Dear Thought Leader,
I hope you had a strong finish to the week! After an intense week of meetings and events, I feel fortunate to end the week with a pickup hockey game with friends most Fridays late afternoon. It's part of my one word #Balance for 2019. I hope you find the time out of your busy schedule to get in a workout too! I think it's vitally important for students as well to help cope with the pressures of school and life in the digital world.
A good segway with the news this week from the Ontario government, who took a bold step on helping students stay more focused on school by introducing legislation to ban mobile phones in the classroom this coming September. We had a strong debate on this week in Canadian EdTech podcast which you can tune into in this issue. Will this stifle innovation in Ontario schools? I hope not.
What a crazy week it's been with College entry scandal in the U.S. I was intrigued by Sir Ken Robinson's take on it in a CBS news interview, suggesting that American parents are obssessed with kids going to college. The stress students and parents are feeling leads to drastic actions and corruption in the system. I'm not sure I would paint a broad stroke brush on the issue. I look forward to taking a deeper dive into the issue in our own backyard of Canada.
A few notable highlights of the week in Canadian EdTech and beyond!
1. MindShare Moment Podcast! Be sure to checkout my follow-up MindShare Moment podcast with award-winning Dr. Guy Tetrault, Director & CEO Sun West School Division on the evolution of their system-wide Personalized electronic Blended Learning implementation and the addition of a high-quality resource bank.
2. 14 Days to Go! 11th Canadian Classroom of the Future Challenge. Teachers, engage your students to share their passion for learning through technology in a 2-3 minute video submission! Deadline, Friday, March 29th midnight!
3. Mark Your Calendars! We are pleased and honoured to once again forge a media partnership with the ISTE19 Conference taking place this year in Philadelphia, June 23-26. What for details on our 16th CanAm Celebration of Excellence in Learning & Innovation Meetup.
We hope you enjoy this week's edition of This Week in Canadian EdTech Top10! Don't forget to send us your comments, news stories and upcoming events!
Until next time, keep the digital learning curve steep!

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Dr. Guy G. Tétrault. Director of Education & CEO, Sun West School Division on their award-winning K12 Personalized Electronic Blended Learning (PeBL) Journey. Tune in to the podcast get more insight on the latest addition of a free resource bank.

" There is no need to visit High Tech High in Silcon Valley when we have many great examples of excellence in learning & Innovation in our own backyard (Canada), like award-winning Sun West School Div."
         
          -- Robert Martellacci, Founder, MindShare Learning Technology

Cellphones will be banned in Ontario classrooms during instructional time, starting in September. Education Minister Lisa Thompson said in a statement Tuesday that a formal announcement is coming soon.

"Ontario's students need to be able to focus on their learning — not their cellphones," she wrote. "By banning cellphone use that distracts from learning, we are helping students to focus on acquiring the foundational skills they need, like reading, writing and math."

a world leader in enterprise systems for higher education, today announced Bow Valley College has selected Unit4 Student Management running on the Microsoft Azure Cloud to transform their student experience with a mobile-first and future-proof digital platform. 

Integrating with other applications used on campus, Unit4 will streamline and enhance the student experience at the college by providing both students and staff with increased access to critical data and information such as admissions, registration, program content, financial aid and account information.

The participation rate of women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education and careers in North America remains one of the lowest across professional fields. That’s a primary concern of Tanja Tajmel, associate professor at Concordia’s Centre for Engineering in Society at the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science.

Through her work as an interdisciplinary scholar with a broad research and teaching portfolio that includes investigating and reducing discrimination in STEM, Tajmel promotes the idea that everybody has the human right to participate in and benefit from these fields. Her study of diversity in STEM focuses on how the fields must change to provide a more inclusive environment.

On the back of Edwin’s initial success and with a shared commitment to equity in the classroom, Nelson is proud to integrate with Google for Education as a premier partner to further empower students and educators in bringing technology and trusted content to classrooms across Canada. Edwin is one of the first products from a Canadian education company to achieve Premier status in the Google for Education Partner Program.

Nelson Education sees Edwin as a force for promoting equity in education, offering a one-to-one ratio of student to device in every Edwin classroom, with equal access to vetted learning resources. Leveraging Nelson’s trusted content and a wealth of additional curated learning resources, Edwin links its deep library directly to curriculum goals, and is personalized to the needs of every student and educator.

The e-learning market is estimated to hike from USD 190 billion in 2018 to USD 300 billion by 2025, according to a 2019 Global Market Insights, Inc. report. The rise in the demand for cost-effective training and learning techniques in corporate and academic sectors will drive the market growth over the coming years.

CISION - March 5, 2019

Digital skills widen Canadians' access to a world of possibilities. All Canadians should have the necessary skills to get online by using computers, mobile devices and the Internet safely and effectively. That is why the Government is putting in place initiatives to ensure no one is left behind as the world transitions to a digital economy.

According to Code.org, the majority of Americans want schools to teach computer science, but only 35 percent of high schools teach it. And even though 15 states have adopted a policy to give all high school students access to computer science courses, universities prepare way fewer computer science teachers than we need. It’s more abysmal in the younger grades, with only six states giving all K-12 students access.

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