A Summerland Secondary School teacher who developed some highly regarded online resources has received national recognition for his work.
Trevor Knowlton was a recipient of the Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence for 2012.
Knowlton, who teaches work experience, dual credit and apprenticeship for Grades 9 to 12, created LiveTeacher.ca, VirtualGuest.ca and StopaBully.ca. The first two are teaching aids while the third is now a nation-wide anti-bullying site.
LiveTeacher.ca is a site dedicated to providing live and recorded video lessons. It has been used for more than 5,000 students in British Columbia, the Yukon and B.C. offshore schools in China.
VirtualGuest.ca allows students to video conference with people from around the world.
Guests included Vikas Swarup, author of Slumdog Millionaire and scientist David Suzuki, as well as Canadian astronauts Robert Thrisk and Chris Hadfield.
“The sky’s the limit in terms of what you can do with video conferencing,” Knowlton said.
He has set up video conferencing to allow students to observe live surgeries and underwater dives. In the future, he would like to have a live presentation from the international space station.
StopaBully.ca has received plenty of recognition across Canada. The site provides support to students suffering from bullying.
In 2009, Knowlton and other staff members received an anonymous video from a student about a bullying video, taken at the school and circulating on Facebook. Four days later, he launched an online bullying reporting program to allow students and parents to report bullying and cyberbullying without repercussions.
Since the site was launched, response has been overwhelming.
“That one’s taken off at a pace I never thought was possible,” he said.
While he does not yet have sponsorship for the program, it is registered as a non-profit organization and is working towards charitable status.