On April 5-7 over 350 educators from independent, private and public schools gathered in Vancouver BC for the 2017 CANeLearn Symposium: Blending Boundaries – Leading Digital Disruption, Innovation & Equitable Learning. A partnership between the Canadian eLearning Network and BC Partners in Online Learning, the focus of the 3-day event was on flexible learning models, environments, and instructional approaches. With half of the delegates from BC and the rest from across Canada, structured opportunities for learning created an atmosphere of engaged and in-depth dialogue and networking.
An open Google Site was created for presenters and delegates to curate session notes, insights and resources (https://sites.google.com/view/2017symposium). The site included live streaming and now archived sessions and documents. The event was also tracked on the #CANeLearn Twitter feed.

Michael Furdyk, Co-founder of TakingITGlobal opened the event with a lively, interactive session exploring education for social innovation and how sparking deep learning in students can lead to social engagement and change. His session was followed by a live discussion with students.

Remi Kalir, Assistant Professor, CU Denver, opened the pre-conference and his closing keynote provided a synthesis of the event and “Refracted Perspectives – Technology, Disruption, and Learning”. Remi was also a keynote at 2016’s BCtechquity Symposium and the VIU iiE Gathering.
Suzanne Hoffmann, Chief Educator for the BC Ministry of Education, opened the closing day with a high-level overview of educational transformation underway in BC.

Canadian Education Association award winners were featured speakers:

• Dr. Sean Lessard, from the University of Alberta, spoke on redefining how indigenous learners engage in traditional, and non-traditional spaces using social media, to create healthy connections between family and community – read more in this CEA article.

• Zoe Branigan-Pipe, from Hamilton-Wentworth School District, offered delegates concrete examples for using arts and tech to differentiate, innovate and engage all learners as active, global citizens – read more in this CEA article

• The Navigate Team, from Courtenay BC, provided several workshop sessions on blending boundaries between classroom and open and online learning spaces – read more in this CEA article

• Robert Long and Stephanie Myers, from Ottawa Catholic School Board, offered a “live dive” into deep learning, new pedagogy and tools with a virtual and live field trip to one of the most innovative schools in Canada

• Teachers learned how to bring robotics into their classrooms, both online and onsite

• Social networking was a key part of the event.

• Active office and fitboards were a hit at the social events

Door prizes
Congratulations to Toni Lyons, HCOS, Andrew Ferneyhough, Navigate/NIDES, Joan Wheeler, SCIDES, Rory Taber, Eagle River Sec., Danika Cottingham, CariHi, Gord Ritchie, SD83, Angela Klein-Buning, SIDES, Wayne Kuhnert, Lake Trail Sec., Christine Mann, The Key Learning Centre, and Sherry Delmaestro, Burnaby Online who won door prizes at the closing keynote session.

• Danika Cottingham with her Garmin VivoActive GPS Tracker from ContentConnetions.ca