Centre Wellington District High School (CWDHS) is one of the top schools in the province when it comes to information technology.
And Tim King, from Elora, is determined to bring similar digital opportunities to students across the country.
The technology teacher from CWDHS has been seconded by the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) for two years to promote CyberTitan and cybersecurity, with the goal to expand learning opportunities for students nationwide.
“Centre Wellington has one of the top digital programs in Canada, and it’s in Fergus. It’s not where you would expect to find one,” King says.
“A lot of our kids are farm kids. And that does not mean that they do just one thing. They do many things and tend to do things hands-on. So, we just leveraged that teaching with things like cybersecurity and robotics.”
King said students have a keen interest and talent for digital learning, when given the opportunity.
The CyberTitan program aims to provide middle and secondary school students with hands-on learning experience in simulated cyber threat environments to develop digital skills needed in STEM programs and in a variety of professional fields.
For King, the key is to make sure there are accessible digital opportunities, particularly for students in rural areas, across the country.
“I would love to see this happen in more places. If the talent is here in Centre Wellington, it’s in rural Saskatchewan, it’s in rural New Brunswick, it’s all over the country, but often the rural kids don’t get the opportunity,” King said.
Over the years, King has led many teams of students to victory at the CyberTitan national student cybersecurity competition.
“It often tends to be the same three specialized urban schools that win CyberTitan every year. And we were the only non-urban school to go to nationals,” he said.
By joining the competition, CWDHS has become part of Cisco’s Networking Academy, a global IT and cybersecurity education program that partners with learning institutions around the world.
A few years ago, King noticed a gap when it came to the number of girls participating in the CyberTitan competiton so he launched the first 'all girls' team in 2019.
“I knew that they could do it. We ended up bring the first all-female team to the national finals in 2019. That’s when Cisco reached out to me to take the cyber operations course and to be an instructor,” he said.
King then went on to win the Cisco Networking Academy Alumni Innovation Architect award.
In his current role, King travels across the country meeting with teachers and students.
“From Vancouver to Newfoundland. I have spoken to so many IT departments and school boards. If there are no opportunities in high school, kids won’t learn about future job possibilities,” King said.
The growth in cyber attacks on Canadian companies highlights the need for more cybersecurity training, particularly for young people.
“Our lights are on because of IT, our gas is running because of IT, the nuclear power plant is working properly because of IT. My feeling is that if we can get more awareness through CyberTitan, then we can get more students aimed in that direction,” King said. "It’s all about giving opportunities where we can develop students who are really excited about this."
King’s secondment is split this year with the Quantum Algorithms Institute where he will help to develop new learning opportunities for students in quantum computing.
“When I was little, I wanted to be an astronomer. Often science is taught the old-fashioned way with certainty, but quantum, it is all about uncertainty,” King said.
“I have started looking at places in Canada that are doing early education on it. The University of British Columbia has a quantum cluster. I reached out, took a course, and now want to share this nationally.”
King says what he enjoys most, is being surprised by all that students have to offer.
"For me as a teacher, that’s the best feeling, and I still get to see that happening. I have whole generations of students going in all different directions and I encourage them to stay in touch," he said.
King says he looks forward to seeing where his current role will take him.
“A part of me misses being in the classroom, but the other part of me thinks it took a while to build up the fire,” King said. “If I can start one here, I can start more all over the country.”
