Quebec has paid millions and delivered hundreds of videoconferencing systems to schools across the province for distance education. However, most students are now in full-time class, so some schools do not know what to do with this equipment and some unions recommend against using it.
In September, many teachers were surprised to see an integrated videoconferencing system called Poly X50 appear in their classroom, a sound bar with additional microphones, a camera and a 22-inch monitor.
PHOTO FROM THE MANUFACTURER’S SITE
The Poly X50
Initially, last February, Quebec carried out a distance education pilot project in around 100 classrooms. It was the prelude to a “large-scale deployment” for the start of the 2021 school year. At the time, the province was barely starting its mass vaccination campaign against COVID-19 and no one knew how the school year would unfold. next.
A private contract of $ 499,000 for this pilot project was first signed with the company AVI-SPL, whose head office is in Florida. Subsequently, the company won two other Quebec calls for tenders totaling $ 25 million.
Since then, it has been “raining” about these systems in schools, says a teacher from a small establishment on the South Shore of Montreal, who says that, not knowing what to do with them, his administration consulted the teachers to try to find out. a utility to these devices.
In the North Shore of Montreal, another teacher is indignant that these systems “sleep in the boxes”.
Asked since Monday to know how many of these systems had been distributed in schools and how much the operation had cost per class, the Ministry of Education had not provided an answer to Press Wednesday evening. The general manager of AVI-SPL in Quebec did not want to say it. On the Amazon site, a Poly X50 “kit” retails for $ 3800.
“More urgent” IT needs
The Rivière-du-Nord school service center indicates that it has received 378 of these systems, while in the Granby region, the Val-des-Cerfs school service center (CSVDC) has received since last March 257 Poly X50 devices.
“The scenario which motivated the purchases fortunately did not materialize”, we read on the site of the CSVDC. “We therefore do not foresee any significant use over the next few months in our classes despite the large quantity of bars delivered,” we continue.
It is explained that it would take the investment of “significant sums” to install these devices and that consequently, other digital purchases will be prioritized this year for “incomparably more urgent needs”.
Documents that Press consulted show that during the pilot project, some classes in the province did not have enough outlets to plug in these videoconferencing devices.
Even plugged in, what will these devices be used for now that students are in class full time? “You have to ask the Ministry,” observes Audrey Leboeuf, spokesperson for the CSVDC. Service centers, she says, are performers.
The Beauce-Etchemin school service center, which currently has 70 classes, explains that “these facilities will allow co-modal education, but also other eligible activities”, without specifying which ones.
The general manager of AVI-SPL in Quebec says that “even outside of a pandemic, there are many advantages” to the installation of these systems. Schools from different regions or even different countries can thus collaborate, illustrates Benoit Lavictoire.
What results for the pilot project?
Has the pilot project carried out last spring been reported? Neither the Ministry of Education nor the service centers contacted answered this question. A teacher from the Montreal area who took part said that this technology failed to convince the small team who had the opportunity to test it for a few months.
Compared to simply using software like Teams on a computer, the Poly X50 was “too much trouble for nothing,” she said.
Our recommendations [à la suite du projet-pilote] have not been taken into account. When we arrived in September, this equipment had been installed everywhere. We were discouraged, we could have come to terms with the few mobile stations we already had.
A teacher who participated in the pilot project
At the Haute-Yamaska Teaching Union, it is reported that “everyone agrees” to tell teachers not to “touch that” and that the government ignored the union complaints when it came time to install these devices.
“We are afraid that we will go back to a principle of co-modal, that is to say an education that will be done both at school and at home, for example with absent students,” said Alina Laverrière, president of the union.
Despite the installation of a state-of-the-art system, the teacher who participated in the pilot project observed that she was not asked to do distance education when one of her students is away for two weeks due to COVID-19.
“There is no longer a budget for dictionaries, novels are pitiful. For IT, it looks like it’s unlimited, ”she laments.
* Teachers to whom Press spoke in this report all refused to be identified for fear of reprisal from their employer.