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More than 120 former staff of the Alberta Distance Learning Centre (ADLC), many of whom were still working at the Barrhead building in its final days, bid farewell to the school in an online ceremony held over Zoom on June 23.
Those logging into the ceremony were mostly based in Barrhead and Westlock, but there were also former staffers who indicated they were tuning in from Jarvie, Fawcett, Rich Valley, Stony Plain, Sherwood Park, Onoway, St. Paul, Cochrane, Okotoks, Edmonton and Calgary.
The event was hosted by the ADLC Farewell Committee, an all-volunteer group formed to pay establish a homage to the ADLC as it neared the end of the 2020-2021 school year.
“When we formed the ADLC farewell committee, our purpose was twofold: we wanted to create an artifact that would stand after ADLC was gone, and we wanted to have a remembrance of some kind during COVID,” said ADLC associate principal and committee chair Loya De Clercq.
The first purpose was fulfilled through the creation of the ADLC Memories website, where a recording of the farewell ceremony can be found. The committee hopes to keep the website live for a couple of years.
The second goal was, of course, achieved through the farewell ceremony held on June 24. As well, committee members plan to donate some items from ADLC’s history to the Barrhead Centennial Museums sometime in July.
The event mostly consisted of a pre-recorded video followed by the equivalent of an online social function where staffers hung out and participated in games over Kahoot.
The video began with some opening comments by ADLC principal Steven Kaplan, who noted that he was also the centre’s last principal.
“Obviously it’s a bittersweet time as we recognize and celebrate our history and on the eve of our closure. However, I want you to know what a privilege it has been for me to serve ADLC,” Kaplan said.
Over the course of the ADLC’s 98-year history, Kaplan said the school has been instrumental in helping learners achieve their education goals amidst difficult and very unusual times.
“The pandemic over the past year and a half Is a great example of how ADLC has been there through unusual times,” he said.
Kaplan’s comments were followed by a 20-minute presentation on milestones over the ADLC’s nearly century-long lifespan. He acknowledged that summarizing the ADLC’s history was an enormous task and hoped that those watching would be forgiving of any omissions.
A long history
“I want to take you back almost a century ago to when Alberta was a young province in the early 1920s. Back then, many families lived in remote areas with no access to a school. This made education difficult,” said ADLC associate principal Jake Warkentin.
“So in 1923, the provincial government ran an experiment to try and improve the educational opportunities for Grades 1-8 through something called ‘education by mail.’”
Warkentin noted that it was assumed the need for ‘education by mail’ would eventually fade as schools were built across the province.
“From the very beginning, teaching students at a distance has been viewed as a temporary solution,” he said.
The ADLC originally began as a one-person operation headed up by Elizabeth Slevwright, who remained the director of the “Correspondence School Branch” until 1936.
Slevwright was responsible for sending out individual lessons to students by herself. Back in those days, she had no photocopiers or computers; instead, the only efficiency she had at her disposal was the ability to use carbon paper to make five lessons at a time.
By 1930, another staff member was added, and together they had 500 students. The program was also officially dubbed the Alberta Correspondence School (ACS), Warkentin said.
By 1939, the ACS began to offer courses to high school students, and by 1940, production of courses became more organized, he said.
In those days, courses had to be written out by hand, then typed out and proofread. Holes in pages had to be made using a drill and a stapler was used to wire pages together before the rough edges were trimmed off and mailed to students.
Warkentin said the number of staff continued to grow, and by the mid-1940s, ACS set up “correspondence schools” in small schools that were unable to remain open. At its peak, there were 673 Correspondence Centres across Alberta.
Technology started to become a greater part of the ACS as staff began using radio series to teach some students.
Even so, many courses were still taught via the mail; art students would have to mail in their creations via paper format or 3D optics to get them marked.
In the 1950s, high school enrolments increased greatly while elementary school enrolments declined, Warkentin said.
By the 60s and 70s, the operation of the ACS became more organized and “efficient” through implementing very stringent restrictions. For instance, teachers were not allowed to eat lunch with support staff and could not go outside for coffee breaks.
“If they wanted a new pencil, the old one was measured to ensure it had reached its life expectancy,” Warkentin said.
The ACS experimented with using television to provide instruction to students; the first such system was dubbed Telidon, and it was an early precursor to the World Wide Web, he said.
By 1981, construction began on a new state-of-the-art building in Barrhead, thanks in part to the efforts of former Barrhead-Westlock MLA Ken Kowalski and Education Minister David King.
In 1983, staff moved into the new building, which was constructed with offering distance education in mind. The official opening occurred in June 1984, with Kowalski and King cutting the ribbon.
The name of the school was changed to ADLC in 1991, and by 1995, the school began accepting submissions over e-mail. The VIsta Virtual School program was first established in 1996.
In 1997, the province entered into a service agreement with Pembina Hills to operate the ADLC, which was followed by the opening of campuses in Calgary and Lethbridge (the latter being the result of a merger with another program).
Warkentin said that over the past decade, numerous technology-based initiatives were spawned through partnerships with other school divisions and private entities, such as the creation of a 3-D oilfield drilling rig simulator and the use of simulators in forestry courses.
ADLC was also called on numerous times to assist students through various crises, including the 2011 Slave Lake fire, the Calgary-High River floods in 2013 and the 2016 Fort McMurray fire.
Over the past couple of years, many of the ADLC staff were relocated to Barrhead as the school adopted a new “one-teacher model” that eschewed the use of contract markers.
In early 2020, the Barrhead campus had grown so busy that staff were requesting extra space. But then the province informed Pembina Hills it would conclude the agreement with Pembina Hills to operate the ADLC within two years, which was shortened down to one year due to a lack of funding.
“And that brings us today, the final day for teachers at ADLC and the final few days for other staff,” Warkentin said.
Warkentin noted that over its history, ADLC has served as an “equalizer” in terms of educational opportunities, as they served students with severe illnesses, students who found they could not function in a school environment, remote students in isolation, athletes and others who travel extensively, and even students who are incarcerated or living in group homes.
As well, the ADLC was seen as a global leader in distance education and educators from across Canada and the world learned from how it functioned.
“ADLC’s impact has been felt within Alberta and beyond, and now this chapter comes to a close,” he said.
Kevin Berger, TownandCountryToday.com
