By Rolland (Ron) Manger, Director, Sales & Marketing, Sharp Electronics of Canada Ltd.

It’s important that students have access to tools that can help them learn, focus and work together. This fall we were proud to donate technology to five schools in the Greater Toronto Area to help them create an equitable learning environment.

The Sharp@School program worked with Monarch Park Collegiate Institute, Lakeshore Collegiate Institute, Etobicoke School of the Arts and James S. Bell Junior Middle Sports and Wellness Academy in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB); and Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Elementary School in the York Catholic District School Board (YCDSB), to provide calculators, collaboration and professional displays and air purifiers.

During the pandemic, students have been asked to minimize what they bring to school and to reduce the number of items they share for safety reasons. “By having that resource in their classroom, students no longer have to worry about bringing their own or sharing with others,” said Melissa Michailidis, Mathematics Department, Etobicoke School for the Arts.

Here’s how Sharp technology will be used in the Sharp@School program:

Calculators support numeracy throughout elementary and high school

Sharp calculators will support numeracy programs by reducing distractions from phones and providing a tool that students can become familiar with and use as they rise through each grade. EL243SB calculators will be used in Grade 3 and above. High school students need complex functions, and can benefit from using the same device throughout their high school careers because they can spend more time on solving equations and less on learning how to use a device. Our EL501XBWH and ELW516XGBSL scientific calculators include all the functions a high school student will encounter in their math classes. Altogether, we’ve provided 2,000 calculators to Sharp@School participants.

Displays create new ways for students to collaborate and get important information

The schools envisioned interesting ways to use displays in their environments. At Lakeshore Collegiate Institute, they plan to use a Sharp AQUOS Board ® collaboration display as a large digital canvas. Students can capture their thinking on the touchscreen, opening up opportunities to be creative and solve problems as a group. Other schools have been excited by the idea of using PNM401 and PNUH601 professional displays to share student accomplishments and announcements, and improve access to information. Math teachers will use the displays to share the locations where students can get extra help.

Air purifiers for classrooms

Sharp’s donation also included FPK50UW Plasmacluster Ion Air Purifiers with True HEPA Filtration. Sharp’s technology helps reduce dust, germs, bacteria, viruses, and odours.

We believe the right technology can have a huge impact on how students learn and work together. As the five schools participating in Sharp@School start incorporating the $50,000 worth of technology into their classrooms and routines, we look forward to hearing their feedback about how the technology is improving student learning.