C21 Canada

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C21 Welcomes New Member and Sponsor

As a part of the C21 mission to expand its national network we are pleased to announce our newest board member Naomi Johnson, Calgary Board of Education’s Chief Superintendent of Schools.

We would like to thank Warren Jestin, Senior Vice-President & Chief Economist at Scotiabank, for generously sponsoring and supporting C21 Canada.

NoamiJohnsonSmaller WarrenJestin

From left to right: Naomi Johnson, Calgary Board of Education’s Chief Superintendent of Schools
Warren Jestin, Senior Vice-President & Chief Economist at Scotiabank

 

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Chris Whittaker Receives Shifting Minds Award

 

Chris Whittaker is presented the Shifting Minds Award by John Kershaw
Chris Whittaker is presented the Shifting Minds Award by John Kershaw 

On June 11, 2013 C21 Canada presented Chris Whittaker of Dawson College with a Shifting Minds National Award for distinctive achievement in the field of 21st Century learning and innovation. C21 Canada’s Shifting Minds awards are presented to recognize the work of individuals and organizations in advancing 21st century models of learning in Canada consistent with C21 Canada’s vision and framework document, Shifting Minds (see wwww.c21canada.org).   In presenting the award, C21 Canada’s President John Kershaw highlighted Chris Whittaker’s accomplishments in advancing 21st century models of learning and teaching in the field of physics, through the pursuit of creative and student-centred pedagogies and the design of innovative learning environments. The award was presented at the SALTISE conference at Dawson College, in front of a number of Chris Whittaker’s colleagues and peers.

Chris has been a physics teacher at Dawson College for over 15 years. According to his colleagues, what makes Chris special are 4 distinctive qualities:

  • His ongoing efforts to improve his students’ learning.
  • His continuing commitment to improving his teaching practice.
  • His commitment to advance the field of physics education through research and innovation.
  • His mentoring activities related to his colleagues.

The focus of Chris’s teaching is the creation of appropriate learning activities and environments.  He designs activities to engage students from both a conceptual and problem solving perspective. He develops learning activities that keep the individual student in mind while leveraging the benefits of collaborative engagement of peers. He leaves room for his students to have fun and see the beauty in learning physics. His students say that by sharing his many personal experiences he makes his teaching meaningful to them while also making him more approachable.

Perhaps the most important testimonials come from Chris’s students:

  • Chris cares that you do well as an individual. That you do well and succeed for yourself. He wants you to improve. It’s… the best feeling [for a student].
  •  Chris cares whether I pass or fail … He wants us to succeed as students. He doesn’t do all these examples in different ways and use all this technology… just for fun… I mean it is fun, but he does it so we can learn better, learn more and that’s great!
  • I think Chris reinforces critical thinking. With the way he does problems and all the examples he shows. I think he wants you to actually think and figure out what is going on which is why I think we do a lot of the examples without actual numbers.
  •  Chris just goes home and [seems to] spend his time trying to improve stuff that we didn’t understand. … That makes you want to learn.

Chris has played a major leadership role in designing two Active Learning Classrooms that integrate technology with teaching and learning.  A major consequence of his work has been to support his colleagues’ in engaging the Active learning Classroom model. In the process of doing so, Chris has been instrumental in creating a vibrant and growing community of practice among teachers who teach in these student centred and technology rich learning environments.

Chris’ reputation of being an exceptional teacher and innovator has spread beyond Quebec. Last summer he was asked to present his Active Learning Classroom initiative to students at the University of British Columbia. This fall he was recruited to prepare a series of workshops for the Engineering Faculty at McGill University who are promoting the use of active learning among their faculty members.

Chris Whittaker is clearly an innovator, a leader and a collaborator, three traits that have earned him recognition by others, and ones that C21 Canada also wished to acknowledge. C21 Canada is honoured to recognize a true leader and innovator in the field of education.

 

 

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Advocates for 21st Century models of learning in Canada are offered three significant trends of interest

David Roberts, Karen Yamada, & John Kershaw
at CONNECT 2013

By John Kershaw, President of C21 Canada, President of 21st Century Learning Associates, and the former Deputy Minister of Education for New Brunswick

When hosting a booth at the recent CONNECT conference in Niagara (May 6/7) C21 Canada was encouraged by the number of education leaders who advised us they are using our Shifting Minds strategy to guide their strategic planning efforts. The Peel County School Board and Mohawk College are two examples of those who are using C21 Canada’s vision and framework in their  own planning efforts. As this trend continues C21 Canada wishes to hear from those educators who use Shifting Minds to guide their planning efforts. Contact us via our website and share your Shifting Minds stories.

The Skills Gap issue in Canada is gaining national profile, with numerous business and education groups highlighting the need for both short and long term remedies. Cited in some instances as “the  21st Century skills race” the global scope of the skills challenge is to ensure Canadians share in the wealth creation and employment opportunities arising from the knowledge and digital era.  The Canadian Chambers of Commerce’s document entitled the Top Ten Barriers to Competitiveness is a case in point. The Canadian Council of Chief Executives is also showing leadership in this area, convening a recent forum on the role of public education in addressing the issue. C21 Canada is actively engaging these organizations in recognition of the direct relationship between the skills gap issue and the 21st century learning movement. Education and business leaders across Canada need to better communicate and coordinate their respective efforts on these two inter-related fronts.

A potential bright light on the Canadian 21st Century learning horizon is  Alberta Education assuming the Chair of CMEC in the fall. Alberta is a leader in transforming its education system to the 21st century reality.  C21 Canada is hopeful that the Honourable Jeff Johnson, Alberta’s Minister of Education, and his newly appointed Deputy Minister, Greg Bass, will lead CMEC into infusing a  21st Century learning vision and into its pan Canadian education strategy, Learn Canada 2020. In the absence of a federal education agency, CMEC must seize the “national” leadership mantle and signal its support for the 21st century learning movement as the single most priority for all Canadian learners, and Canadian society as a whole.

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Canada’s Skills Gap and the Federal Budget

 By John Kershaw, President of C21 Canada, President of 21st Century Learning Associates, and the former Deputy Minister of Education for New Brunswick

C21 Canada applauds the federal budget’s focus on skills development. Our organization has consistently stated that highly skilled people are the economic and social drivers of the knowledge and digital age and more and more Canadians are recognizing this to be the new reality. C21 Canada will not debate the wisdom of the solutions to the current skills gap proposed in the budget; we just welcome the priority on education and human capital.

However, we offer a word of caution. While the federal government’s focus on skills is welcomed, any trend going forward to limiting the national debate on closing the skills gap to the post secondary sector is a mistake.

Fortunately, there is positive news in this regard. On March 25th the Canadian Council of Chief Executives hosted a forum on the K-12 system. John Manly chaired and signalled that the CCCE wishes to foster a national dialogue on whether Canada’s public education systems are where they need to be given the transformational changes being witnessed in the global economy and society.

At long last Canada’s economic leaders are recognizing Canada’s K-12 systems as an essential element of Canada’s economic competitiveness. Given that highly skilled people are now the economic drivers of the 21st Century, this should come as no surprise; but it is highly welcomed nonetheless.  A national dialogue on public education in the 21st Century is long overdue.

Why? C21 Canada is calling for Canada’s public education systems to be modernized to position Canadian youth for success in the knowledge and digital age. While repositioning the post secondary sector to the new reality is also critical, if Canada’s youth continue to disengage from learning and reach colleges and universities without the pre-requisite 21st century competencies and skills, the game is already lost.

What needs to be done? As first steps, Provinces and Territories must infuse 21st century competencies into their targeted learning outcomes and invest in technology enabled learning systems.  Differentiated learning and personalized access to the internet and digital learning resources must become the hallmarks of Canada’s public education systems.

If we are to nurture responsible citizens and productive innovators, we need to engage learners with the tools of their generation. Access to information for learning via technology should be an inherent right of citizenship. If we are to successfully close the skills gap long term, we must have a concerted national effort to equip our learners in the K-12 system with ICT rich learning environments, and have teachers trained to harness the power of technology enabled learning. We need to embrace personalized access to the internet as the most powerful learning opportunity in human history. And where affordability is an issue for some young learners and their families, the technology for learning must be provided.

Innovative 21st century inspired models of learning in public education are expanding globally, and while we have pockets of brilliance and innovation here in Canada as well, we are not embracing and investing in these models fast enough. As a result the majority of our youth are not being adequately prepared for their futures. This issue is particularly acute in many of our First Nation communities. By not equipping individual learners with the skills they will need for success in an innovation-driven world, Canada’s future competitiveness is at risk. The call to action is clear. Modernize Canada’s education systems for our K-12 learners on an urgent basis, or all the millions of dollars to be directed by the federal government in the years ahead to post secondary and adult training will not fix the skills gap long term.

Profile

C21 Canada and its members provide collaborative vision and support to help Canadian education organizations enhance learning in the foundation areas of literacy, numeracy and science while infusing 21st Century skills (creative problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, personal development, global citizenship and digital competency) into content, and instructional and assessment practices.

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