Globalization and Technology Are Changing Canadian Classrooms

Properly funded, the private schools in Ontario are leading the way, and leaving our public sector far behind…

A recent article on Lilith Galleries Technology eZine, Five Reasons Why Private Schools Will Produce Tomorrow’s Tech Leaders nicely summarizes how Ontario private schools have adopted high tech gadgets as educational tools.

St. Andrew’s College in Aurora Ontario has adopted the Fujitsu LifeBook® T5010 Tablet PC as in integral part of this year’s teaching design…  Last fall, the school purchased over 700 LifeBooks for of all of their students and faculty. Prior to that, students were using laptops, and there is a big difference, primarily in the interface. The lifebooks allow students to sketch and do geometry on their systems – completely obsoleting paper notebooks!

But more than just the equipment – which in most Ontario private schools is usually less than two years old, it’s a well funded faculty’s willingness to experiment with innovation. And this same spirit of adoption is communicated to the students

At St. Andrew’s College, one of Canada’s oldest all-boys boarding and day schools, a dictum known as the three-minute rule is strictly enforced. This rule does not apply to students, but to technology—any device that is not capable of performing promptly to expectation will be removed from the classroom. “The teacher has to be able to get the class up and running in three minutes,” explains Steve Rush, SAC’s Director of Technology. “The technology— projectors, network access—cannot be getting in the way of that, or it’s taking away from their instructional time, and teachers are going to abandon it.”

Globalization is bringing students from every part of the world to study here,  in Ontario Canada.  Over seventy percent of foreign students under the age of eighteen are enrolled in private schools.  The other thirty percent are exchange programs between public schools. Without exception, the students from abroad bring new ideas and add flavour to the classroom.

Private schools have always been famous for building camaraderie – esp boarding schools where the students exist in a life community.  Social networks are making those bonds even more powerful, and rewarding.  Online social tools like instant messenger and bulletin boards have also increased and streamlined student / teacher interactions.

For a lot of different reasons, Ontario private schools are best equipped to create the most innovative minds of the future.