Barry Janzen
Teacher, Victoria, British Columbia

After graduating from the University of Victoria in 1989 Barry Janzen has been an educator in Secondary Music, Theater, English, Photography, and Media Arts. Most recently Barry has become an advocate for Project Based Learning and the integration of media and technology in all areas of the curriculum. Barry’s English 9 class completed a project on the use of the human imagination and metaphor in our everyday lives, creating media rich artifacts throughout the project, including a series of documentaries examining many aspects of metaphor, imagination and invention. His class documented this process along with many other examples of media/technology integration throughout the semester and was one of three recipients of the Mindshare Learning 21st Century Classroom National Video Contest. This video can be viewed at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCX5OPe7KRk.

Barry provides mentorship to his colleagues in the Greater Victoria School District through school and district based workshops in the use of technology to support pedagogy as well as individual tech support in his school. Barry loves talking about technology and the future of education with anyone who will listen!

Kelli Boklaschuk and Curtis Wagner
Educators, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Kelli and Curtis are the creators of Connecting Canadian Kids to the World, a social studies unit for Curtis’ Grade 6 students at St. Angela School in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. As part of their unit students created a partnership between schools in the four Atlantic Rim continents to learn about each other’s culture. The Canadian students communicated via email, online chats and video conferences with schools in Brazil, South Africa and the United Kingdom. When it came time to show what they’d learned, the Canadian students presented to their classmates using their choice of more than 25 different types of software and technology. Kelly and Curtis were recognized for their work at the 2010 Microsoft Innovative Educator Forum in South Africa. A blog about their experience can be found at blog.scs.sk.ca/ar6.

Laurie Cassie and Rebecca Robins
Teachers, Vancouver, British Columbia

Laurie and Rebecca, from David Livingstone Elementary School in Vancouver, BC, are 2010-2011 Certificate of Excellence recipients from the Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence. Collaboration is key for this teaching team known for their creative use of SMART Boards in the classroom and ability to integrate digital media into their lessons and across disciplines. The two use technology in ways many teachers could only have dreamed of a few years ago. Laurie recognizes her students' technological abilities and lets them teach the teachers. Often working with students who struggle with the English language or have a learning challenge, Rebecca uses video to help her students understand content and make stories come to life. Both are inspiring leaders committed to sharing ideas and best practices with their colleagues.

Upon learning of a technology contest sponsored by Best Buy, Laurie led the creation of a student-centered video about their future vision of technology for learning. The group won a $20,000 grant for the use of technology in the classroom and the school was able to purchase 30 netbook computers.

Katie Cole
Teacher, Arva, Ontario

Katie Cole is a Media Studies teacher at Medway High School in Arva, Ontario who encourages her students to be active audiences rather than passive passengers when engaging with their media. She teaches her students how to be responsible digital citizens and to make healthy media choices as they navigate through potentially harmful media environments. Her passion for media safety led to her involvement as a consultant and writer for Ontario’s Media Violence Coalition. As a member of the coalition, Katie has produced curriculum for educators, parent resources, and workshop materials to raise awareness and promote critical media literacy in homes and classrooms. The Critical Media Literacy CD resource is shared free-of-charge on the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children’s website (www.crvawc.ca/CritMedLitCD/index.html). In recognition of her work in media education and anti-violence education, Katie was recognized by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in 2009 and she received the Premier’s Award for Teaching Excellence in May 2011.

David Gill, Corey Morgan, Catherine Downey
Teachers, Bay Roberts, Newfoundland and Labrador

David, Corey and Catherine, from the Amalgamated Academy in Bay Roberts, NL, are 2010-2011 Certificate of Excellence recipients from the Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence. They have made it their mission to help students get their creative juices flowing and find ways to express themselves. From the creation of individual graphic design assignments to the final output of a video news report, their students make it happen and feel empowered and proud to show it off.

One of the largest achievements this information and communications (ICT) team has spearheaded is the development of the Amalgamated Media Production Company, responsible for producing and documenting school-wide events and implementing technology-rich projects. One such effort was the live broadcast of the annual Thanksgiving assembly, which enabled students and teachers to participate from the comfort of their own class rooms. The entire show was student-produced and recorded for future playback.

Heather McDonald
Educator, London, Ontario

Heather has been working as the Media Literacy Librarian since 2006 at London Public Library. The Library has been a long time advocate and supporter of media literacy. Throughout the past 5 years, the Library has offered innovative programming geared to teachers, students and the general public. Heather has offered workshops and lectures on media and (mis)representation, internet safety and how to find and evaluate information online. An annual highlight includes the Indie Media Fair which is an event to promote the creation and distribution of independently produced media. Artists, writers, musicians, and publishers gather to show, sell and trade their creations and ideas! This program has lead to a take a zine, leave a zine area in the Library, as well as partnerships with CHRW and London Fuse. She feels the best part of working in a Public Library setting is the opportunity to connect people - not only with information - but with other people.

Nika Naimi
Educator, Montréal, Québec

Since 2007, Nika has been researching cyberbullying for Dr. Shaheen Shariff, at McGill University, and working to promote its awareness and prevention. She has created several programs, including Digital Respect (http://digitalrespect.org) - a project ran through Action jeunesse de l’Ouest-de-l’île which teaches youth to use technology for respectful and positive purposes. She also started the Digital Respect Film Festival which took place in June 2010 and created and facilitate a workshop for girls called Girls Online – that teaches girls about how to manage their online involvement. Furthering her work in on cyberbullying, Nika will be teaching a course on the subject at Université de Montréal in winter of 2012 as part of the Certificate in Cyberfraud at the École Polytechnique.

Adrienne Swelander
Teacher, Edmonton, Alberta

Adrienne is a teacher at Westglen School in Edmonton Public Schools. Her class is a prime example of many classrooms today: learning disabilities (dyslexia, speech delays, language and phonetic awareness problems), learners identified as gifted and talented, English language learners and "regular" kids. Her classroom overcomes barriers to learning through the use of assistive technology including text-to-speech software, word prediction software and video recording/editing tools. Students are encouraged to write, record, speak, listen, present, and draw their learning. During the last school year, Adrienne showed her students a video clip from television and asked them to respond and so began The Milk Revolution. The student blog began in April 2011 and chronicles the students’ journey to educate the school and community regarding the amount of sugar in chocolate milk served in school lunch programs. Aside from the blog, students made a series of mini movies receiving international attention and praise. They also run a Facebook page. Although Adrienne initiated the lesson, the blog and movies have been completely student directed, teaching children to work cooperatively, creatively and toward the global "good." Adrienne will be working with the same group of students for the 2011-2012 school year.

Melanie White
Teacher, Ottawa, Ontario

Melanie White, an English and Media Studies teacher in Ottawa, has been bridging contemporary with traditional media texts in her classroom for the past 14 years. Her most recent classroom activity had students role play characters from Romeo and Juliet on Twitter, and she has just finished work as an Educational Advisor and co-author on a Grade 11/12 English textbook, Remix: A Revolution of Text Forms, published by McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. Melanie has given many workshops and written curriculum documents on building a Media Studies course, as well as reading and writing with new media in the English classroom. She enthusiastically embraces new technology and media in the classroom as a way of encouraging student engagement, and critical thinking about contemporary modes of communication.