MindShare Learning Report
The following three links come from MindShare Learning based in Toronto.
The first is the EdTech Teacher Survey which isn’t actually a projection source but it does give you a Canadian perspective.
The second is Top Ten EdTech Predictions. This brief list give a general overview of the Canadian technology landscape. MindShare Learning works with educators, school districts, universities and businesses (K-20) across Canada and as such the team there has a good handle on what is happening across Canada in regard to technology, innovation and education. The list basically repeats what the other lists talk about but it does include some specific Canadian content which makes it a quick, useful read.
The third are the monthly Top Ten reports. These reports include infographics, podcasts with thought leaders, educators and entrepreneurs, industry and ministry news. Again, the value is much of this curated list has a Canadian focus which is refreshing in the EdTech space.
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Thanks for these alternative sources and Top 10 list with Canadian flavour.
Re. Mindshare’s Top 10…. Got to say that every time I here the term “21st Century Learning” though, I feel like I want to hurl. “Digital natives” is a close second, and has pretty much been debunked by actual research over the past few years.
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I agree but the C21 references are just getting started. When I work with Pearson it is definitely high on their agenda. C21 http://www.c21canada.org/ is leading the way to get a national plan together. They’ve produced an interesting document called Shifting Minds. I like that fact that we might get a Canadian focus for education. Not sure how innovative the plan is.
Hi Kendra. Taking the fork in the road here…
Truly scary to me that a group of publisher reps would presume to set any kind of agenda for Canadian education. Seems very self-serving, no? It’s kinda like IT Directors determining which learning technology approaches should be used by learners and instructors. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
Would it make more sense for parents, educators and government to be the agenda setters for technology in education?
The concepts (theories) of 21st century learning and digital nativism seem to be ideas concocted largely to boost sales of software and learning management systems, rather than actually providing much insight into how we best enhance our approaches to learning and teaching in the context of new technologies.
Others may have something further to contribute. Please dive in … and take whichever fork in the road interests you.
While I agree with you that we don’t want business taking over education (like it has in the US imho) the truth is education (as a system) has resisted technology. To me any type of catalyst to get everyone talking about what needs to change is worth at least a review. This particular document has 7 guiding principles which I believe are a good starting point for discussion. In the appendix there are a variety of resources many of them Canadian that speak more to helping people understand the framework needed for the future as opposed to a business agenda (but perhaps I’m naive). Unlike the Americans, we don’t have a National education department. If we did then I’d expect them to assume this role and we’d get documents such as the National Education Technology Plan. http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010 Without a national focus the only group that seems to have this country wide perspective is business. The fact that the CEA is involved in this initiative hopefully balances the business interests. The article you posted for this week’s reading “Catching on at Last” is a perfect example of how business drives education in the US. Throughout the article business’ sticky fingers are all over it. The article includes product placement: Reading Eggs, Read 180, Cognitive Tutor; business models: No Child Left Behind (Growth/Statistics), Race to the Top (Competition), Charter schools (better than public); big business: Pearson, Amplify, Apple and billionaires determining the direction of education (who we would not listen to if they didn’t have money ) Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch.
I do think it makes sense for parents, educators and government to be involved but we have to be careful. Many parents want “a return to basics”, many (many) educators continue to resist changes to their practice and government changes direction each time a new group is elected. Does anyone know of any national “education” group producing a Canadian Ed Tech Policy or Future Learning document? I haven’t come across anything national. I know that Pearson funded Michael Fullan’s most recent publication “A Rich Seam”, http://www.michaelfullan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/3897.Rich_Seam_web.pdf but I don’t think that makes it any less valuable for discussion. Too bad the BC Education Plan wasn’t a Canada wide discussion http://www.bcedplan.ca/welcome.php
Here’s a review of the C21 document http://mindsharelearning.ca/2012/11/07/a-short-overview-of-shifting-minds-a-21st-century-vision-of-public-education-for-canada/
Of course there are national groups that can and should be at work on this topic, bringing a non-partisan perspective to the fore to deal with a whole array of issues beyond the ones put forth by the publisher-led group that produced the C21 report.
The critique from the Toronto District School Board representative was a balanced response. Thanks for including it for us.
The BC Education Plan and Alberta’s most recent plans, including Inspiring Education, have been conducted in the open using crowdsource strategies via the web. More organizations should take this approach.
Other groups that really should get their oars in the water include:
* The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC)
* The Canadian Education Association (CEA)
I do note that the Conference Board of Canada is ramping up a Council on Education and Training in the Digital Age, which may provide another useful perspective.
CEA (also part of the C21 group) has this website asking “What’s standing in the way of change in education?” http://www.standingintheway.ca/
Re the Top Ten Predictions for 2014:
http://email.mindsharelearning.ca/t/j-2F424F1476324DAA
My criticism of the predictions in this email report is that they’re premised on a one-dimensional boosterism of technology in the classroom, so the predictions are not useful for venturers or educators. This perspective defines most or all of the ten predictions, but I’ll focus on one prediction here as an illustration. Prediction #3 notes “To Tweet or NOT to Tweet is No Longer the Question! The Power of the Crowd. Students and teachers will engage in greater social learning, crowdsourced problem solving and professional learning. The future about interconnected learning communities.” The problem is that this prediction seems to assume that classroom learning was never social before social media. But a typical English class (I’ll mention English, since the prediction references Hamlet) has always been highly social, with students close reading, sharing ideas and insights and coming to a collective understanding of a text (I remember my technology-free high school IB English classroom, less than 15 years ago, as one of the best social experiences of my life). Predicting that Twitter will become ubiquitous in the classroom, and implying that it could and should only be so, and that this is necessary to make learning in the classroom “social,” is I think based on a very faulty understanding of the social life of classrooms. You have to ask yourself: did the people writing these predictions ever attend high school? My sense is that the predictions in this document illustrate a fairly shallow approach to understanding the use of ed. tech. in the classroom. Their premise is that a classroom before the introduction of Internet technology was some kind of dead silent, non-social, unwelcoming place, when the opposite might often be true—silent classrooms filled with students each staring at their own devices.
I agree with Michael that the prediction report is simplistic and overly optimistic of technology in the classroom and seems to come from a point of view of blind boosterism. Also, the first link to the EdTech Teacher Survey is dead. The 3rd link, though, to a monthly top 10 report from MindShare, I found really interesting and useful even though it has taken an hour away from my work on ETEC 522! There was short report from the CTV that related to the OER vs. textbooks debate that I wrote an essay on for an earlier MET course as seen by my employers, the Ministry of Education of Ontario. There is a very interesting podcast from an Education Technology professor at Concordia. When I followed a link back to the MindShare site, I found out about a conference where hopefully I can leverage this MET degree into some job opportunities!