Dear Thought Leader, 

 
Happy Friday! I'm writing to you as I travel on a train to Montreal enjoying our Ontario countryside. I'm looking forward to connecting with EdTech colleagues and spending time with my wife and daughter exploring one of my favourite cities in Canada. 

It's been non-stop since the ISTE19 conference!  We had a very successful C21 CEO Academy Summit in Halifax, followed by the FutureReadyNB Round Table Summit in Fredericton. My BIG takeaways. Relationships are vital in education: "Innovation and transformation happens at the speed of trust." Whole system change will not happen without alignment with key stakeholders, backed up with sufficient funding. Initiating a movement is hard work, but not impossible, if driven by a sense of urgency, with the student at the centre! Sprinkling in a bit of humour, whether you're in the classroom, or the boardroom helps create memorable moments! 

Be sure to have a listen to my podcast with Dr. Mario Chiasson, who was gracious in hosting me on a tour of the new Moncton High School. We covered many topics, school & classroom design thinking, SEL, personalized learning, makerspaces, EdTech, SMART communities and much more! 

I hope you enjoy our special Top 10 stories in Canadian EdTech powered by MindShare Learning. Our team works tirelessly to bring you the very best insight in the world of Canadian EdTech.

With that, a friendly reminder to send us your comments, tips, research, success stories and upcoming events! 

Hope you had a memorable weekend! Stay cool! 

Until next time, keep the digital learning curve steep!

In possibly the first known incidence of teenagers listening to politicians, it appears that 16-year-olds are rapidly abandoning the study of English. The three types of English A-level have seen their numbers decline by one-fifth over the past three years, with sciences up by the same amount.

The governments of Canada and Nova Scotia announce funding for the renovation and modernization project of the Gustave-Blanche Building at Université Sainte-Anne in Nova Scotia

CHURCH POINT, NS, July 10, 2019 /CNW/ - Our two official languages are at the heart of Canadian identity, and are powerful tools for the inclusion and integration of diversity into our society. The Government of Canada is committed to supporting the development of official-language minority communities and promoting bilingualism across the country.

Today, the Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Tourism, Official Languages and La Francophonie, along with the Honourable Gordon Wilson, Nova Scotia Minister of Environment and MLA for Clare-Digby, announced funding for the renovation and modernization of the Gustave-Blanche Building on Université Sainte-Anne's Pointe-de-l'Église campus. Located in the St. Marys Bay region, the campus is at the heart of Nova Scotia's largest Acadian population.

At the Indigenous Technology Summit in Montreal last month in June 2019, BlackBerry (NYSE: BB) announced a partnership to help Indigenous communities deploy foundational and new technologies that will improve health, education, safety and economic development for First Nations across Canada.

In partnership with Mustimuhw Information Solutions (MIS) and Forrest Green and Microsoft, the four companies plan to deliver a mix of next-generation secure communication, cybersecurity, cloud, IoT, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies to Chiefs and Grand Chiefs across Canada to support local service organizations to strengthen their security infrastructure.

Guelph Public Library has been awarded a Digital Literacy Exchange Program grant with funding from The Government of Canada to implement a mobile classroom.

This $19,927 four-year initiative will provide digital literacy skills training to fulfill growing and changing literacy and education needs within the Guelph community.

This funding has allowed our library to hire a Digital Literacy Programmer who is currently working with various community groups to create targeted digital literacy programming. Current project partners include the Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition and Guelph’s Circle of Knowledge Holders.

The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development shares, "Digital literacy is becoming more important every day, whether for booking a medical appointment, banking safely, studying or looking for a job. That's why our government is committed to ensuring that all Canadians have the skills to access information and opportunities online. Through the Digital Literacy Exchange Program, Canadians are receiving training to improve their skills and confidence so that they can fully participate in the digital economy."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said today the provincial Progressive Conservative government's cuts to Ontario's education system are "frightening" — and he worries they could undermine the quality of the education his three kids receive at an Ottawa-area public school.

Speaking at the Canadian Teachers' Federation's annual general meeting in Ottawa, Trudeau took aim at changes made by Premier Doug Ford to trim costs in Ontario's sprawling public education system, which has more than 2 million students enrolled on average each year.

Protests have followed the government's pledge to increase class sizes (average class size for grades four through eight will rise from 23.84 to 24.5, while grades nine through 12 will jump from 22 to 28), introduce mandatory e-learning modules and cut as many as 3,000 full-time teaching positions.

The tech giant announced Wednesday (July 10) that its Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) subsidiary would launch its Cloud Innovation Centre (CIC) model at the university in early 2020.

The model, which provides students advanced AWS tools in cloud technology, has been applied in seven other locations ranging from Europe to South Korea.

The UBC centre will be focused on community health and wellbeing.

UBC associate provost Simon Bates said specific projects are still being developed but the plan is to "hit the ground running" with projects when the centre opens in January.

"We're looking at it, if you like, as part of a digital transformation agenda at UBC," he told Business in Vancouver.

"We're looking to help our students develop not just the deep academic and disciplinary skills that they get from studying with us but also the sorts of skills they'll need to go to varied roles in the workplace."

Canada Learning Code, an initiative that specializes in digital literacy education, has received $9.4 million in funding from the federal government, as part of the second phase of its CanCode investment.

“Learning digital skills and coding, as well as how technology serves us, will open so many doors for our young people.”
The government said that the funding will allow Canada Learning Code to offer coding and digital skills training to over 272,000 students, from kindergarten to Grade 12. The organization will also offer more than 15,000 teachers the opportunity to gain skills to teach coding in classrooms or to develop those skills. The investment will also be used to fund Code Mobile, a fleet of programs that travel cross-country to bring technology education to youth and adults.