Hello Online Educational Colleagues,
Last November a number of Canadian Leaders came together at iNACOL (the International Association for K-12 Online Learning) symposium. Many of us attend the “State of the Nation: K-12 Online Learning in Canada” which was part of the VSS Symposium and made a significant connection. This panel meeting was a result of the work that Michael Barbour has been doing for the last four years in his publication of the same name: Download here.
As a result of this session the panel and those in attendance all agreed that we need to begin to give a greater effort in identifying the efforts and contributions that are being made across Canada by individuals, governments, organizations and schools. We are grateful for the work of our American counterparts through iNACOL and many of us have gained through the U.S. Symposium but every year we are left with the question about our own nation and how we can get to know what is happening here and more importantly who is doing what in the field of K-12 Online Learning. Thanks to Michael Barbour and his annual report we have a first step in understanding the scope of the Canadian landscape in K-12.
We left the meeting this year with a commitment to dialogue. One of our Canadian leaders in our field is Michael Canuel, CEO of Learn Quebec, an amazing program providing online educational leadership to Quebec. He has taken the initiative to begin the dialogue across our vast and diverse nation. Through conversations with Michael we would like to suggest a next step for Leaders specific to our genre. We believe that an informal gathering of leaders specific to K-12 Online Learning is in order or at least the beginnings of a conversations that would assemble these leaders in some meaningful way.
We plan to come together in an K-12 Online Leaders’ Summit meeting this July 13th and 14th at the Hilton Toronto (145 Richmond St. West, Downtown Toronto). There is no cost to the event though we expect all participants to cover all their own expenses.
You are receiving this email because Michael Canuel, Michael Barbour, Greg Bitgood (who are the organizing committee) or one of the other participants at this Summit has invited you to attend. If you feel that someone else might be appropriate then we would ask that you communicate this with any of the three organizers. We are looking for key individuals who are the primary visionary leaders of schools, organizations or government agencies in the field of K-12 Online Learning.
Please respond to the anyone one of the organizers email (Greg Bitgood gbitgood@onlineschool.ca; Michael Canuelmcanuel@learnquebec.ca; Michael Barbour mkbarbour@gmail.com) and cc.. your response to Rosie Himo (rhimo@learnquebec.ca) who is handling the room bookings.
Thank you for considering to come to this important gathering.
Greg Bitgood
Superintendent, Heritage Christian Schools
gbitgood@onlineschool.ca; gbitgood@heritagechristian.ca; gbitgood@icos.ca
www.onlineschool.ca; www.heritagechristian.ca; www.icos.ca
(250) 980-5600 Fax: (250) 762-9277
Committed to Discipleship-based Christian Education