On June 19th, TVO Chief Executive Officer Lisa de Wilde was a keynote speaker at True North, an annual technology conference that attracts many of the world’s brightest tech visionaries to Kitchener-Waterloo – Canada’s hub of technology-driven innovation. The conference theme this year was Tech for Good, and one of this year’s program tracks, Age of Re-Learning, was a natural fit for TVO.
In her speech, Lisa focused on the ways in which technology can help transform our education system and spoke to the fact that our education system must use technology to help children learn, or risk ‘losing’ them.
“We all know technology has fundamentally changed the way we learn,” said Lisa. “But the education system has been slow to adopt new technology, and that needs to change if we are going to prepare our kids for the future workplace.”
And that’s where TVO comes in. Many people know TVO as the home of TVOkids, or thought-provoking documentaries, and, of course, for TVO’s flagship current affairs program, The Agenda with Steve Paikin. But fewer people know about the fastest growing part of TVO – its digital learning products.
In the last couple of years we have launched a number of new digital learning products that are redefining TVO’s brand. TVO Mathify offers free, live, online math tutoring to students in grades 7-10 and it’s staffed by Ontario Certified Teachers. TVO mPower is a suite of over 70 interactive online math games for students from kindergarten to grade 6. And TVO’ ILC is the largest high school in Ontario offering 144 online credit courses in English and French in all pathways from applied to academic and university preparation courses.
Lisa pointed out that digital learning resources like these should be viewed as opportunities in the education system. Digital learning ensures that our kids learn how to use digital platforms and tools to bring impact to their lives and to the world.
Today, TVO is no longer just a public television station. We have embraced the latest communication and education technology to become a multiplatform, digital learning media organization.