Vancouver school uses Snapchat to connect with new generation of students

Remember the days when kidswould get busted for texting in class and have to hand over their phone to the vice principal?

Times have changed. While many classrooms are embracing technology in school work, a Vancouver school has gone a step further.

Prince of Wales Secondary School is using popular social media messaging app Snapchat to connect with its students.

PrincipalDavid Derpak said the school started using the app to sendschool bulletins to its students two weeks ago, after consulting with some of the school'ssenior students.

More than 200 students have signed up toget snaps from the school, and he'shoping to get morefollowers once the school does more outreach to its 1,100students.

Time to move from PA system?

He says it's about time the school made a change.

"Like many schools, we also use the PA system, but the public address system was invented in 1915 during World War I, I think," he said, "And I think we've moved a little bit further."

He's also hoping to make the snaps more visually appealing by adding photos and videos.

"Everything from volleyball tryouts to 'We won the city championship in soccer and here's a photo,'or 'Auniversity is here and come down to the lobby to meet their representatives,'" said Derpak.

The principalsaid he and the students explored other social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, but ultimately chose Snapchat because it doesn'tallow commenting. Derpaksaid he's seeing more students using technology in a way that helps rather than distracts such as putting a reminder for an upcoming testin theirsmartphonesinstead of a hardcopy agenda.

"About 64 per cent of our students are non-native English speakers, so rather than just a bulletin being read and them perhaps not understanding everything, Snapchat allows them to take a screenshot and read it two to three times and make sure they've got all the information."