Earlier this week students at Weledeh Catholic School, St. Joseph School and St. Patrick High School took part in a student summit on technology and innovation.
Students in the Yellowknife Catholic Schools (YCS) technology leadership program called ‘TechSperts’ helped run sessions for over 700 of their peers, with two days full of tech-based learning activities on Monday and Tuesday.
“They work all year long to build their technology skills and be advocates for technology in their buildings,” explained YCS superintendent Simone Gessler.
“So they support their peers and they support teachers when needed, but really it’s about them learning and leading in the area of technology.”
Part of the TechSperts’ role is to build a presentation or workshop around a technology tool to teach others about.
During workshops last week, students used VR headsets to tour inside the International Space Station (ISS), flew drones, used augmented reality to learn about the solar system and learned about coding.
“It’s really about creating, contributing and communicating through the use of technology tools that are valuable in what we do every day, but also what we do in our learning as students and teachers,” said Gessler.
The purpose of the summit is to teach young people who are digital natives new approaches to and uses for technology, beyond the various social media platforms they use in their daily lives she said.
“It’s two days that really look at how we can use technology as a learning tool to be creators, as opposed to consumers of technology.”