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We are all learners – at some point we all face new applications, questions or stumbling blocks in the use of technology. We need to learn-how-to, and build our digital literacy…
Learn Ontario is focused on meeting the key challenges in building digital literacies for 21st Century learners.

Learn Ontario can help cut through the noise and provide a clear focus:

• While the Millenium/21st century learning skill set needed for Ontario graduates has been clearly identified by both industry and educators, the processes to support our learners in achieving a high level of proficiency is currently very fragmented and too often located and organized behind access points that are difficult to navigate and comprehend.
• Educational and commercial markets are creating high quality digital literacy resources, online tutorials, training and in-service – but the current delivery approach is scattered, uneven and poorly integrated. Finding resources can be a laborious search process; poor quality but high ranking Google results still rule the day, unfortunately, resulting in a “make do” attitude.
• Learn Ontario uses leading edge portal tools to find and aggregate the best available resources, and to create an intuitive, easy-to-use discovery experience that helps learners focus on the truly good stuff in a fraction of the time.

There are many creative, engaged and innovative educators developing great resources all the time... Learn Ontario is working to build on current efforts, ensuring they are shared, repurposed and leveraged for maximum exposure & use, and made easily accessible to all Ontarians.

There is an incredibly rich environment of digital resources and learning tools available – both commercially and for free. What's needed is to harness this knowledge and creative capacity by using the power of partnerships and leveraging to channel it and bring it together... and to do this in a way that simplifies the end user experience with a deeply-faceted, metadata-rich discovery space that is easy to navigate and encourages experimenting and learning.

Knowledge Ontario, through its Learn Ontario project is supporting:

• resource leveraging - finding ways to leverage existing content, both freely available and commercial, through innovative packaging and licensing arrangements
• development of an easy-to-use rich discovery portal (one place to look)
• strong branding and user awareness of the resources available to them in an online, 24/7 environment

Key thinkers in education [OPSBA, MacArthur Foundation, NCTE, ISTE-NETS] have identified the need to change the ways we educate our students: to build digital literacies, and to educate for the 21st century.

Learn Ontario fully supports this through creating a system of support for our educators, building their personal digital literacies skill set and raising their technology comfort zone.

• Change can be daunting, and people need to be supported to make the journey. To meet the learning needs of students over the next decade, requires changes in teaching style and in the classroom. To drive change requires a teaching cohort that have the skills and confidence to take full advantage of the available technology, and the comfort zone to fully integrate these tools/software into their teaching of the curriculum.

• Our educators need to be able to trust in and be made aware of the availability of high quality supports for them, in an online, 24/7 environment. To be encouraged to take risks, to adapt to new learning styles, and to move into an open-learning environment requires a sense that there is a safety net in place with a solid set of supports backing them up.

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