Exclusive Publisher Podcast Interview with Dr. Karen Billings,
VP Education Division, SIIA @ EdTech Summit, San Francisco

 

    

 

 

     

 

Welcome to the June Year in Review - Celebration of Excellence edition of the Mindshare Learning Report. What an amazing year it's been for Canada on the global learning stage. With that we've compiled our Top 10 highlights of the year from a leadership, learning & technology perspective.

Top 10 MSL Report Highlights of the Academic Year: 

1. Canadian Students Score Top Marks in Major OECD PISA Report
2. David Johnson, Governor General of Canada, and former president of the University of Waterloo for elevating the learning and innovation agenda in Canada.
3. National teacher Winners of the MindShare Learning 21st Century Classroom Video Contest
4. Canada's Ministers of Education embrace 21st Century as a priority at their 99th CMEC meeting 
5. The Year of the Tablet -- forecasted to reach $49 Billion by 2015 - Catch Tim Gard's product reviews!
6. MindShare Learning hosts Canada's first ever 21st Century EdTech Leadership Summit engaging education and industry leaders
7. The rise of Web 2.0 digital content, mobile, blended learning and cloud computing and need the ensure students are media literate
8. Twitter emerges as a highly effective  professional learning network (PLN) for educators 
9. UBC Students leverage social media to create wildly successful LipDub video  
10. Canada 3.0 Stratford Report 2011 Calls for Action to Bolster Innovation, Canadian Digital Content

Enjoy this issue which blends this past year's highlights with some of the latest and great news stories.  Congratulations to you for your commitment to excellence and preparing students for the 21st Century Global knowledge economy.

Special thanks to our team, esteemed advisory board and our supporting sponsors who make this issue possible. Until next time, keep the learning curve steep!

P.S. Watch for our Professional Learning issue coming your way next month!

Follow us on Twitter @mindsharelearn  

Robert Martellacci

M.A. EdTech

Publisher & Managing Editor, The MindShare Learning Report™

President, MindShare Learning™-- Connecting Education & Business to Support Student Success 

www.mindsharelearning.com

 Before printing think about the Environment. Avant l' impression, il faut penser à l'Environnement.

My wife recently commented, there are a lot of conferences in your industry,  which led me to count beyond 25 north America-wide EdTech conferences that MindShare Learning has attended or sponsored this past year. We're of course strategic in our selection and it helps keep us at the forefront of innovation which we are pleased to share with you, our readership and also enables us to provide value-added services to our consulting clients. 

To say the "learning curve remains steep" would be an understatement.  While in San Francisco at the recent SIIA EdTech Summit I heard a reference to a "hockey stick curve" which really peaked my interest given my passion for the game.  A great segue to my insights from SIIA, one of the world's top industry conferences with every major publisher in attendance. I was fortunate to connect with a number of global industry leaders for podcasts interviews garnering deep insights on EdTech trends, challenges and opportunities highlighted in this report, including: Kathy Hurley (Pearson), Karen Billings (SIIA) and Megan Stewart (Adobe) with two additional podcasts to follow next month featuring Robert Iskander, CEO & Founder, EduTone, Corp and Adam Hall, President, SkillsTutor. While digital revolution is reminiscent of the dot-com frenzy back in the late 90's, there is a distinct difference in that there are a multitude of technologies, both hardware and software options that actually don't fall into the category of "vapor ware."
 
Besides San Francisco being one of my favorite cities, I came to appreciate the importance of education in fueling a vibrant 21st Century city. References to Silicon Valley reminded me of Waterloo and Markham, both cities have ecosystems that tightly integrate education, government and private sector organizations that help drive incubation, and innovation that enables communities to thrive and succeed on the global stage. Hence, it's interesting to note that Google Canada chose to set-up shop in Waterloo.

A Great Celebration of Excellence at the recent CODiE Awards in S.F.

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal trade association for the software and digital content industries, announced the winners of the 2011 CODiE Awards in the education technology industry yesterday. During a special awards reception and dinner, in conjunction with the organization's eighth annual Ed Tech Industry Summit, 30 winners were recognized for products and services developed specifically for the K-20 market.  Kudos to Karen Billings and her team at SIIA for hosting an excellent conference and awards celebration. R.M.

SIIA Codie Award winners take centre stage at the recent gala event at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco

EduTone Sweeps the 2011 SIIA CODiE™ Awards for Education Technology Wins Three Major Awards including Best K12 Education Solution
Read more    

Congratulations to MindShare's friend, Robert Iskander, Founder & CEO of EduTone Corporation, "the EduTone Xchange™ who poses for a MindShare moment with his record three CODiE Awards  

The EdTech World Comes to Toronto, ON 

GETS 2011 Summit sponsored by SMART Technologies: Charting a New Course Panel Presentation-Robert Martellacci, President & Publisher, MindShare Learning Report pictured with Leslie Wilson, President, One to One Institute (C) and Ian Fogarty, Riverview High School, New Brunswick (L)

 
SIIA EdTech Summit Podcast Interview with Kathy Hurley, Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, Pearson Education/Pearson Foundation  

Conference News    

Canada slips behind world digital growth

QMI AGENCY, 7/05/2011

We have seen the future - and it's outpacing us.  That, in a nutshell, was one of the impressions left by Canada 3.0, the annual confab of digital technology experts, at its third annual gathering here this week.|
Read more  

e-G8 forum:  Murdoch Says Schools Miss Out on Tech Revolution
Wall Street Journal, 25/05/2011
News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch on Tuesday called on global business leaders to invest in new technologies to improve an education system he said is stuck in the Victorian age.

Read more   

Meeting of the Minds! MSL Report Advisory Board held its annual general meeting recently at York University, Institute for Research on Learning Technology

Thank you to Marty Keast, president, Pearson K12 Canada generous sponsors of our national video contest

(L-R) Front row: Marty Keast, Aislinn Malszecki, Dr. Greg Malszecki, David, Marsi, Cheryl Paige, Back row: Dr. Ron Owston, Dr. Eric Hamilton (via Skype on screen), Robert Martellacci

A solar solution to aging school roofs

Parent Central, 19/05/2011

Over 300,000 solar panels will be installed on the roofs of hundreds of Toronto public schools at no cost to taxpayers, it was announced on Thursday.

Read more 

China's Green Technologies Grow 77% Per Year

Greener Ideal, 10/05/2011

Although the country is widely known for its terrible environmental policy and pollution-filled skies, a new reportby the WWF shows that China has the fastest growing rate of green technology adoption in the entire world, at 77% per year.

Read more 

A leader's quest to transform University of Victoria's IT

ITWorld Canada, 12/05/2011

Mark Roman's goal is to transform IT at the University of Victoria into the best technology systems at any university.

Read more 

Hardware, software and services:  Trends to watch in the next year 

Timothy Gard
Educator, Toronto District School Board  

@soligard  

It seems like just yesterday that we were rolling out the September edition of the 2010/2011 MindShare Learning Report. Now, here we are in June closing in on the final days of school with the Year in Review edition of The MindShare Learning Report. We've seen many devices, experienced some interesting software, and attempted to forage a path through the various devices and services that have come to our attention so that you might better understand the nuances of each and make intelligent and informed decisions. We haven't covered even a fraction of what there is available to you however we have attempted to bring to light those pinnacle pieces, or devices, that may make a difference in your attempt to develop your own philosophy of educational technology and what's good for your particular context. Read on!

Feature Jobs  

Education Canada Network and MindShare Learning Report are proud to bring you the following featured job opportunities.   

Technology and Finance Officer

South Slave Divisional Education Council

The South Slave Divisional Education Council is seeking a positive, dynamic and experienced individual for the position of Technology & Finance Officer. Under the supervision of the Technology Manager and the Comptroller, the Officer is responsible for maintaining the financial, administrative, payroll, and student information computer systems and related procedures for the South Slave Divisional Education Council (SSDEC) in order to ensure effective, efficient and accurate operations.

Learn more and Apply 

EO/Technician Training Centre Manager

Portage College

Work closely with program advisors and College personnel for the development and construction of a new HEO/Technician Centre in Boyle, Alberta.

Learn more and Apply 

VP, Education  

Northern Lights College

The Vice President Education (VPE) is responsible for facilitating the learning environment at Northern Lights College (NLC). In consultation with the President, the incumbent is accountable for the planning, programming, direction, and quality assurance of education programs and services across all NLC campuses and sites. The incumbent is also responsible for ensuring that all educational divisions respond effectively to student learning needs within resource constraints and innovating and collaborating to identify requirements and achieve goals.

Learn more and Apply  

Get your job featured!
 

For more information click here or email [email protected] for more information. Education Canada Network is the country's leading source for education employment opportunities. 

Follow Education Canada Network!


 

Although WolframAlpha is not new, it is evolving and hence the reason why it's included. The jump from a Web 2.0 to a Web 3.0 search engine is 'just around the corner' for WolframAlpha and so it's definitely worth your time and effort to use it more frequently, especially in your classroom! Join the education community to get more out of this amazing product.

Wolfram|Alpha introduces a fundamentally new way to get knowledge and answers- not by searching the web, but by doing dynamic computations based on a vast collection of built-in data, algorithms, and methods. 

Real-time thinking. For groups.

ThinkFold's structured environment helps groups collaborate on ideas, documents, presentations and plans.Put an end to endless emails, multiple document versions, unstructured wiki pages and confusing planning tools with a simple, yet powerful and flexible structured thinking tool. 

Using ThinkFold, your workgroup can: Interact in a shared outline; add text, images and files; rearrange your ideas on the fly; see changes being made, in real-time!

Magically Turn your Videos Into Short, Fun Clips

Magisto is a web app that will simply make your video worth sharing: Magisto will take a long and boring video, take the gist of it and create a great-looking clip you'd be proud to share. And it is all done in a few clicks.

BeQrious - Generate your own QR codes - the next best technology in bar code reading are QR codes. What are they? Read this FAQ on this technology and start using it...definitely an asset in the mobile revolution!

Post-Secondary Feature Headlines

Mark Roman joins CANARIE as President and CEO 

Canada's Advanced Research and Innovation Network, announced the appointment of Mark Roman as President and CEO, effective April 25, 2011. Mr. Roman, most recently Chief Information Officer at the University of Victoria, replaces Jim Roche, who has been acting President and CEO since January 2010.

The Official Announcement PDF 

'Dammit, I'm a doctor, not a captain' - William Shatner to receive honour
The Gazette, 06/05/2011
Montreal-born actor William Shatner, best known as the commander of television's most famous spaceship, is to receive a honorary doctorate at graduation ceremonies for the McGill University faculty of arts on June 2.
Read more  

Federal, provincial governments announce $3.1M in science, technology funding
Members of the federal and provincial governments were on hand at the University of Saskatchewan Wednesday to announce $3.1 million in new funding for Saskatchewan's science and technology sector.
Read more

Canadian lasers to aid NASA asteroid exploration
Vancouver Sun, 26/05/2011
NASA has approved an $800-million proposal to land an unmanned probe on a distant asteroid that's hurtling towards this planet, a mission that would employ three high-precision, Canadian-built lasers to help guide the lander and bring samples of the space rock back to Earth for scientific studies that could shed fresh light on the birth of the universe.
Read more 

Post Secondary Education: Upcoming Events

Event:........ CANHEIT 2011 

Date:.........June 5 - 8, 2011

Location:.... McMaster University, Hamilton

Event: .......Worldviews Conference on Media and Higher Education  

Date: .........June 16-18

Location: ....Munk School for Global Affairs, Toronto, Ontario

Event: .......MODSIM World Canada 2011 

Date: .........June 21-22  

Location: ....Ottawa, Ontario

Youth File

By Aislinn Malszecki    

In the search for exceptional young Canadian leaders, I've come across these five teens who have been able  

to focus their energy on inspiring social and scientific projects to help the people in their communities and create change that resonates around the world.   

We are incredibly fortunate in Canada to have so many awards and scholarships to recognize young peoples leadership efforts and to encourage others to become leaders in their communities.   

Abid Virani, 20, a University of Guelph student who co-founded I Have Hope in the Fight Against AIDS to provide what kind of opportunities for students to make contributions to the global community.  He was a recipient of the Top 20 Under 20 award in 2010.  Follow Abid on his blog.

Alain Podmorrow, 13, founded Little Women for Little Women in Afghanistan at the age of nine. Which focuses on a woman's right to education and started 15 teams of Little Women across Canada and the US, which have collectively raised over $300,000 toward training teachers, paying teachers' salaries, purchasing books, and supporting an orphanage, all in the interest of bringing equal education and opportunity to the girls and women of Afghanistan.

 James Brooks, 11, from London, Ontario started 1000classrooms.org to help protection gorillas through the preservation of their habitat in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. When the program reaches its goal, over 20000 children will have been made aware of issues facing children and animals in Africa.  The money raised helps educate Congo schoolchildren about gorilla conservation.

Chloé Anassis, 15, who was recently awarded First Prize in Hydro-Quebec's Super Expo-Sciences fro ther experimentation project titled "Embrace Air With Algae Repair."  The main goal of the project is to genetically modify algae to improve its ability to capture CO2, which will be greatly beneficial on a global scale.  Chloé placed Second in the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF), held in Los Angeles earlier this month - part of the award means Chloé will have a near-earth asteroid named after her!

Gary Kurek, 19, inventor and entrepreneur from Calgary, Alberta.  At the age of 14, Gary witnessed his grandmother suffer afflictions of debilitation, Gary's primary focus was placed into assistive mobility aids and founded GET Mobility Solutions.  Gary was recently awarded the 20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowship grant (from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel) worth $100,000 that encourages young entrepenures to drop out of school to "change the world." 

Also see:  5 Cool Projects by Canadian Youth & 5 Events and Programs for Canadian Youth this Summer!   PDF 

Research and Innovation  

Teacher-librarians a dying breed as boards make room for technology: report

National Post, 16/05/2011

Once considered the gatekeepers of information in Canada's classrooms, the teacher-librarian is disappearing from schools amid budget cuts and the rise of technology - a fade-out that could further put libraries at risk, a new report finds.
Read more 

For three Canadian whiz kids, $100,000 and a mandate: Change the world
Globe and Mail, 26/05/2011
The assignment for Paul Gonsalves's Grade 8 science class was straightforward: Build a catapult. 

Read more 

When chat becomes cyber-bullying
Montreal Gazette, 25/05/2011
Every day, kids who may believe they're engaging in harmless cyber-chatting cross the line and end up engaging in a kind of harassment that results in cyber-bullying.
Read more  

The Chalkboard: How Teachers Use Technology  

GOOD, 23/09/10  

Students today are connected in ways that previous generations could never have imagined. Teachers are being impacted, too-with things like smart boards, digital projection screens, and electronic grade books changing the way they do business.
Read more 

MindShare Musings

"The Connectors, Leaders and People on the Move"

With the school year winding down we're busy planning for back to school and our MindShare Learning website refresh. Catch a sneak peak by clicking here. We welcome your candid feedback as to whether the new site better serves your needs and what improvements you might suggest?

3^rd Annual Canadian Consulate- MindShare Learning Can/Am Partnering reception at ISTE 2011. We're proud to co-host the Canadian Consulate-MindShare Learning Can/Am Partnering reception @ISTE 2011 on June 28 in Philadelphia. It is by invitation, so please let me know if you're going to ISTE and interested in attending? We'll be honouring our national 21^st Century Video Contest winners for 2011.

Speaking of excellence, I would be remised if I didn't recognize the excellence in teaching winners across Canada that offer Premier's Awards. The following are links to various provinces and territories offering provincial teaching awards that we discovered: Ontario, Alberta and New Brunswick. Shouldn't every province be celebrating their excellent teachers?

Amazing industry milestones--Congrats to SMART Technologies who recently announced they Installed their Two Millionth SMART Board (TM) Interactive Whiteboard.

One of the best loved "FREE" web 2.0 tools in education - Skype was recently acquired by Microsoft. I'm optimistic that Microsoft will be mindful of how well it's been embedded in education and continue to enhance this highly engaging 21^st Century tool for teaching.

MindShare Learning Network of Innovative Schools Pilot opportunities! As part of the MindShare Learning Network, we're always searching for innovative schools to participate in pilot opportunities with some of the leading software and hardware solution providers spanning the globe. Please provide with us with a 250 word written expression of interest along with a description of your innovative school.

All chocked up? I'm hearing from several school districts that bandwidth is at a premium and networks are often running slow. This is concerning with the move by many software providers to cloud computing. Please share your experiences with us and how your school district is overcoming latency issues? We'll be conducting an investigative report in a future issue of the MSL Report.

Blazing the 21^st Century Trail of Learning: Great to see the Canadian School Boards Association take a leadership role in 21^st Century Learning with some great resources. 

I enjoyed catching up with fellow Canada Ron Fitzgerald, president, Math Resources Inc. in San Francisco while at SIIA recently.  A long-time software industry player from Nova Scotia, they have excelled in the math resources space.

Back to the future! MindShare's good friend Peter Skillen shares a blog article he previously wrote yet is dangerously relevant (in a good way of course) today HIDDEN - a project that worked - The project centered around empowering youth incorporates Adobe Voices and iEarn. Be sure to checkout the link to Peter's blog article here. Thanks for sharing Peter!

We always encourage and appreciate sharing amongst educators across Canada. Thanks to Prime Minister Award winning, Neil Stephenson of the Calgary Science School for sharing the amazing resources available on their school website...checkout the following link, follow Neil on twitter: @neilstephenson

Casting An Open Net is the first comprehensive report that establishes the need for the principle of openness to guide digital policy in Canada. Read the report. Have your say!

On the international stage, MindShare colleague, Peter Schneider, managing director of ict Maven checked in to share that he recently returned from presenting in the Middle East.  He says investment in education was evident in Dubai, UAE, at GESS (Gulf Educational Supplies & Solutions) coupled with GEF (Global Education Forum). In early May nearly 5,000 education professionals and senior decision makers participated in professional development sessions and an exhibition hosting 235 vendors from more than 30 countries.  The 3 days were filled with a unique blend of innovative teaching and learning practice and resources from all corners of the globe.

The governments in the region are not only interested in the latest resources for schools they are also investing in a sustainable infrastructure to support education.  Peter was invited to speak about national digital content infrastructures, personal learning networks, and sustainable support for innovation.   You can find his presentations by clicking here.

We look forward to our continued collaborations with you. Until, next time, walk the digital talk! Cheers,

R.M.

Canada moves one step closer to forming a P21 Canada organization.
  

MindShare Learning's Robert Martellacci co-chaired a recent education industry meeting along with
John Kershaw, former deputy minister of education in New Brunswick to explore
further the potential for a national P21 Canada organization.   

Product News

Epson Announces the new PowerLite X9 Projector - Sharp presentations at an affordable price.
Value-priced and easy to use, the PowerLite X9 produces crisp, bright presentations in the classroom or conference room. 2500 lumens of colour and 2500 lumens of white light output, combined with native XGA resolution, deliver attention-grabbing detail, at a surprisingly affordable price.
Learn more

New Promotion - Epson AP-60 Projector Sound Solution,  Buy 6 Get 1 Free!
Enhance your classrooms with sound that reaches all students whether in the front or the back.
With the Epson AP-60, it's easy to enhance the learning experience. This affordable projector sound solution offers everything you need to captivate any audience. With four speakers and 60 W of sound (30 W x 2 channels), it's ideal for virtually any classroom. 
Learn more 

 
Johnny Depp depicted in Warhol-esque student artwork from the District School Board of Niagara

Top of page  

The MindShare Learning Report team is made up of the following individuals:

Robert Martellacci,  M.A. Ed Tech., Publisher and Managing Editor, contact: [email protected]

Timothy Gard, M.A., B.Ed K-12 Editor, contact: [email protected]

Aislinn Malszecki, B.A. Hons., Digital Media Specialist, contact: [email protected]  

Valerie Rusnov, B.A. Hons., B.Ed., Editor