By Perry King
Local schools, including Harbord Collegiate and Central Tech, are taking steps toward integrating their communities with a digital network.
In a pilot project that will last until the end of the school year, Harbord (286 Harbord St.), Central Technical School (725 Bathurst St.), and two other schools, Western Commerce Collegiate and Haydon Park Secondary, will have students and staff share content on campus, through Onestop Media Group's Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) technology.
DOOH technology uses rich media templates and content tools to supply individualized content for each school.
Onestop, the company that has been providing the TTC with flat screen monitors, is giving these schools monitors to be used for information sharing.
News - from student council information to what is being served in the cafeteria - is delivered in a timely fashion and a cost-effective manner.
"Taking that leap of putting state-of-the-art technology into the schools, putting it into the hands of the students... that is the right thing to do," said Michael Girgis, President and CEO of Onestop.
Trustee Chris Bolton (Ward 10, Trinity-Spadina), who is also the vice chair of the board, brokered much of the relationship.
Bolton has been working on increasing student engagement in the ward for about three years and realized that there could be a benefit to using this technology. "It sort of happened by coincidence," he said. "There were talks of this one day, and afterwards I was in the subway, and I thought, 'You have all these people standing there, looking at the boards, that's how they're getting their social networking, the information sharing.'"
"It downed on me that the direction was to work with their own medium the kids use."
Girgis and Bolton believe this integrated network could bring a feeling of connection and a sense of belonging to the campuses, something that the board has been working hard on.
"You know, they're just like the morning announcements that I swear nobody listens to or ever did," said Bolton.
According to Girgis, there are precedents for integrating digital networks at schools. Some post-secondary institutions, like Queen's University, have hubs that students can use for the same purposes.
To take a closer look at the network, the Gleaner took a tour of Harbord CI, with the guidance of Principal Rodrigo Fuentes.
The school has three flat screen monitors: one in the cafeteria, one on the third floor, and another in the corridor close to the main office. "If there were a necessity for not just emergencies but any important message, it would just be a whole screen message," he said.
At this point, there are only a few students who are able to update the information at Harbord, and who sit on a committee that has open discussion with Fuentes and Bolton.
Fuentes was quick to indicate that all students were ecstatic to have this technology available to use.
"I think we're validating their means of communicating. With anything else, it is just one more piece of it, we have to do it in various ways, but this has excited the kids."
The school has already seen the network integrate itself into its Grade 10 civics course, using the network to communicate and broach social justice issues.
Sports teams are also using the networks to display game scores and information. "The possibility of use is endless," said Fuentes. "It's about information and it's about our information, which is really what's exciting to me."
Because the four pilot schools are relatively close to each other, integrating the individual school networks together is one possibility, according to Bolton.
In the meantime, Fuentes said a debriefing, between himself, the committee, and Bolton will take place soon to update the trustee on how the networks are coming along.
Bolton hopes that this network can increase media literacy and enhance the traits that make each school unique.
He sees opportunities in the film-making program at Western Commerce, enhancing the reputation of trade courses at Central Tech, and bringing light to the social justice issues that Harbord undertakes.
As for the cost of this project, "it depends," said Girgis. "it depends on how many high schools {participate}, that is what the pilot project is for."