First off, thanks Kent, Gavin, and Alex for the Nov 23 - 27 training camp. Sean came home very excited and enthused for the rest of the season.

When Sean was doing his homework he was needing Internet access. Also, for some of his assignments, having Internet access for chat and email capabilities would have been useful.

As I understand it, the hotel and rooms they stayed in did not have wireless or wired Internet access unless DSL modems were purchased at $5 per night - and there was a limited supply of those so they may not be available at all (I just phoned and checked with the hotel - Canadian Rockies Chalets @ 1.800.386-7248). The person I talked to said that Gavin had a modem, but that was it for all the rooms the team stayed in. They only have five modems for their whole complex and they are often all booked out.

Is this hotel going to be used for all the Canmore trips? Are there others that have the need for Internet access like Sean while they're on the road? If so, Internet access will be an issue while they're away.

Is there some way that Internet access can be shared for those that need it? For example, could the modem be put into a room that all the kids could take time on for Internet access as needed?

Another option could be to rent one DSL modem between the whole group and then hook up a wireless hub (cheap at $50) that all the kids could then share with wireless connections through their laptops. Not sure if the hotel would like this or not - but if they don't care and we're going to be staying at the Canadian Rockies Chalets many times over, this would give everyone access. Also, this would depend on someone being computer-savvy enough to know how to set it up and get the kids computers set up to use it, too.

If this hotel isn't going to be used for all the trips, then all of the above may be moot. I know there's other hotels in Canmore that offer wireless access as part of their accommodations (i.e. it's included in the room rental). In any case, I'd suggest that the kids may need this for homework and other things (e.g. email) and should be one of the amenities requested for hotel reservations.

Comments anyone?

well said Eden will always need the internet and I was unaware that she did not have such acces for her science project. Tks Brian

Thanks to all that made this camp fun and successful!

Katie also needed Internet to complete a couple of homework assignments. Katie's teachers will be emailing her homework to her so she will need to have access to email. We would be more than willing to chip in for whatever hardware is needed so that the kids have Internet access at while staying at that location.

Judy

Good morning!!

Martin also had a very good trip!! He came home all smiles and very happy!!  Thanks to the coaches and Kent!!

Having internet access does make it a lot easier for the kids. I knew that there was a chance they wouild not have it on this trip, so I asked the school to give Martin his work in advance. But, the school wil not be able to do this if he's going to be away for more that 2 or 3 days.  When they were in Colorado and had internet access al the time, it made it much easier because I picked the day's work up from school, scanned it in at home and e-mailed it to him. As soon as he was done doing it, he could e-mail it back. That worked really well. Seeing that Martin doesn't have a cell phone yet, it's easy to keep in touch too. But, having internet access all the time also opens the door to other problems....  Someone went on Martin's computer and visited sites that I was was not very happy or comfortable with. Knowing that I can check his "history", he had to tell me about it before I found out myself. 

We are more than willing to share in the cost to get something worked out for the kids. It really helps with homework, and keeping in touch with friends and families at home.  Once we decide what to do, we can talk about maybe having the modem turned off after a certain time at night to ensure that kids don't spend time with friens on MSN or Facebook or any other site when they need to be sleeping.

Eurika

Eurika, that's a great idea to close down the Internet access after a certain time!

However, I just phoned the hotel and talked to them about setting up a wireless hub on the DSL modem, and got a very strict response on doing that...

They only have 5 DSL modems for rent because they're wanting to limit Internet access. This is because they're worried about their Internet access being clogged with guests overloading it with downloads and other things. And they're worried about that because their reservation system is dependent on the Internet connection, too, so they don't want to jeopardize that. In the end, they won't let us try the idea of setting up a wireless hub for all the kids to have simultaneous access to the Internet. She said the manager would definitely have a hard line on that idea.

So, if the kids need Internet access (which it looks like they do), there's two options. One is sharing the single DSL Internet connection by connecting one laptop at a time. Between seven or ten kids, plus coaches, plus chaperone? I don't think that's going to work. Second option is to go somewhere else than this hotel.

This is going to be an issue for the next trip starting this weekend since that's five days of school missed.

Who is making these bookings, would have to decide on this, and react accoringly? Is this Gavin and Alex?

Good Morning .

It was a great camp and we had lots of fun .  All should be proud of thier athletes and the respect they give to chaperones, coaches and in most cases each other .  I agree that internet would be helpful for a lot of reasons . However as the chaperone it was great not to have to monitor what everyone was doing on thier computers. In past camps the athletes told me it was neccasary for them to have access to the internet , however most had to be torn away from computers to do dryland, homework or simply be on time for team functions.

I realize it is neccasary , but it certainly complicates things.  The hotel has inadequate  internet service .  the solutions seem simple but  I am not so sure . The Hotel has told me that you must use their modems and that if we hook  up a wireless router to it  , the service will all go down .  Just  what I was told . I am certainly no tech guy.

Kent

I just talked to the school, Eden's science fair project was agreed that it would not be a problem for her to stay on time, date and therefore we agreed to these, so called terms, so did  Eden. Next week is two deadlines. one Tuesday one Thursday. Similar to Martin I supply the info both ways. Eden needs the the internet for 10 to 15 minutes to download then return, each night. I feel we need different accom. although the really enjoyed the upgrade. Eden also know's their is NO second chance on her grades and being apart of this wonderful team. Alex and the team and Kent ,Eden had a small "life Experience" already and that's what her parents invested in this program for. But she was up at 5:30am during her catch up. That won't work. If someone needs help changing this week accom I can Help with any thing. Brian

Thanks, everyone, for weighing in with your great comments on this topic! I'm really happy to see everyone engaging in these discussions!

It seems that there is a concensus that Internet access is going to be needed for this next trip.

We haven't heard from the trip booking person (is this Isla?) or the coaches yet on this issue. Can we change accommodations for next week's trip so the kids have Internet access? Who has taken responsibility for this?

I've copied the three messages sent via email and posted in the other thread by Eurika (by the way, kudos to you Eurika for doing this - my heart swelled to see you take this initiative!!!) Here's the paste...

From: Gavin Preziosi [mailto:preziosi_ski@yahoo.ca] Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 8:43 PM To: Judy & Brent Byers; Judy &Brent Byers; Jody Code; Kent Code; Gary Delaney; Alexandra Desrosiers; Terry Hooper; Claudette Jamieson; Joe Leger; Joni Mackay; Maureen Roy; Brian Sampson; Eurika Steyn; Nancy Thingelstad; Kim Thingelstad; Brent Waldo; Isla Wilcox; Barry Wilcox Subject: internet in Canmore Hi guys,  I'm still working on this posting thing. As for the internet, when I was in Colorado most of the internet time was used for MSN, not homework. I have a modem reserved for everynight we are here. If they need the internet while they are here, they can use it for 20 min. at a time, also they can use it in the lobby. I am sorry, but if there is research to do they can print stuff off before they come. The teachers do not teach in school with the internet, and they assign the kids homework before they leave.  We are not going to stay somewhere else for the internet. Gavin   Hi Gavin and All, Normally the kids do not get their homework until the day before they are leaving for camp. We are finding that this would not be enough time for Katie to pack and do all the research on the Internet to print out to take with her that evening. If we know that Katie will get 20 min of Internet for homework (not MSN), then she and her teachers can adjust her homework to accommodation this.   As for teachers teaching with the Internet, I am the Project Leader for Online Learning with the Saskatoon Public School Division.  I head up the department that offers online classes for students in Grade 10, 11 and 12 to take classes through the Internet.  We have students from across Saskatchewan taking online classes through us.  Students take online classes for various reasons but we have provincial team athletes form various sports taking online classes as it is a great way for students to keep up with class assignments when athletes are away from school for any length of time. We deliver our classes through the course delivery system called “Blackboard”. Course content is house there online as with class assignments.  Students also upload their completed assignment into the “dropbox” so that online teachers can download them, mark them, then upload them back to the student’s dropbox for viewing. If Katie does want to ski FIS next she might be taking some online classes and Internet access will need to be addressed then – but that is in the future. I know that Kelsey Nilsen took many online classes through us the last few years. We are also encouraging our Grade 9-12 teachers to use a “blended” approach where they put course content and assignments online in Blackboard so that students can access this anytime, anyplace – 24/7. Again knowing the parameters of Internet access would help with the planning of homework. I would be most willing to chat with anyone about online classes!   Cheers, Judy   Hi to all!! (To make it easier, I copied the other two e-mails here) Having the internet has really helped Martin a lot while being away. While they were in Colorado, I scanned his work  every day and e-mailed it to him. He did it on his computer and e-mailed it right back to me and I took it to the teachers so they could correct it and make sure that he understood it all . So, when he came back, all his assignments were marked and he could just write his tests. I must admit that the school he attends has not been very accomodating when it comes to the homework issue. They have never had to deal with a student that was away from school this often and we've had quite a few struggles in the past month or so. For some reason they cannot assign him his homework for more that 2 or 3 days in advance, and neither can they give him the notes that they'll be doing while he is away. To help him out, we arranged with a classmate to get all the notes for me each day. I pick it up from him after school, scan it in "word", e-mail it to Martin so that he can do it on his computer. He also has Computer assignments where he needs the internet to copy and paste rom specific web sites. But, I am sure that 20 minutes a day will be sufficient for this matter.  And as for MSN, I will have no problem if it is banned from ski trips!!  Eurika

Hi, all. I had a discussion with Alex this evening and got a different perspective on the Canmore accommodations, the reasons for staying where they're at, and the background behind this Internet issue from a coaches' perspective. I also talked to Alex about the Internet issue from the parent's perspective. Let me give you my take on this conversation along with my recommendation.

First off, Alex and Gavin view these accommodations as very attractive because of the location, the amenities, and the cost value. So if we can stay with what's been booked, I think the whole team would benefit.

But the contentious issue for many is the Internet availability for schoolwork. After talking with Alex I had a better perspective of where Gavin and Alex are coming from when they are taking a harder line on this issue. Basically, it was based on the observations they made on the Colorado trip. They saw first-hand issues with some of the kids being obsessed with hooking into the Internet as much as they could - to the point that they were delayed getting out for skiing because there was a reluctance to leave their Internet sessions (mostly an MSN issue by the sounds of it). If your kids use MSN, you can maybe appreciate the way kids get absorbed into MSN and the contention it can cause (I know we have had some experience with this with Sean).

So, based on that experience, they are - from my point of view, understandably - reluctant to introduce that annoyance and friction into their camps and race trips. And I support this stance.

But then the parents have obviously expressed a concern over the availability of Internet to enable effective homework handling. And, with all due respect to Gavin, I would have to say that Sean will likely suffer when away from school for a week and is unable to use the Internet to receive and submit assignments. And the school does support working in this medium. The bottom line is that school is a priority for us, and if it came to a choice between the program and poor grades because of inability to keep his schoolwork up, the schoolwork priority would have to apply.

To Gavin's credit, Gavin did have access to a highspeed DSL connection from the hotel on the last trip, and he was willing to offer a 20 minute slot for the kids to do whatever Internet access is needed with this modem for future trips. Also, I understand Kent managed to set up his laptop with this connection and provide a low-grade wireless access capability for some laptops within the same room. This is against the hotel's desires because of their fears of their single connection getting swamped by too much Internet traffic (as described in an earlier point). Technically I know how Kent did this and I could set up Sean's laptop to provide the same service, but I wouldn't recommend or support doing this because this would turn into a wireless laptop Internet free-for-all that could create problems with our relations with the hotel as well as re-introduce the same Colorado issues already experienced.

But, I have a recommendation that may work well enough for everyone. I should say up front that I am very experienced with computer and networking options, so my recommendation is based on a lot of experience and understanding. But I also want to say that we should get concurrence on this recommendation from Gavin and Alex, plus buy-in from the parents that want to go with this recommendation so any costs are split up.

Through my discussions with Alex on this issue, here is a solution that Alex and I aligned to.

We could purchase an eight port wired router (I just checked online with BestBuy and I can pick one up for $135 before the trip this Sunday). A wired router would be connected on one side to a highspeed service (i.e. the hotel's DSL modem that is rented for $5 a day). Then a lapop would connect on the other side via a hard Ethernet cable to this router to gain access to the Internet. An eight port router would let up to eight connections happen simultaneously through the single highspeed Internet connection.

I would further recommend that this router/DSL be placed in the chaperone's room and only be available during designated homework time. This would mean that all kids needing Internet access for homework would have to physically be in the room where the router was located (because they have to connect with the Ethernet cable). In addition, the chaperone and whoever else could assist the kids with their homework because they're together in one place. And the chaperone could also monitor the Internet usage to make sure this access is being used only for its intended purpose. To ensure we don't jeopardize the hotel's Internet connectivity, we would have to put strict rules on not downloading/uploading large content (i.e. software, pictures, etc), and would want to restrict usage on things that are a distraction to the intended homework time (e.g. MSN, Facebook, games).

This option would also be dependent on gaining access to the DSL modem when staying in the hotel. Perhaps Gavin, Alex, or whoever arranges accommodation could work out a reservation deal for the DSL modem with the hotel management if we commit to specific dates - without telling them exactly how we're going to use it.

In addition, every person that wanted to use this access would need to bring a standard Ethernet cable - I'd recommend about a ten foot cable to keep them out of each other's way. These are cheap and easily available.

So, what does everyone think? Gavin and Alex, would want to hear whether you can align to this, too.

Thanks.

This suggestion to Internet access would work for us.  I had a chat with Katie regarding this proposal and she is fine with it, too.

It is great to be part of a group is that willing to hear both sides of the issue and try to work out a compromise.

Judy

Ooops - must have double clicked "Submit"

Wow!!  I just love the way that this "communication thing" is working for us!!  Terry, saying thank you just doesn't seem to be enough any more!!

As I said before, 20 minutes per day will be better than nothing!!  And I will be fine with a ruling that those 20 minutes cannot be spent on MSN or Facebook.

It is really good that we can all communicate about a problem and can come to a sollution that will help all the athletes and the coaches. I really hope that we will be able to keep on communicating like this for the rest of the season!!

Eurika