Concerns raised: SchoolVista still a strategic product for Canada, IBM says

Adrienne Tanner and Tracy Barnes

The Province

VANCOUVER - A controversial computer system widely used in schools across Canada has been discontinued in the U.S., causing alarm for teachers and trustees in this country.

IBM announced earlier this year that it will no longer market SchoolVista, an educational computer and curriculum software package, in the U.S.

The system has already cost Canadian taxpayers millions of dollars. In Vancouver alone, ongoing negotiations with IBM involve up to 90 schools and could cost as much as $9-million a year.

The program is also used in Burnaby, B.C., and in several school districts in Ontario, Manitoba and Halifax.

Despite company assurances that SchoolVista will continue in Canada, some school officials are questioning why Canada is being sold computer systems considered outdated in the United States.

"Are we the third-world dumping ground?" said Adrienne Montani, a Vancouver school trustee.

Ms. Montani was elected in November after the Vancouver Public School Board had already endorsed SchoolVista for its elementary schools.

She and two other newly elected trustees will try this week to persuade the board to cancel an order for 17 SchoolVista programs.

"I have concerns about a product that has no backing from its manufacturer in the U.S. and has been pulled from its major market there. Why would we as Canadians want that?"

Andre Ouellet, a spokesman for IBM Canada, said he didn't know why SchoolVista is being discontinued in the United States.

"It's not a question of quality. There are some cases where they do things in the States and we don't always follow the same path because of market differences and cultural differences."

Mr. Ouellet said that SchoolVista is still a "strategic product" for IBM Canada.

"This product will continue to be marketed and supported. Nothing will be withdrawn."

SchoolVista offers a simple introduction to e-mail, controlled Internet services and math and language arts programs.

It is in use in Burnaby and many Ontario school districts, says Valerie Overgaard, Vancouver's associate superintendent in charge of district learning services.

Ms. Overgaard said she did not realize that SchoolVista was being discontinued in the United States when she placed the order for Vancouver, but says she is not worried.

She says the computer package, which costs a minimum of $16,000 to install, won rave reviews from three schools that tested the program.

"We see this as the best way of meeting the goals that we have set for our own curriculum technology plan," she said.

The Vancouver Elementary School Teachers' Association has been lobbying against SchoolVista from the beginning. It sent teachers a letter in December urging them not to endorse the program.

The letter said that SchoolVista is expensive and has not been evaluated by experienced computer teachers.

"The lessonware is considered antiquated and of very limited educational use by a number of people who have piloted or previewed it," the letter added.

But Ms. Overgaard dismisses VESTA's concern as what she calls the usual debate which surrounds every new technology purchase.

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-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), April 03, 2000