The Role of Technology in Achieving the Vision of Inspiring Education

Imagine a connected district. An educational experience that flows through from kindergarten up to grade twelve. A connection that students keep through their post-secondary journeys and into their adult life.

Consider a space where administrators and teachers are able to share their learning accomplishments with the rest of the district and the world beyond. Why should there be a project happening at Jasper Place High School that the students from Westlawn don't know about and can't get involved in? If the students at Westlawn are hosting an event that involves their Filipino community why shouldn't they connect with the Filipino community at Afton and LaPerle? The connections between schools already exist, the catchments connect us, but they are not brought to the fore. This is how the catchment connections can be leveraged to bring together students, schools and communities and achieve the vision of engaging learners with their world and the technology within it.

Technology and the World of our students. CC licensed. 

Project Portals will highlight what schools are doing right. To motivate schools and administrators and teachers the project portal will call attention to the ground breaking work that is already being done at schools. The project portal can give prominence to the students that are doing things to understand their world and to change it. The project portal will offer guidance and ideas for other teachers that are motivated to helping their students do and achieve great things. With the portal we will be gathering the evidence that drives growth and say with pride to the world outside of education that, "these are our projects, this is our school board."

These are our Projects, and this is our School Board

How this can be accomplished is worthy of some elaboration. The first steps towards achieving this is to gain access into the schools and the thought makers within the school. The difference between my portal idea and other technology implementation plans is this isn't about technology. Technology will come in out of necessity. This is about schools creating projects that are real world and highly motivational. The technology implementation comes out of a necessity to do the job well and to be able to share the collective accomplishments. Schools will be encouraged to gather evidence of completion and, if possible, evidence of process to share in the projects portal. Classrooms would soon discover that a great deal of technology is needed to have a successful project.

The TIPS team, and the leadership responsible for implementation would have to be responsible for getting to schools to promote project based instruction, help teams of teachers visualize and implement project ideas. The TIPS team leader would have to be available to answer questions about and help generate ideas. If a teacher has a vision that she can communicate, the TIPS team leader should help her achieve that vision. Most importantly the TIPS team leader would be responsible for the hard work of documenting the journey, collecting evidence of completion, packaging the material so that it can be marketed effectively, and then delivering a Project Portal that is rich in inspiration and examples to the catchment and the school board.


After having encountered the ten competencies, that are contained in the ministerial order, it is easy to see how technology integration is critical. The answer to effective tech. integration and implementation is to help put the learning first and reveal the appropriate role of technology. Technology is the tool that connects, enables and empowers!