Working through stops and starts

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This article was published 20/01/2022 (1712 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Automotive students and instructors from Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School are very happy to be back in the classroom full-time, since the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on their ability to learn and teach, respectively.

Carl Decosse said as much during the Sun’s tour of Crocus Plains’ automotive repair facilities Thursday morning, noting the shift to remote learning last academic year left his students with a renewed enthusiasm for getting their hands dirty.

“I find the students appreciate being here a lot more than they did before,” Decosse said. “By being away a little bit, they got to appreciate the fact that this is an opportunity to work with your hands.”

While the jump to online learning has been a major adjustment for Manitoba students across the board, vocational training in high schools is at a unique disadvantage due to the unavoidable “hands-on” nature of the curriculum.

Crocus Plains teacher Trent Sloane told the Sun he definitely felt this disconnect during a portion of the previous academic year, when his students were forced to work from home at least half of the time.

Throughout this period, Sloane and his colleagues in the school’s automotive technology department had to use a new virtual format to roll out their traditional lesson plans, which involves teaching students how to conduct basic vehicular maintenance and repairs.

“The division was good enough to help us invest in some technology. You get a Go-Pro and some other tablets and you can run a real lesson,” he said.

“So you’re running a camera on your forehead maybe, and you’ve got another one on your tablet to get into tighter places and you’re doing the best you can to share that stuff with your students.”

Even though this style of learning had its advantages, Decosse — who teaches in the neighbouring collision repair technology department — admits it can’t replicate the unique tactile process of working on a vehicle in the shop.

“It’s more than just ‘do step A, B and C.’ There’s a finesse or a special touch to doing it well,” he said. “A lot of the repairs start out very basic, and then you start building that muscle memory and doing body work and stuff like that. So you need that experience when you get to the more advanced tasks.”

Luckily, after enduring several disruptions, automotive students had the opportunity to get back on track last fall, when the province mandated a return to full in-person learning for the 2021-22 academic year.

Despite the looming threat of the highly infectious omicron variant, government officials stuck to this policy for the start of the winter semester, allowing Crocus Plains to reopen its automotive facilities on Monday after a multi-week delay.

Even though students are required to wear masks at all times when they are working in the shop, Dylan Shurvell told the Sun this requirement isn’t really interfering with day-to-day operations.

However, the Grade 11 student admitted that last year’s disruption is still having an impact on his learning right now, since this increased emphasis on virtual learning served as a less-than-ideal introduction to the program.

“There was a big learning curve when we came back [last fall] because we had to catch up,” he said. “It was a lot easier once we were in the shop, though, because then you actually get to do things yourself instead of just doing something on the computer.”

In terms of what the future holds, Shurvell describes the thought of returning to remote learning somewhere down the line as “nerve-wracking,” since he worries that another major disruption in his graduating year will negatively impact his transition into a post-secondary program.

“If we go back into online and I jump from that to going straight into college, I’ll be way behind and it’ll be pretty difficult and pretty stressful,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sloane remains a little more optimistic about how the next couple years will go, since the online learning infrastructure for his automotive technology program is already in place and is no longer as imposing as it once was.

“If we have to go remote again, we can do it,” he said. “It’s certainly not our preference, but we can make it work. And we are hopeful that by the time we get to the fall of 2022, we can be back to a regular groove again.”

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