ECNO Update | May 2018

Coming to a class near you: Minecraft!

Minecraft has long been a tool used by educators across Ontario and Canada. A creative and engaging platform, teachers have been leveraging it as a way to encourage student learning and retention. In fact, the Minecraft ecosystem has exploded over the past years and there are dozens of online tools for teachers to support learning in a wide range of topics, including ratios and proportions, social studies, art and collaboration.

Thanks to the renewed licensing agreement between ECNO and Microsoft Canada, access to Minecraft is now that much closer and easier for teachers across Ontario. Starting on July 1 of this year, all ECNO members that have taken advantage of the Microsoft agreement will have access to Minecraft! And, starting later in 2018 they will have access to a wide range of related training programs offered by Microsoft.

“This agreement is a natural next step for our strong relationship with Microsoft,” commented ECNO executive director Sandra Quehl. “We are always looking for new tools that will help teachers connect with students in meaningful and practical ways. This licensing agreement is going to open doors to great teaching and even better learning. Not to mention a lot of fun for both teachers and students!”

To learn more about this agreement and Wayne Toms click here

Microsoft Licensing opens opportunities for teachers, students and IT!

Did you know that 54 boards across Ontario have signed on with the exclusive licensing agreement ECNO has negotiated with Microsoft? For mid-sized and smaller boards, this ECNO agreement is an opportunity to save thousands of dollars in both software and ITC support.

“Having access to the Microsoft suite of tools has been a life changer for us,” commented Chris Dale from the London District Catholic School Board, a recent board to sign on to the ECNO/Microsoft licensing agreement. “The tools available to us as IT professionals are enabling our team to work more efficiently. We also know that having the Office suite of tools available for staff in their classrooms and students at home is opening learning opportunities not available before teachers had access to this world class platform.”

“The Microsoft Education Platform has been designed with educators in mind,” commented Wayne Toms ECNO’s director of customer solutions. “With input from ECNO they have simplified how they calculate eligible staff and students and are giving boards greater flexibility around what products they can take advantage of. Our partnership with Microsoft is part of our growing commitment to helping educators and students use new and innovative software to learn and grow.”

To add your board to the ECNO/Microsoft partnership agreement please contact Wayne Toms here

Award Winning STEM Teacher Presenting Explore the Possibil-IT-ies!!

The 2018 ECNO conference is just a few days away and we can’t wait to see you at the Nottawasaga Inn on June 3 – 5 for our “ECNO 2018 – Explore the Possibil-IT-ies!” conference.

We are very pleased to welcome Vista Hills Public School from Waterloo Region DSB for a special presentation on Tuesday morning. Lead by STEM teacher Tania Bumstead, her 7/8 students Eric, Will, Jessica and Sarah will be sharing their Makerspace Wellness project. We are especially excited to have Tania join us as she was just awarded a certificate of achievement through the Prime Minister’s award for teaching excellence in STEM! Supporting and recognizing great teachers like Tania is one of the real rewards of the work that ECNO and our members do every day.

At the conference Tania and her students will share how they have worked together to incorporate Character Education traits, math, science and a little bit of risk taking. This innovative program includes open-ended, problem-based projects for students to think as global citizens and actively seek solutions to real world problems. The students will share how they completed their projects by using choice and voice about the learning environment that they wanted to explore.

There is still time to sign up and take part in the conference fun and meet Tania in person! Click here to reserve your spot at the IT conference of the year.

A New Look for ECNO!

You may have noticed our new logo! It reflects our renewed focus on serving the needs of Ontario school boards. You will be seeing more of it as we get closer to the conference in June. Stay tuned!!

A reminder that the team from Keous Solutions is here to support your needs for our K212 products. You can reach their support team by submitting a ticket at k212support.keous.com or by calling 1-866-99-KEOUS (1-866-995-3687).