Ken Stevens

Student Access to Information Technology and Perceptions of Future Opportunities in Two Small Labrador Communities

The potential of information technology is increasingly being recognized for the access it provides to educational and vocational opportunities. In Canada, many small schools in rural communities have taken advantage of information technologies to help overcome geographic isolation for students. This article is about students in two small and geographically isolated Labrador communities. Twenty senior students were found to have varying degrees of access to information technologies. Differences were found in their perceptions of the benefits of information technology for their educational and vocational futures.

Perceptions of educational opportunities in small schools in rural Australia and Canada.

Abstract Australia and Canada are large countries with small populations relative to their size, in which a not inconsiderable number of citizens live beyond major centres of population. In both resource-based economies, the provision of quality education in rural schools is an important part of the national social and economic infrastructure. This article draws attention to post-compulsory educational opportunities, firstly as an issue for rural students in Australia, and, based on Australian research, its relevance for Canadian young people. Secondly, attention is directed to the realities of rural schools for urban university students and ways that the schools and a university teacher education program can be linked through past and current students of the faculty. Rural students considering urban education and urban teachers considering rural schools are both engaged in building new realities based on perceptions of non-local worlds.

Knowledge Mobilization for e-Living: Horizontal and Vertical Networks for Development

The objective of this paper is to outline the development of knowledge mobilization in terms of inter-school and school to home collaboration to extend learning opportunities, particularly for students and their families who live in rural communities. The application of internet-based technologies has enabled networks to be established for the development of small schools located beyond major centres of population in ways that have expanded their learning capacities and, potentially, sustained the communities that host them. The creation of internet-based networks has, furthermore, enabled knowledge to be mobilized between schools and their communities, thereby promoting new e-living possibilities.