Student Use of ICT

Students embrace the use of ICT through their laptops which serve as their "Thinker's Toolbox". Our focus on using business productivity tools allows us to develop skills that will be transferable outside the school setting.

Students use their laptops on a daily basis for word-processing, data analysis, presentation of material, research via the Internet and communication through our LAN. Teachers receive assignments by e-mail; grade them on-line and return them via e-mail.

Students participate in the planning of assignments and work co-operatively to produce major projects. Peer collaboration occurs both formally and informally and new students are assisted in their acquisition of ICT skills by returning students.

Trafalgar Castle School students have worked on a Generations CanConnect Project where they interviewed our alumnae from up to seventy years ago. In one instance, an Physical Geography course is delivered via an on-line mode with seminars being held 2 or 3 times per month. Our Computer Studies courses at the senior level are taught using a Project Management approach where students develop work teams to execute project designs for clients. Interdisciplinary projects are created at the Grade 6 to 8 level using PowerPoint projects as the vehicle.

Our students utilize ICT skills through a variety of activities explicitly written into our school curriculum and designed to deliver appropriate portions of the Provincial Curriculum in all subject areas.

Students use ICT to:

• access information via the Internet using a variety of search techniques
• assess the validity and reliability of information sources
• evaluate the usefulness of the information to their research questions
• apply the information to address the questions
• communicate their results to their peers and teachers.