Future Shop and the David Suzuki Foundation launch new e-tools to help Canadians reduce their environmental impact
CNW 14/04/10
 
Thousands of Canadians will be invited to go green at home and at work thanks to several environmental initiatives being launched by Future Shop and the David Suzuki Foundation in the run-up to Earth Day on April 22

 
Students celebrate Earth Day
Northern Life 21/04/10

Schools within the Rainbow District School Board will celebrate Earth Day with a number of activities this week, from community clean ups, to litterless lunches, visits to green facilities and participation in the community Green Jobs Fair.

 
Ontario Students Celebrate Earth Day
Ontario.ca 22/04/10

Students across Ontario are celebrating Earth Day and putting the lessons they learn in school into action, including planting trees, bringing litter-less lunches and cleaning their school yards. By incorporating environmental education into all grades and subjects, Ontario is encouraging students to do more to participate in green activities every day.

 
Student advocates form their own Eco teams
Toronto Star 22/04/10

A 40th birthday is something of a milestone. It marks a new level of maturity and can give pause for reflection about past challenges and accomplishments and make us think about our future. As Earth Day celebrates 40 years of environmental awareness, observers say there are still serious threats to our planet's survival.
 
 
Students race to make world a 'happy place'
Calgary Herald 23/04/10

A chorus of shrieks erupted as nearly 200 McArthur School students raced through their playground and picked up candy-bar wrappers, cigarette butts and one stray Barbie-doll leg in celebration of Earth Day on Thursday. "We want to make the Earth a happy place instead of a sad place," Grade 3 student Jestice Hamula, 8, said. "We want to clean the Earth so it won't look like a garbage can," classmate Elizabeth Warren, 9, added.

There's a strategy behind my reason for reviewing this very robust piece of software from Tech4Learnng called Pixie[1]. Obviously, my strategy has something to do with ensuring that Canadian educators are made aware of this powerful program and the benefits of integrating it across the curriculum, but it also has something to do with providing a greater service for a greater good. This service is a simple one: To make the purchasing agents (OSAPAC in Ontario) in the various districts and ministries of education across this great nation of ours aware of the great void present in the area of exceptional primary authoring software.
 
Pixie is a prime example of a piece of software that can be used across the curriculum to construct knowledge and communicate ideas. In fact, in my opinion it's an example of the kind of software that should be part of every elementary school's technology arsenal. What exists now is dated, and limited compared to programs like Pixie. As an authoring tool for primary-aged students, it's exceptional. Pixie is simple, yet robust, easily adaptable to your lesson objectives from literacy to numeracy, and challenges the students without frustrating them. What more could you ask for? Well, Tech4Learning hasn't stopped there! Read on to find out more!
 

Google Apps may save schools $1.5M
The World 29/04/10

Oregon educators hope a free Web-based software application will help students become digitally literate while saving money for struggling school districts. The Oregon Department of Education began offering Google Apps for Education to public school districts on Wednesday. Officials predict a statewide savings of $1.5 million yearly for e-mail, and additional savings for software and hardware upgrades that won't be needed anymore.
 

SMART acquires NextWindow
Acquisition extends SMART's presence into broader consumer market and strengthens IP portfolio
SMART Technologies 26/04/10

SMART Technologies, the world's leading provider of interactive whiteboards, announces the acquisition of New Zealand-based NextWindow (Next Holdings Limited), a leading designer and manufacturer of optical touch technology for integration into all-in-one computers, computer displays and large-format screens


Netflix Founder Acquires Online Education Start-Up
New York Times 20/04/10

Reed Hastings, the founder and chief executive of Netflix, used the Web to make it easier for us to rent movies. Now Mr. Hastings, who is also a former high school math teacher, is using the Web for a less entertaining, more educational cause - teaching math to children.

The Classroom in 2020
Forbes 04/08/2010

Our education system is not broken, but it is becoming obsolete. We're still running an educational model developed for the industrial revolution, designed to prepare workers for factory jobs.  Picture the experience in most of today's college classrooms: a vast amphitheater where a wizened professor drones through a long lecture about what he knows.

 
McMaster University Switches to Desire2Learn Learning Management System
CeLEA 18/04/10

Desire2Learn Incorporated (Desire2Learn), a leading provider of mission-critical enterprise eLearning solutions, welcomes McMaster University, one of the world's leading universities and renowned for its innovation in both learning and discovery, to the growing list of clients adopting Desire2Learn Learning Environment�.

 
Technology Powers Distance Learning
UCAN 23/04/10

With the rise of online streaming video and the general expectation of access to quality, free information from the public, distance learning has gotten a boost. Whether as part of a formal degree program or as an addition to a lifelong learning commitment, technology is now powering this revolution.


Construction begins on new UFV campus
BC Local News 23/04/10

More than just a little paint and rust removal is involved in the "renovations" now underway at the former military engineering school at CFB Chilliwack where UFV is building a new campus. "We didn't want to have a battleship on campus," Craig Toews, UFV's chair of new campus planning, said about the old military school.

 
Governments of Canada and Ontario announce Knowledge Infrastructure Projects underway: Grand opening celebration at Humber College
CNW 23/04/10

Lois Brown, MP for Newmarket-Aurora, Laurel Broten, MPP for Etobicoke-Lakeshore and Humber College President John Davies, today celebrated the grand opening of the new Humber Arts & Media Studios.

Event: ....... Canada 3.0
Date: ......... May 10 -11, 2010
Location: ....Stratford, ON


 
Event: ....... ACCC (Association of Canadian Community Colleges) Conference
Date: ......... June 6 - 8, 2010                                    
Location: ....Niagara Falls, ON
 
Event: ....... Canadian Higher Education and Information Technology Conference
Date: ......... June 13 - 16, 2010                               
Location: ....St. John's, NFLD

Event: ....... MODSIM WORLD
Date: ......... June 14 - 17, 2010                                
Location: ....Montreal, QC

What's wrong with this picture? Congrats to the clever advertisers at Meritus U for their rink board ad that caught MindShare Publisher's attention at a Toronto Maple Leaf game this season. They outsmarted U of T and York U in capturing the online learning market. Meritus U is a subsidiary of U of Phoenix that set up shop in N.B. likely due to tax advantages and other incentives. Seems the Leafs are not the only ones asleep at the switch.

Until next time, be sure to walk the digital talk! Cheers,