The IT Collaboration Conference was held October 28 and 29 at the Burnaby Campus of BCIT. This year’s theme was “BC Educational Transformation.”
The 80 attendees got to hear from some impressive speakers. The keynote was delivered by Suzanne Hoffman, Superintendent of the Ministry of Education. She kicked off the conference with a presentation on “The Need for Educational Transformation.”
All the speakers were very compelling and highlighted changes for the better in education. Ralph Wright from Cisco Systems spoke about the “Evolution of Technology within Education.” BCIT’s Bethany Edmunds spoke on the “Transformation of the Learning Environment for Higher Education,” using the BCIT Downtown Campus renovations as an example.
There were also workshop seminars from the IT sector highlighting the changes to the BC educational system. One hot topic was the inclusion of coding in the K-12 curriculum. The conference provided secondary and post-secondary educators with direct knowledge from industry partners, the province and BCIT. Attendees left with a better understanding of what is going on in the various educational realms.
The illuminating event was hosted by the BCIT Computer Information Systems Administration program (CISA) program in collaboration with CISCO Systems, CompTIA, the Ministry of Education and the BCIT School of Computing and Academic Studies.
Randy James, Chief Instructor of the BCIT CISA program, had this to say: “We have been hosting a small IT conference each year since 2005 and have a loyal group of Cisco Academy instructors attending from across Western Canada. What a great opportunity to network and have a meaningful conversation with peers on topics of related educational interest. I am so pleased to have the School of Computing & Academic Studies involved this year.”
Thanks to all that were involved, it was a pleasure!
For more information or to review presentation notes and photos of the event, go to: https://cisco.app.box.com/v/bcit2016