[Grassroots-l] Greetings from the Eastern Townships School Board Quebec Canada

[Samuel Klein]

As usual, participants online can take part via justin.tv , phone conf, or IRC
(check blogs.laptop.org for details).

On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 3:56 PM, Samuel Klein <sj at laptop.org> wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> We are finishing up the last day of technical talks at XO Camp,
> discussing synchronous and asynch collaboration.  Transcripts will be
> available soon on
>   http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XOCamp_2/Notes
>
> For the last morning of XO Camp tomorrow, we have a few special guests
> from Quebec:
>
> Ron Canuel and others from  the Eastern Townships school board in
> Quebec will be giving a 45-minute presentation about the last 5 years
> of their saturation deployment of computers in the classroom.
>
> They have a good relationship with Uruguay (see below) and are keen on
> sharing their experiences with us.  They have also worked with
> Terri-Nicole (a Harvard Ed School student who has been @ the Camp this
> week).  Please come at 9:45 am tomorrow for their talk and a Q&A
> session afterwards.  An introduction to their work follows, and slides
> for the talk are attached.
>
> SJ
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Ron Canuel
> Subject: Greetings from the Eastern Townships School Board Quebec Canada
> To: sj at laptop.org
>
>
> Good afternoon Samuel,
>
> I have assembled a team of four experts in the field of laptop
> technology and deployment who are finalizing the presentation for next
> Friday, the 16th of January.  We are very excited to present and have
> reviewed the agenda as well as the format of the week.
>
> For information purposes, our School Board, the Eastern Townships
> School Board is one of the few school districts in North America to
> have provided free wireless laptops to all
> students/teachers/administrators/trustees from Grades 3-11, including
> our two adult education centres.  We began our deployment in 2003 and
> have acquired much expertise and knowledge on the keys to successful
> deployments of technology in education.  We remain one of Canada's
> best kept secrets because we have witnessed a less than enthusiastic
> endorsement of the role of technology in the classroom.  Please take a
> look at our website: www.etsb.qc.ca  and look under the Enhanced
> Learning Strategy.
>
> The OLPC represents a major and significant shift in paradigms in
> education and sharing with you and your colleagues our experiences
> will hopefully make the deployments in other countries easier.
>
> The US Department of Education have used our pedagogical and
> technological rubrics and posted it on their website, since they
> acknowledged our important work in this area as well.
>
> All of this expertise was fully appreciated by our education
> colleagues in Uruguay, who signed a partnership agreement with our
> School Board, to assist them in the deployment of the OLPC laptops
> throughout the country.  We visited Uruguay and also had delegations
> from Uruguay visit our schools.  As you can understand, we are also
> receiving inquiries from other countries, most recently from the
> ambassador of South Africa who wants our School Board to provide
> further information on how laptops can make a difference in their
> schools.  I can include Paraguay and Peru as well.
>
> We also concluded an agreement with the world famous Cirque du Soleil,
> in which we provide education to the minor artists of their shows,
> synchronously, from our head office in Quebec.
>
> All of this to say that, fully understanding the major upheaval that
> the OLPC personnel have just experienced, we look forward to seeing
> you on the 16th of January,
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ron Canuel
> Director General
> Eastern Townships School Board
>