"Congratulations on your MindShare Learning Report launch. Well done!!!! As you know, I have been looking for information on the Canadian EdTech business and you've been able to collect the news in a clear and concise format.  This resource will be very valuable for Canadian educators." -- Rheal Dumont, Executive Director, NECTAR Foundation--Educational Software for Schools of Today and Tomorrow wrote

 "Congratulations Robert! This looks awesome!!!" Chip Fesko, Senior Director, Advertising Sale and Strategic Alliances,  The George Lucas Education Foundation

 "Congratulations on this innovative report.....great format and content....I know how much work these are to produce! "  Susan E. Vail, Ph.D., Associate Dean, Student & Curricular Affairs, Faculty of Health, YORK UNIVERSITY

The Entertainment and Creative Cluster Partnerships Fund Round 3 Call for Applications

OMDC has launched a call for applications for The Entertainment and Creative Partnerships Fund, a program of the Ministry of Culture, co-administered by the Ontario Media Development Corporation. Funds allocated for this, the third round, amount to over $3,300,000.

Our inaugural issue of the MSL e-Report proved to re-ignite some past industry friendships and associations from over the years. On that note, Stephen Hurley of Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board shared his recent career evolution. You may recall, he headed up a team of IT/ Curriculum Consultants. From there he left on a secondment to OISE/UT where he taught for 3 years in their Preservice Program. He tells me it was a fascinating time in his life. 

Stephen's been back with the board for 2 1/2 years now, and has designed and implemented an arts-based, integrated, alternative approach to this place we call school. Based at Cardinal Newman School in Brampton, he is working with 33 grade 7 students of various levels--looking at how arts and technology can allow them to enter into curriculum in a different way. "Challenging, rewarding, frustrating and promising," is how Stephen describes his new challenge. He's captured some of his thinking around this on a Blog run by the George Lucas Foundation (http://www.edutopia.org/blog/64).  

Former West Vancouver School District Superintendent, Doug Player, is one who never stands still.  His latest venture is trying to build a University at Whistler (http://www.whistleru.com). He suggests every leadership team from business and education take the one day DiCor workshop (http://www.DiCor.org), to increase creativity and innovation on their team as well as improve meeting productivity.  He also suggests looking at the Horizons 2008 report at one of his favourite websites; http://www.educause.edu. Thanks for sharing Doug. I look forward to joining you on the golf course later this month while out at BC Ed Online! 

My former Pepperdine U Master's program classmate, Colette Cassinelli (http://www.edtechvision.org) shares some very cool technology--Voicethread  (http://voicethread4education.wikispaces.com)  

Congratulations to my old friend from TLC days, Megan Stewart, who has moved on from Adobe K-12 Global Director to take on the Higher Ed role at Adobe. Megan keynoted at the ECOO Conference this past fall. 

My son Lucas just completed a project on astronaut Dr.Steve MacLean, who is a fellow York University alum. I was inspired to learn from an article he wrote in the recent issue of the New Knowledge for a New Economy Magazine of the significant contribution that Canada made toward the NASA space program. According to Dr. MacLean, after the AVRO Arrow program was cancelled in 1959, Canadian engineers were scooped up in large numbers, accounting for 25% of  NASA engineers.  

Dr. Paul Axlerod dropped me a note recently to share some exciting news on a recent award he received and the fact that his term as Dean is coming to a conclusion. Congratulations to Dr. Paul Axelrod, Dean of Education at York University, who was named the 2007 recipient of the prestigious David C. Smith Award, which acknowledges significant contribution to scholarship and policy on higher education in Canada.    

In late breaking news, Nelson Learning's president Greg Pilon has moved on from his leadership position. Good luck to Greg in his future endeavors. I had a nice catch-up call this past week with Avi Oaknine, Canadian Sales Manager, Adobe Canada, who was off to Hawaii with Adobe's top 40 performers this year-congratulations Avi! 

Our own Mitchel N. Townsend, Higher Education Editor, travels to Tahiti next month to create and produce a series of educational Vodcasts from the capital city of Papeete, French Polynesia.  He will be the guest of Intercontinental Resorts where he will be writing a travel article and will be completing the second half of his academic series on eLearning, "Telecommuting and the Global Education Evolution." Mitch, don't forget to pack the sunscreen! 

Last but not least, April is a definitely one of the busiest conference months of the year. I will be presenting my "Cross Canada Check-up Research Project" at the ERDI Canada conference this week in Halifax, Nova Scotia to a gathering of Directors of Education from across Canada and industry partners. My preferred technology of choice in gathering, disseminating and presenting the information is wikispaces, checkout (http://www.wikispaces.com).  For more information about ERDI Canada, go to (http://www.erdi.ca). I then head to Ottawa the following week for the by invitation only, Microsoft Canadian Education Summit. Towards the end of the month,  I'll be out at the BC EdOnline Conference to support my associates at netTrekker and learn about the latest trends in the Canadian e-Learning space. 

Please be sure to send me your personal success stories and other newsworthy information directly to me, robert@mindsharelearning.com  

Thanks all for sharing. And, until next time, keep the learning curve steep!