Year: 2020 — Province: Manitoba
Certificate of Excellence Recipient
Sisler High School
Networking and Cyber Security, grades 9 to 12
Winnipeg, Manitoba
[The] competitions, classes and experiences [Robert Esposito organized] have taught me valuable technical skills, developed my interpersonal skills and showed me how to become a leader within a team.
Robert Esposito is a pioneer leading the charge to transform how students learn within the education system. With more than 15 years of experience working in the information technology sector, he has been instrumental in developing the Sisler Cyber Academy, which is educating the next generation of Canada's cyber defenders.
Teaching approach
Robert immerses his students in a learning environment that promotes cross-curricular connections, the importance of developing a community of learners and establishing pathways to careers in information technology. He encourages students to be leaders and to take initiative, empowering them to help others.
In the classroom
- Revolutionized the student learning experience through technology: cloud-based learning management systems ensure school's diverse and multicultural students have access to course material, can interact and collaborate with their classmates and get hands-on help from Robert while travelling during the school year.
- Explores all facets of cyber security: students learn how to stay safe and act ethically online, secure personal devices, create a virtual environment to interact, view and test anti-malware products, and study cyber attacks from a technological perspective and by examining the geo-political, economic and military landscape.
- Harnesses competitions to build and test students' cyber security skills and knowledge in computer science, math and world issues through in-class, practice contests; hundreds of students (boys and girls) then take part in actual competitions, with teams reaching the podium in local, national and international finals.
- Fosters a community-based classroom environment to allow students to expand their own learning: for example, Robert challenged a group of students to figure out how to access hardware and software they needed outside school hours and then, with his support, install, set up and troubleshoot their solution.
Outstanding achievements
- Developed "CyberTitan"—a cyber security program that has reached thousands of students across the country—as part of his drive for a national cyber-security education strategy; the Information and Communications Technology Council has integrated CyberTitan into its National Cyber Education Initiative.
- Secured partnerships and agreements with software companies such as VMware and Microsoft, resulting in the school's getting industry-grade software for a fraction of the cost; the school also received $100,000 from a private foundation for computer hardware, thanks to Robert's efforts.
- Facilitates student participation in research through the World Community Grid: students choose a project to support and then install and configure software so they can donate excess computing power to it; one student donated so much to a cancer project that he was invited to go to Toronto to meet the researchers.
- Developed Canada's first professional workshop to provide mentorship and training for Canadian teachers interested in integrating cyber security education in their schools.
Get in touch!
Sisler High School
1360 Redwood Ave
Winnipeg MB R2X 0Z1
204-589-8321
gheshka@wsd1.org
https://www.sislercyberacademy.org/
Twitter: @sislercyber