Sir Michael Barber addresses the audience at MaRs reception
I enjoyed attending Dr. Michael Fullan’s reception at MaRS recently honouring Sir Michael Barber and introducing MadCap Learning Systems. Watch for more news on MadCap later this year.
Check out Sir Barber’s latest report with the intriguing title: Oceans of Innovation. The reception’s invite list included who’s who in education in Ontario. I enjoyed meeting Dr. Julia O’Sullivan, Dean of OISE. Tom D’Amico, superintendent of Technology at Ottawa Catholic DSB was also in attendance. Thanks for your kind words on how valuable you find our publication. Very humbled and greatly appreciated!
The flurry of start-ups and acquisitions continues. Rheal Dumont, former executive director of NECTAR Foundation shared recently news of the acquisition of the NECTAR Foundation by SVT Education of Markham, Ontario, Canada. The NECTAR Foundation was established by the OCSB in 1991 to develop state of the art educational software. The NECTAR Foundation is best known for the Math Trek, Language Trek and Science Trek series of programs. SVT Education is a division of Synrevoice Technologies.
Timing is everything! It was quite coincidental to have interviewed John Baker, CEO of Desire2Learn, last month on the heels of a rather large announcement that they received some $80 million in funding from the venture community. Congratulations!
I enjoyed reconnecting with Scott Welch and John Myers, former First Class execs who have reinvented themselves in a new start-up called www.edsby.com. Watch for a product review coming soon! Edsby has great potential to streamline teacher workflow to create great efficiencies as well as provide deeper insights to support student achievement.
One more interesting start-up I came across while watching BNN was www.eprof.com. I met up with the co-founder, Trevor Koverko, who is currently based out of MaRS in downtown Toronto. It’s a cool solution for enabling anyone to teach online.
Here are some noteworthy links from this month:
The 50 Best Education Twitter Hashtags – With Meeting Times! TeachThought http://bit.ly/PlpdPw
Has your child settled back into school? Blogpost: Bullying Prevention Tips http://prevnetblog.blogspot.ca/#bullying #school #parents via @PREVNet
Check out a great resource that we sponsored: 2012-2013 School Calendar | Canadian Education Association (CEA) http://www.cea-ace.ca/
Congrats to Texthelp: Read&Write GOLD & Fluency Tutor winners of ComputED Gazette’s ’12 EDDIE Awards! http://computedgazette.
In case you missed it! Check out my interview @edutalkradio: Canadian Education: Similarities and Differences. Listen here: http://tinyurl.com/9j95grg
More signs of a digital revolution… See photo above.
As always, we enjoy hearing about your success stories and people on the move!
Until next time, walk the digital talk!
Cheers, R.M.
