It’s a great time to be in education. Never before have we witnessed the digitally disruptive forces that are upon us today. Innovations from SMARTboards to smartphones to tablets and social networking tools offer great potential for more engaging and relevant learning in the 21st century. What I find intriguing is that there seems to be a pent up demand for educators and students to connect more than ever before; to make sense of what I’ve described as the “Wild West” in the EdTech space today. Hence, we’re seeing growing need for professional learning development, which perhaps speaks to the proliferation of conferences and webinars.
Perhaps a great segue to highlight some recent notable events such as the ECOO Google Summit hosted in Waterloo. The event attracted more than 500 education leaders, showing the momentum that Google has in education. It was very cool to see that Wendy Gorton, a fellow Pepperdine U EdTech Masters alum and a Google educator guru, presented at the summit. Kudos to ECOO prez Bill McKenzem, ECOO board member and Waterloo DSB CIO Mark Carbone, and the rest of the team for a successful event! See you at Connect 2013.
C21 Canada board member, Sandi Urban-Hall, president of the Canadian School Board Association was honoured at the recent C21 Board meeting with C21 Medallion as she completes her term as president of the CSBA. You will be missed Sandi! Thanks for your valued contributions to the C21 Board.
MSL recently hosted a small gathering of education associates to celebrate Marty Keast’s retirement as president of Pearson Canada School Division recently. A memorable evening for Marty, who will remain as a valued MLS Report advisory board member. I know Marty is looking forward to reactivating his consulting practice, Forever Learning. Pictured (L-R): Back row: Bill Hogarth, president, ERDI Canada, Tim Gard, TDSB; Robert Martellacci, MSL; Front Row: Dr. Ron Owston, Dean, York University Faculty of Education; Marty Keast.
As vice-chair of CeLEA, I’m excited about our upcoming AGM. CeLEA Chair, Claude Martel will be presenting: Catching Up With Estonia: CeLEA AGM Highlights Lag in Canadian interactive education. Interactive education CeLEA AGM adds digital learning power to “Seven Habits of Highly Intelligent Communities” SUMMIT, Toronto, June 3-4. Thanks to Gary Stairs, CeLEA board member for his leadership in coordinating our efforts!
This just in…. Dino Miele, CIO, DSBN shared a new DSBN student created song, “Sky’s the Limit” which is most inspiring!
Until next time, walk the digital talk!
RM.
