The Island Pacific School is a small community-based middle school situated on Bowen Island near Vancouver, Canada. It offers a full curriculum to students in grades 7 through 9 with an emphasis on diverse and enriched experiential learning. Author Sinclair is the mathematics and information technology teacher at IPS as well as a researcher at the CECM.
IPS was interested in working with the PDG for several reasons. Foremost, it offered a unique opportunity for the school to get involved in academic research; as a private community school, it has always made an effort to bring learning opportunities of all sorts to the students. As well, an information technology component had recently been added to the province of British Columbia's curriculum and the school was ready to set up a networked lab and develop a strong IT program. This collaboration would give students the opportunity to work with advanced network technologies and to reflect and voice opinions on the perceived effects that they have on their education.
Island Pacific School was also committed to integrating technology into other classes such as mathematics. Working with a mathematics research centre would enable IPS students to collaborate with mathematicians and access powerful on-line tools and resources.