Management:

for the immediate family and the extended family, with partners, collaborators and clients

And including ...

"His Sisters and his Cousins Whom he reckons up by dozens, And his Aunts ..."

WS Gilbert:
HMS Pinafore

The SchoolNet Family

Immediate Family

• Programs
  • Portal
  • First Nations
  • GrassRoots
  • Network of Innovative Schools
• Services
  • Research
  • Knowledge Broker
  • RMAF/RBAF/TB Sub

Extended Family

• SkillNet
• LibraryNet
• Multimedia Learning Group
• Canada's Campus Connection
• Computers for Schools
• Office of International Partnerships
• Canada's Digital Collections
• NetCorps
• CanConnect Framework
• Student Connections*
  • foster child

What this appears to be about ...

Use of innovation in education

• Improved learning outcomes
• Better employability skills
• Preparation for knowledge economy
• Reduced unemployment and under-employment
• More productive workers
• Enabled citizens

Finding a Home for the Family, Making Common Cause: (Strategic Objectives)

Our lawyers suggested that the SchoolNet Program might be:

• Unconstitutional, since education is provincial jurisdiction.
• Illegal in relation to the Industry Canada Act.

The reasoning for an Industry Canada role:

• In a global economy increasingly based on knowledge, our key asset is well-educated and skilled, collaborative and inquiring people.
• Information and communications technologies (ICT) can improve learning outcomes, producing a more qualified labour force.
• SchoolNet supports the integration of ICTs into learning.

What does integration look like, how do we tell it's happening?

• use of ICT infrastructure by learners
• availability of mutlimedia learning materials
• national and international awareness of Canadian capacity to provide high quality learning materials
• international market participation by Canadian ICT sector
• access to and effective use of ICT by learners

These became our strategic objectives.

SchoolNet: The Immediate Family

A collaboration, led by Industry Canada, with:

• Provinces & Territories
• School Boards and Schools
• Teachers, Students & Parents

That involves:

• Portal on the Internet
  • www.schoolnet.ca
• Programs
  • GrassRoots
  • Network of Innovative Schools
  • First Nations SchoolNet
• Standards Development
• Promotion

There are many participants in the conduct of e-learning activities in Canada, most of whom have more business in the field than SchoolNet

What Makes SchoolNet Work

How

Empowerment

• Provinces / territories deliver programs
• Education Associations create services
• Teachers/students identify and create authorized / reviewed content
• Tools developed for teachers and learners
  • Open Source Portal
  • Learning Objects in a Box
• Aboriginal Management Groups deliver First Nations connectivity and services

Consultation

• SchoolNet National Advisory Board (SNAB)
  • DMs or designates from Provinces
  • Heads of Education Associations
  • Advice on programs and strategic direction of SchoolNet
  • Does what no other fed/prov body can do
• SchoolNet Youth Advisory Board (SYAB)
  • 10 to 18
    • Mostly online
    • Advice on what is Innovative
• GrassRoots National Working Group
  • Pan-Canadian standards
• NIS Institute
• Portal (promotion, best practices)

Working this Way Involves Risk

Specific Risks in the RBAF

• Loss of partners / Availability of volunteers
• Partner problems
• Inconsistency in evaluations by partners
• Perceived infringements on provincial jurisdiction
• M-30

Mitigating Strategies

• Consult
• Cooperate
• Collaborate

The culture as it was ...

SchoolNet, Computers for Schools, Community Access Program were established as sunset programs:

• Expectation that the programs would terminate once goals achieved.

Target-based

• All schools and libraries connected to the Internet by March 31, 1999
• 20,000 interactive online GrassRoots projects by March 31, 2001
• 250,000 recycled computers by March 31, 2001
• All these targets were achieved.

Performance was measured only in relation to whether the target was achieved.

Integration of ICT into Learning

Strategic Objectives

• access to and effective use of ICT by learners
• use of ICT infrastructure by leaners
• availability of mutlimedia learning materials
• national and international awareness of Canadian capacity to provide high quality learning materials
• international market participation by Canadian ICT sector

PIT Sample for one SchoolNet Program

Evolution

RMAF1 Indicators

• Outputs
• Intermediate Outcomes
• Strategic Outcomes

RMAF 2 & 3 Indicators

• Inputs
• Activities
• Outputs
• Immediate Outcomes
• Intermediate Outcomes
• Strategic Outcomes

Pilot Database Project

• Easy to identify readings on performance
• Follows logic model for RMAF 3
• Functions in the office network, runs in a browser
• Links to Industry Canada (SAP-based) Financial Management System
• Runs on software developed by SAS Four in the SN Family
  • About 60 indicators
• Can be made available to others
  • (e.g.: TBS)
  • in principle to the public
• Implementation by RBSI on the SAS platform

Sample: GR PIT & RBSI Presentation

Conclusions

Challenge		Approach
Overall objective, with all our partners, is improved learning outcomes from the use of ICT, so that youth gain the knowledge and skills to be productive and civil members of society.		While we support the overall objective, SchoolNet focuses on its piece of the whole: ICT integration.
Despite risk mitigation, 'stuff' happens - initiatives can be derailed.		If there are a variety of paths, use them; don't commit to one only.
Many partners are involved in ICT integration; coordination leaves much to be desired.		Every province/territory is different; focus on the overall shared objectives, not specific approaches although there is a centripetal force You need to know what is going on.