Classrooms in the Southeast Cornerstone School Division are getting smarter, as 21st century equipment and teaching methods are being introduced to kids at an early age to prepare them for tomorrow.
 
Instructional Technology Coordinator Peggy Lawson outlined some of the ways that they are doing just that. 
 
"We have a lot of schools that are really starting to leverage some powerful tools that students bring with them every day, primarily smartphones and iPads, and we encourage their use. However, our school infrastructure isn't fully geared up to accommodate Bring Your Own Device program yet."
 
"Bandwidth is probably our main limiting resource that currently prevents a true BYOD program," she added.
 
Lawson also explained that this initiative goes way farther than just new equipment in the classroom.
 
"21st century learning really entails preparing our students today for jobs that don't even exist yet. The world is changing so quickly that it is important that we get our students up to speed on what they'll need. We often refer to it as the four C's. It's the importance of developing the attributes of creativity, communication skills, collaborative work, and critical thinking and problem solving."
 
She added that it is important to ensure that the student is comfortable with technology at a young age.
 
"From preschool to when they move beyond our doors to university, working and being comfortable with technology for everything they do is absolutely essential. It's kind of hard to teach someone to swim if you don't let them get wet."
 
 "There's no limit as to how young or how old a student should be be to be working with technology."
 
She added that being able to analyze and understand information is important as well.
 
"The requirement to memorize vast amounts of knowledge that was the norm has totally turned on it's head. Now, when you can Google almost anything, the questions that we need to ask our students to solve have to be things that don't require just the immediate recall of data."
 
 
"It's part of the entire digital citizenship that we need to promote in every student," she expressed.
 
She noted that 3D printers and augmented and virtual reality are some of the technology that are predicted as to be more and more relevant in education within the next two or three years. 
 
"I think we're definitely headed in the right direction here in Southeast Cornerstone School Division," she concluded.