As a seasoned baby boomer, I’m seeing an emerging trend amongst my colleagues in the way of retirements, then choosing to follow 
their passion in taking on projects that see them remain in education. Case in point, my friend, colleague and mentor, Marty Keast, President of Pearson K12 and MindShare Learning Board Member, recently announced that he’ll be retiring at the end of the
month. I look forward to catching up with Marty before his departure; to tap into his immense knowledge of our learning & technology sector for reflections, and what plans he has in store going forward. As Marty put it, he’s not going to the farm. He’ll continue contract work with Pearson and focus on select projects.
John Taylor, long time Ontario Ministry of Education OSAPAC Representative & Education Officer retired recently. I had the good fortune of collaborating with John for a dozen years. He was a pioneer of sorts, bringing a wide range of software to schools across Ontario. We wish John the very best as he turns to a new chapter in his career. Rumour has it that Urs Bill will be taking on John’s role with OSAPAC.
The highly talented Sandi Urban-Hall, President of the Canadian School Boards Association, shared that her term will be coming to a close this June. It’s been great collaborating with Sandi through her board involvement with C21 Canada.
It was great catching up with Saar Pikar, CEO of CDI Computers, over lunch recently. CDI is a company on the move as it evolves its digital strategy and solution offerings.
Special thanks to Central Peel high school Principal, Lawrence Demeres for inviting me and my C21 Canada colleague, John Kershaw, to visit his school and learn about their 21st Century initiatives. The community of practice emerging clearly reflects the sound leadership qualities that Mr. Demeres has instilled amongst his team. Central Peel is a school on the move!
Checkout this video on Multimodal Authorship and the Importance of Video Play by Mary Pat O’Meara, who is a member of our team and soon-to-be graduate with her Masters in Education from York U. She is a rising star on our team!
In the sad to see her go department, Natalie Gilbert, our EdTech Consultant, has decided to pursue her passion for teaching, going abroad to hone her skills. We wish her the best success! We’re pleased to welcome intern Momita Ahmed to our team, who is a York U alum and soon-to-be graduate of Seneca College’s corporate communications program.
On the twitter beat…checkout this cool infographic on the history of educational technology via @pinterest http://pinterest.com/pin/159737118005173249/ …
In case you missed it, here’s an Excellent Report! Bring Your Own Device: A Guide for Schools Commissioned by #ABEd #BYOD #EdTech http://education.alberta.ca/media/6749210/byod%20guide%20revised%202012-09-05.pdf …
On the international front…Learning Without Borders: How Intel is Helping Khan Academy Educate 10 Million Students.http://iq.intel.com/iq/28428576/khan-academy-virtual-learning-without-borders
In the sorry I cannot be there department, I wish my friend, Karen Billings, vp education division SIIA and her team the best of success in hosting the SIIA EdTech Industry Summit, May 5-7 in San Francisco.
As always I enjoy hearing from you. Keep the news coming! Until next time walk the digital talk!
Cheers,
RM
