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August 2020, Volume 13 Issue 4
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As we prepare for back to school and all its complexities, we trust this issue will provide you with insight, inspiration and hope as leaders, teachers, students, parents and EdTech solution providers.
Kudos to you for you for keeping engaged with us as we realize there is a thirst for knowledge as we continue down this path of unchartered waters due to COVID-19. The survival words that come to mind for our Professional Learning Special Edition--Agility, teamwork, problem solving skills, innovation, creatviity, upskilling and of course hope.
Speaking of hope, I encourage you to tune into our featured podcasts this month with former Tom Vander Ark, former superintendent, author and considered Linkedin's most influential education thought leader, and Dr. Rumeet Billan, also an Award-winning author and social emotional learning expert.
I'm thrilled to share that Tom Vander Ark, along with John Baker, CEO, D2L and Jeremy Hedges, founder, The Canadian Shield and Inksmith will be keynoting at our 11th Canadian EdTech Leadership Summit--The Future of Learning in Crisis and Beyond Task Force Thursday, October 29th, (hybrid delivery).
I'm further excited to share our Cross Canada Checkup panel is being finalized as we speak and will include notable global education thought leaders including; Dr. Andy Hargreaves, Dr. Michael Fullan, Dr. Mario Chaisson, to name a few exceptionally visionary experts. And not to be missed, the extordinary, Katina Papulkus, Dell's Canadian education strategist and former TDSB teacher leader always inspires us with her passion and insight.
Be sure to checkout this month's MindShare Musings in defense of EdTech solution providers, innovative educators and parents, who supported sustained remote emergency learning successfully. The failure was a result of a lack of PD for teachers and parents who had no prior experience using tech infused pedagogy. and the lack of student - teacher engagement due to grades not being assessed, to name a couple of challenges.
We are especially grateful during these challenging times for the valued support of our sponsors, partners and advisory board members, and our team, who inspire excellence in everything we do and help make this report possible. You have our commitment that we will continue to pivot to add more insight and resources through innovative technologies.
The judges have spoken from our 12th Schools of the Future Challenge and Minecraft Canadian Storytelling Challenge. The Winners will be announced for Back to School.
Wishing you and your family a safe and healthy summer break. Watch for our Back to School issue at the end of August!
Here's to 2020 being kinder and gentler in the coming weeks! |
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P.S. We are honoured to be media partners in tooday's Future of Learning Online conference hosted by Convergence.tech.. It's not too late to register for this FREE event! And supporting partners in the Hybrid Learning Summer Institute presented by Eduscape Canada.
Robert Martellacci, M.A. EdTech
President, MindShare Learning Technology™
Chief Digital Publisher, The MindShare Learning Report™
Founder, MindShare Workspace
CEO & Co-founder, C21 Canada™
Follow us on Twitter @MindShareLearn
https://mindsharelearning.ca/
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This Week in Canadian EdTechTV featuring Award-Winning Author, Dr. Rumeet Billan on Well-Being, Social Emotional Learning & Back to School. Her Message of Positive MindSet and Hope is Inspiring |
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Dr. Matt Rhoads, Author, Navigating the Toggled Term: Preparing Secondary Educators for Fall 2020 and Beyond. Tune into our exclusive podcast with Dr. Rhoads here. |
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Featured Books of the Month |
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National Back to School Featured School District Plan
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MindShare is now a proud partner of AC&E Magazine. Watch for the Canadian Section in the next issue. Drop me a note if you're interested in contributing, or advertising, robert@mindsharelearning.com |
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Timothy Gard, B.Th., B. Ed., M.A., Philosophy Education, Chief Learning Strategist |
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If you’ve been in education long enough, you will have encountered many different ‘digital learning and data platforms.’ These platforms entice potential partners with one or several modest characteristics for managing learning, especially assessment. However, you will note that many, if not most, of these platforms, lack the tools, intuitive interface, a deep understanding of data collection, assessment and communication management between all key stakeholders of a school community. Most of these platforms fall short of providing educators with a professional apparatus that follows modern assessment theory and communication protocols in a compact, simple, robust, and yet extensive package using the latest web technologies tweaked to meet the needs of teachers, students, and parents. You might even wonder if that’s possible. Well, it is, and its name is Edsby.
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RETURNING TO SCHOOL | A GUIDE TO THE SAFE REOPENING OF THE TDSB
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Canada Learning Code launches new, comprehensive K-12 Computer Science Education Framework |
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newswire.ca, August 5th, 2020 |
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'It's producing a lot of anxiety': Sask. parents voice concerns over province's back-to-school plan
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N.B.'s back to school plan to cost tens of millions |
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atlantic.ctvnews.ca, July 31st, 2020 |
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'A tough choice': Mixed feelings as parents, teachers prepare for a return to school
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ctvnews.ca, July 31st, 2020 |
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Top Hat Launches New Communication Tool to Help Students, Professors Adapt to Virtual Education |
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Canada “considering” letting international students return in September
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thepienews.com, August 7th, 2020 |
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| Drop tuition fees: University students face a precarious future amid COVID-19 |
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theconversation.com, August 6th, 2020 |
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Government of Canada COVID-19 Update for Indigenous Peoples and communities |
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Canada Newswire, July 31, 2020 |
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Minister Mendicino announces changes to facilitate online learning for international students
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Canada Newswire, July 14, 2020 |
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Contact us to post your career opportunities here! |
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source: TVO
In defense of Innovative Educators, Students, Parents and EdTech Partners Who Embraced Remote Learning and Made It Happen Successfully
When I last wrote a piece in this column it was back in March when COVID-19 had just arrived on the seen. Little did I know that some five months later, we'd still be in a crisis.
Yet, it hasn't been all bad. As we re-defined our priorities, I found I began spending more quality time with our family, going on daily walks, exploring new recipes and catching up with friends and family. The pace slowed, we began to appreciate the clearer and more beautiful skies. I hope we don't lose some of the good that's emerged in our respective communities.
Just as I hope we don't lose some of the innovation that emerged from remote emergency learning this past spring.
In defense of the EdTech community and innovative educators, the perceived failure of remote or hybrid learning needs to be more clearly understood.
To give context, it was an emergency learning scenario where very little planning had taken place given the sudden onset of the virus. PD was happening on the fly with some estimated 50% of educators who had very little exposure to technology infused pedagogy implementations. This coupled with zero expectations, or grading of any significance lowered the bar so badly that nobody (teachers, students and parents) was motivated to achieve excellence in teaching and learning and understandably so, given the pandemic distraction too. These were far from ideal learning conditions. Unprecedented times was the most overused term of the day.
So, with all due respect, I feel compelled to give respect to the many excellent Canadian and International EdTech companies who donated collectively millions of dollars in resources and PD to support sustained learning at school and at home. It wasn't perfect and we all learned from this predominantly unpleasant experience.
So where do we go from here? With less than a month to go back to school provinces crafted their master plans individually, some good and some not so much, lacking true science and education best practice research. A national Task Force on the Future of Learning would have made sense, perhaps moderated by the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada. This did not happen to my knowledge. Why not leverage economies of scale and put our collective heads together to craft a 21st century out-of-the-box solution leveraging stakeholder engagement including, teachers, parents, students, EdTech companies, health officials, scientists, governments and unions. For the most part, we've lacked creative problem solving skills that were even embrace in the 20's during the TB pandemic. It truly takes a digital village to raise a child in the 21st century. A missed opportunity in my opinion.
Where does this leave us when we have just several weeks to plan for a new and improved implementation strategy back to school? I anticipate many school districts will not be ready to open. Parents, students and teaches are fearful of going back given health concerns. The reality is that school will suck in many parts of the country. Who would want to go back to straight row desks, no outdoor activity, no gym, no library time and in many cases no tech. Kids and teachers wearing masks in extremely hot classrooms during warm summer days in September. Now let's imagine the possibilities and it's not too late -- outdoor classrooms, science discovery, learn at home activities where there's a multitude of tools, tech and opportunities to discover. Innovative technologies to beam in guest speakers. And perhaps hybrid virtual learning where half the students are at home beamed into the class where the teacher is walk about where a camera automatically follows the teacher to allow students at home to peer into class while all safely social distance, while putting parents teachers and students at ease.
Why is it that the many parts of our country chose the path of least resistance to revert back to old style teaching and learning thanks to provincial directives in their planning process? Now I don't want to paint a broad stroke brush to suggest there's zero innovation. Simply look at some of the plans out in Western Canada where some got it more right. Yes, there are pockets of innovation in education across Canada. It will be nice to get beyond it and thereby adddress the equity challenge so that all student can thrive.
What are you (we) going to do about it? What legacy do you want to leave post-pandemic? I truly believe it's not too late to implement cost effective, creatvie and innovative solutions that will alleviate the pressures on all stakeholders who are part of this success equation.
This is about courageous leadership. We have nothing to lose as we've already been beaten up so badly by this nasty COVID virus. Failure has been an option that we've encountered on many levels. Leadership can come from teachers at the grassroots doing amazing and innovative projects. Parents and students have the ability to make serious change happen as well. We are beginning to see a ground swell of protests and petitions as back to school nears. I'm estimating roughly 1/3 of parents will choose the option of kids staying home.
In anticipation of this, school districts and provinces need to provide the essential support for teacher and parent upskilling, so that they can be agile in their teaching and support practice. Nobody said its going to be easy. This COVID learning time period has been a true test to our resiliency and positive mindset. Dr. Ballan gave me hope during my recent podcast when she talked about the incredibly passionate and talented teachers stepped up and showed they cared for their students; connecting virtually and sharing stories and experiences.
So What's at stake?
As we chart our history, we need to be mindful of the legacy we hope to leave. A lesson learned is a lesson worth sharing. Relationships really matter as does community and a sense of belonging. The well-being of our next generation of leaders needs our upmost attention. The path of least resistance is no longer an option.
Let's collectively re-imagine school taking the best of the best and move it forward. It's not all about tech. Let's balance it off with outdoor discovery and engage with kids where they're at.
It's never been a more exciting time to be in education. Necessity is truly the mother of innovation. Chart your course. Make a commitment to change something, no matter how BIG or small.
Along with some of our innovative activities this past spring and summer, here's our commitment partly inspired by you, our advisory board, C21 Canada and the many members of my PLN. On October 28-29 we're hosting the 11th Canadian EdTech (Hybrid) Summit -- The Future of Learning in Crisis and Beyond Task force. It's our commitment to further Canadian innovation culture in education in support of teacher and student success. Yes, we're going to take risks and be innovative in hosting a hybrid event.
I welcome your thoughts on this extended diatribe. |
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If you have an event or story to share, please tell us about it! We also encourage you to share your comments!
Until next time, keep the digital learning curve steep!
R.M.
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Future of Learning Online Webinar
August 11, 2020 |
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ECOO Camp Ontario
August 25-27, 2020 |
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ISTE: Reinventing Education Together!
November 29 - Dec 5, 2020
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11th Canadian LeaderShip Summit 2020
October 28-29, 2020
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The MindShare Report is grateful for the guidance and support provided by our esteemed advisory board.
Members include:
Lauren Burman, M.B.A., Chief Client Officer, POSSIBLE
Kevin Custer, Founding Principal, Arc Capital Development
Chip Fesko, Sr. Director of Advertising & Strategic Alliances, George Lucas Educational Foundation, Edutopia Magazine
Ian Fogarty, Educator, Riverview High School | MindShare National Video Challenge Award Winner
Dr. GuyTetrault, Award Winning Sun West Director & CEO
Michael Furdyk, Co-Founder, TakingItGlobal
Dr. Eric Hamilton, Associate Dean of Education, Pepperdine University, Graduate School of Education and Psychology
Maxim Jean-Louis, CEO, Contact North/Contact Nord,
Gary Kern, Director of Learning, St. George's School
Dr. Susanne Lajoie, Professor, Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University
David Marsi, Senior Manager Training Initiatives, ScotiaMcLeod
Jamie McNamara, Executive Director, Council of Catholic School Superintendents of Alberta
Mirella Rossi, Principal, Toronto Catholic District School Board
Sandra Chow, Award Winning Teacher, Toronto District School Board
Ron Sedran, MD, Equity Capital Markets, Canaccord Adams |
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The MindShare Learning Report team is made up of the following individuals:
Robert Martellacci, M.A. Ed Tech., Chief Digital Curator
Dr. Karen Grose, MindShare Learning Partner Associate
Timothy Gard, B.Ed., OCT, M.A, Chief Learning Strategist
Hanan Mousa, Associate Digital Media Specialist
Valerie Rusnov,B.A. Hons., B.Ed., Editor
Filomena Martellacci, B.A. Hons., B.Ed., OCT, Editor
About The MindShare Learning Report™
Canada's Learning & Technology eMagazine
Our mission is to transform education by sharing knowledge of 21st Century innovative best practices and success stories in the Canadian education market space and beyond.
Editorial content for the monthly issue is due the third week of each month.
Please forward your news releases as web links to
info@mindsharelearning.com
Advertising opportunities are available, please contact,
robert@mindsharelearning.com
Consulting opportunities are available, please contact:
robert@mindsharelearning.com
Annual subscriptions to the MindShare Learning Report can be purchased at $99 CDN
About MindShare Learning
MindShare Learning is Canada’s leading EdTech strategy, news and events media company. We counsel education and technology leaders in understanding the emerging needs of learners to succeed in the 21st Century global knowledge-based digital economy.
MindShare Learning’s partial client list includes: Adobe, Blackboard Inc., Bosch Dremel, C21 Canada, Cisco Canada, Epson America, Follett, Global Scholar, Intel Canada, Microsoft Canada, Ontario Ministry of Education, Research Machines (RM) PLC UK, SMART Technologies, Steelcase.
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