GRADES DON'T TELL YOUR STORY...YOU DO

Grades do not and can not capture the incredible work that students are capable of creating. This partnership studies how competency-based portfolios can open up pathways for transitions to post-secondary that focus on talent and potential.

大家好! Greetings from Beijing! It has now been over 4 months since my family decided to take this ED-venture overseas in this vast country called China. I’ve been to Beijing before, and my background is Chinese, but I have been constantly amazed at the advancements in infrastructure, economy, technology and education here in China.

I've been meaning to blog about my recent, first trip to China. It’s taken me a couple of weeks to process, given the wonderful people I met, the massive scale of everything, information and insights I absorbed over the course of my five-day whirlwind learning adventure.

I was honoured to be invited to speak at the recent 4th China Education Innovation Expo in ZhuHai, China. I spoke about Canada's education transformation with a focus on innovation, trends, including the massive shift to global competencies, which we've branded the 7Cs. Given my role as co-founder and president of C21 Canada, I felt very comfortable speaking about this topic and emerging trends about which I'm very passionate about. It was quite an honour to be amongst two Nobel prize winners, including, Shuji Nakamura, a Japanese-born American electronic engineer, inventor specializing in the field of semiconductor technology, professor at the Materials Department of the College of Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara and is regarded as the inventor of the blue LED, a major breakthrough in lighting technology. It was such an honour to meet Shuji and other international leaders presenting at the conference.

My Top 5 Takeaways:

1. China is very keen and open to learn from Canada. At the same time, we have much to learn from China given their advances in technology, advanced manufacturing and highly focused work ethic!

2. The Canadian brand is highly respected in China. There is a very strong China - Canada connection where thousands of students come to Canada each year to study for both k12 and post-secondary education. A Canadian government economic impact study pegs foreign student investment at approximately $15.5 billion in 2017, with a large proportion of students coming from China.

3. I was not the only one presenting from Canada. I was also surprised to learn that part of the conference organizing team was from Vancouver.

4. The 'NEW' China is modern and developing SMART Cities at twice the rate of speed as Canada. We have much to learn from their advanced building and technology front from China.

5. The people of China are so incredibly kind and humble. My only regret is that I didn't have more time to visit the more rural communities of China as I know I was exposed to the most advanced and modern places. I would have loved to visit a school and I will definitely visit the Great Wall on my next trip.

I hope my blog insights on China inspire you to visit one day soon!

Musings - Connectors, Leaders, People on the Move!

We love to incubate new tech at our MindShare Workspace. On the eve of our 1st Anniversary, it was fortuitous that our partners at Dell EMC delivered some very cool technology that we’ll be blogging more about as we experience its use in Canada’s first mall-located coworking space. I encourage you to join us as my guest to test out the space and the technology too!

Is it just me, or is everyone getting busier by the day? I was recently on our C21 CEO Academy call which is always fascinating and insightful as a PLN. What stopped me in my tracks today was a recent student survey in a Canadian school district that found 44% of grade 4 students are feeling anxiety and 25% feel sad. Perhaps we need to pause and dig deeper into the complex world our kids are now experiencing. Are we arming them with the skills to cope effectively? Clearly, there appears to be a disconnect. Personally, one of my coping mechanisms is physical activity. I find playing hockey is a great distraction for me as it helps clear my mind and has great physical health benefits too!

In honour of Computer Science Education Week, I’m pleased to share from our friends at TakingITGlobal Canadians; be sure to check out codetolearn.ca for #CanCodeToLearn initiative!

If you have an event or story to share, please tell us about it! We also encourage you to share you comments!

Until next time, keep the learning curve steep!

R.M.