It must be remembered that the purpose of education is not to fill the minds of students with facts... it is to teach them to think, if that is possible, and always to think for themselves.
- Robert Hutchins

Technology

Technology is not taught as a separate class at The Harbour School. Instead, it is used as a tool and integrated into all classes and all subject areas at all grade levels. From the preschooler who may use a computer program to develop a time-line of her life or to play a rhyming game to the older student who develops a website to display his knowledge of ancient China or who performs a computer search to find material related to his project, all children use technology in and out of the classroom as it is integrated into their everyday lives and learning.

In order to accomplish this, The Harbour School has a wireless environment and classroom computers, many of which are portable. Students from Primary 2 upwards are provided with keyboards that they may use at school (and sometimes at home) in order to have an alternate method of production in addition to handwriting. Students, parents and teachers are all given membership access to NetTrekker, a computer search engine that allows them to find age-appropriate material or activities that are all teacher-rated and approved. The school has an intranet that may be accessed by children, parents, teachers (and even grandparents) to view the latest news, see or load pictures, communicate with each other, or participate in groups related to school. The intranet may also be used to connect to academic or thinking games by which children may gain points that may be "spent" online. In addition, specific programs related to the topics or skills appropriate for each grade level are available within the classroom. Children are encouraged to use computers for the gathering of data, the analysis of problems, and the production of finished work to communicate their findings or ideas.