Rather than a guest speaker presentation in our regular classroom, the technology class embarked on a school visit in downtown Victoria, called the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry. This school visit was unlike anything I have seen or experienced before, with the newest of technology surrounding every inch of the school and no paper insight I was intrigued to learn more. The school’s premise is based off the idea that students are in charge of their own learning, meaning they could advance to the next ‘grade’ or ‘level’ as fast or slow as they please. This even went as far as completing grade 12 early and beginning in online first year university courses. There is a main website each individual enrolled in the school gets which has a list of things that must be completed before you graduate, which I found interesting as you didn’t have to complete grade 8 math in order to progress to grade 9 math which is an foreign concept to me. Although I do find this new way of teaching to be fascinating, I also believe that there is no gradual release of responsibility. Instead it is a bombarding of responsibility at the beginning of ones high school education. Therefore, I believe there should be a balance between the traditional BC schools and this enhanced one. A fusion of pen and paper with a gradual release of responsibility AND the incorporation of ore inquiry based learning with technology being on the forefront.
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