High tech solutions keeping students engaged

Perhaps one of the most constructive outcomes of teaching students through the pandemic is how the technology embraced to make remote learning work is now appearing in the classroom.

This is especially true in independent and private schools, where more available resources and smaller class sizes allow teachers and staff to be more responsive to the interests of students.

“Investing in technology that allows us to ensure the continuity of learning has been a priority,” said Geraldine De Fazio, head of learning, strategy and innovation at Toronto’s Montcrest School.

“In terms of what we have learned through the pandemic, some of the biggest things that have impacted our learners and our families have been around connection and making sure that the continuity of learning exists regardless of our mode of instruction.”

One tool that came into use during the COVID-19 pandemic were learning management systems. These are robust online platforms that can create, deliver, track and report on teaching materials and streamline the connection between home and school. Versions of these systems, tailored to a school’s needs, are still being used even though students have returned to in-person learning.

Montcrest uses Toddle, a teaching and learning platform that appeals to many independent schools because of its ability to be customized when it comes to curriculum planning, teaching and learning (both in-class and remote), assessment and reporting, and managing communications with families.

“What’s most important to us is the idea that Toddle keeps the triangle of parent, teacher and student really closely aligned,” said De Fazio. “When kids were learning at home, parents were quite literally able to see and hear what was happening.

“Now we use this technology so parents still get high degrees of information and real-time feedback, literally opening up classroom doors to keep a very clear and open communication with families about what is happening in the classroom on a day-to-day basis.”

Perhaps even more compelling is the way private schools are using new platforms and technological innovations to create richer learning experiences for their students — in just about every area of a school’s curriculum. For example, in 2018 Toronto’s Havergal College launched its innovation hub, called HC-X, designed to generate programming for faculty and students.

“Virtual learning is at the stage where students can take a trip inside a human body and take apart the heart, look at the body’s capillaries, understand the lymph nodes and so forth, doing it in a very tactile way,” said Garth Nichols, the school’s vice principal of experiential education and innovation.

“Same with social sciences. students can visit UNESCO heritage sites around the world, go on visits to famous destinations and so on. That’s one way we’re using HC-X to generate future-ready experiences for students.”

Nichols said the ability for students to use virtual and augmented reality to create their own bespoke learning experiences is also very new and exciting. “You can take pictures in a ravine with a 3D camera, then, with editing software, you can create a 3D virtual reality experience where you can narrate what you’re seeing,” he said. “Your teacher or classmates can use the technology to feel like they’re standing in the ravine and relive and learn from it.”

Dr. Kristen Clarke, dean of teaching and learning at The Bishop Strachan School in Toronto, said the use of virtual reality is really becoming popular in education.

“Our kids are putting on their goggles and visiting countries and communities to develop cultural competency,” she said. “We’re also using virtual reality to explore and understand the design of buildings of significance across the world and using this technology to better understand the impacts of climate change on the environment.

“In the area of diversity, equity and inclusion, we have students who are designing and 3D printing artificial limbs, and they are consulting with medical professionals and researchers to develop these assistive devices. Similarly, some students are valuing and learning from the design of collapsible buildings, grounded in Indigenous traditions, to help design future structures that could be taken into areas to support climate emergencies.”

Several independent schools, like Bishop Strachan, also have design technology staff to help support faculty and students when it comes to understanding the potential in these new learning tools and how to incorporate them into their projects. 

“For example, our middle school technologist worked extensively with students in preparation for their school play,” said Clarke. “They made all their own props because she worked with them after school to develop set designs using the different technologies we have access to.”

And with that access, said Nichols, also comes the need to teach students about social responsibility and technology. He said Havergal has addressed this need with its Digital Wisdom course for all students in grades five through eight.

“It’s not a technology skills course, but that’s part of it. It’s not an Internet safety course, but that’s part of it,” he said. “This course is about how we ensure our students have the ability to understand identity development and navigate their digitally mediated world.

“Students may not necessarily see the impact of the applications on their phone, but we present them with case studies and work through it, looking at ethical questions and practices, and at digital technology opportunities. And we learn a lot from the students along the way.”

That knowledge, along with the new opportunities technology in the classroom presents, are driving student learning to new heights said Clarke.

 “We know that it’s important to focus on areas such as wellbeing, cultural competency, digital literacy and arts integration, and we are leveraging technology to make that happen in a multitude of really meaningful and authentic ways,” she said.