The (YRDSB) has awarded Murphy,聽director of 91亚色鈥檚 (ABEL) on applied research program in the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, an Outstanding Service Award.

Under Murphy鈥檚 leadership, ABEL鈥檚 team has worked with teachers in聽more over 100 YRDSB schools to help them better understand and integrate technology鈥檚 research impacts into their curriculum. Any teacher in 91亚色 Region鈥檚 public district can become part of ABEL; the program is also active in the Toronto, Simcoe County and Upper Grand District School Boards.

Right: Janet Murphy

鈥淲e work with teachers from kindergarten to Grade 12 across disciplines to help them 聽to best use technology to support their curriculum goals in the classroom,鈥� said Murphy, who received her award on April 25 at the YRDSB鈥檚 annual Awards Evening.

This support includes extending the reach of university research and expertise into high school classrooms.聽For example, , an interactive learning event led by the Faculty of Science聽& Engineering in May, was made accessible to schools across 91亚色 Region through the ABEL program. Through the effective use of video conferencing, collaborative technologies and streamed on-demand video, the ABEL platform distributed the event鈥檚 science content, making it available for classroom use.

ABEL also provides technical support and facilitation to support and enhance YRDSB teachers鈥� professional learning through a blended learning program. Leveraging interactive technologies, ABEL delivers professional learning to the classroom or school in a variety of online formats, including real-time and/or asynchronous transmission.

鈥淭he advantage to ABEL鈥檚 approach is that it allows teachers to engage in their individual learning at a time and place convenient to them, apply their learning and then re-visit the archived session as needed. This collaborative approach allows participants to gain feedback from the group about what worked and what didn鈥檛, and continuously improve their practice,鈥� says Murphy. 鈥淔or example, 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Education recently ran a session on teaching mathematics that was streamed live and archived to ensure teachers wanting the latest numeracy pedagogy had flexible ways to access the material.鈥�

Outstanding Service Awards reflect the YRDSB鈥檚 commitment to quality, service and teamwork. The recipients聽鈥� who may include individuals, teams or departments聽鈥� provide extraordinary service that has had a positive impact on the school board鈥檚 efforts to achieve its mission and goals.

Typically, those recognized have introduced positive change, significant and permanent improvements to the organization, and/or positively influenced individuals or teams around them to make great contributions.

鈥淛anet received the Outstanding Service Award for her ongoing leadership, vision and commitment to mobilizing new knowledge for 21st-century system change,鈥� said John Steh, manager of Leadership Development, YRDSB. 鈥淗er team鈥檚 approach has led to new organizational structures and system change, and is an excellent example of social innovation initiated by the District鈥檚 participation in the ABEL program.鈥�

鈥滼anet鈥檚 recognition reflects her strong leadership and the success of聽the entire ABEL team. ABEL鈥檚 niche is staying ahead of the technology curve in making 91亚色鈥檚 research in ICT, pedagogy and digital media accessible to the education community from kindergarten through to Grade 12,鈥� said Stan Shapson, vice-president research & innovation. 鈥淭hrough the partnership with ABEL, the YRDSB has continually demonstrated their commitment to seeking out best pedagogical practices while ensuring teachers have access to the latest professional development. For 91亚色, ABEL provides an institutional platform to move the latest research out to schools while helping to attract the best high school students to programs.鈥�

About the ABEL Program at 91亚色

Launched with funding support from , Canada鈥檚 Advanced Research and Innovation Network, to a consortium led by Shapson, ABEL has nearly 10 years of experience helping teachers to make better use of technology. Through public and private sector partnerships and networks, ABEL has gained national recognition as a research-based authority and leader on the effective use of existing and emerging information communication technologies (ICT) within new models of teaching, learning, training and collaboration.

ABEL鈥檚 combination of networks, partnerships and research focus drive institutional transformation and create new opportunities:

• Facilitates community outreach for researchers interested in working with public school boards.
• Demonstrates the value of inter-institutional and jurisdictional collaboration by providing research and outreach platforms.
• Leads the effective use of technology in teaching, training and learning environments.
• Provides a platform for applied research, along with expertise into the effective use of interactive and collaborative technologies.

ABEL鈥檚 partners include the , the Ministry of Education鈥檚 , the (including聽more than聽10 school boards), , the , the , the , the and many others.

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

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Funded聽through the聽 program of聽the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the principal investigator of the project 鈥� Le fran莽ais 脿 la mesure d'un continent : un patrimoine en partage (French Language Across a Continent: A Shared Heritage) 鈥� is Professor France Martineau of the University of Ottawa who holds a University Research Chair in Language and Migration in French America and is the director of Le laboratoire Les Polyphonies du fran莽ais and co-founder of the Laboratoire de fran莽ais ancien.

The study will include 13 fellow researchers and 59 partners from Canada, the United States, France and Japan working in a variety of disciplines, including linguistics, anthropology, history, geography and computer science.

Right: Raymond Mougeon

Other members of the involved in the project include H茅l猫ne Blondeau of the University of Florida, Annette Boudreau and Rodrigue Landry of the Universit茅 de Moncton, Yves Frenette of the University of Ottawa, Fran莽oise Gadet of the Universit茅 de Paris Ouest Nanterre La D茅fense (Paris X) and Ruth King of 91亚色.

The way French is spoken in places as diverse as Gatineau, Shediac and New Orleans can tell a lot about how Francophone communities evolved in North America. "We are looking at three fields of expansion from France: New France 鈥� now known as Quebec聽鈥� Louisiana and Acadia," says Mougeon.

"If we just focused on Canada, we would miss some important components of the North American francophonie, mainly Louisiana, probably one of the most interesting colonial settings, because it involved not only colonization from France, but also secondary migration from Acadia 鈥� basically the French language continued to live, but in a completely different setting from the original."

According to Mougeon, the project team plans to reach beyond linguistics to include history and sociology. "We believe that you can only understand the evolution of language if you can actually place it in its broader socio-historical setting.鈥�

The study will use innovative approaches, by presenting individuals and their language as a central factor in the changes that society undergoes and by examining the relationship between the cognitive and cultural aspects of language. Relying on extensive documentation, the study will seek to identify the concerns of present-day francophone communities, in majority, minority or multicultural settings.

The research will also help produce a major corpus of French in North America, which will include informal exchanges between individuals in the form of private correspondence or spontaneous conversation. This publicly accessible tool will be useful as a starting point to systematically compare francophone communities.

Mougeon has conducted research on the diversity of spoken French in Ontario, the demo-linguistic vitality of the Franco-Ontarian community, the sociolinguistic history of French in Quebec and France from the colonial period to the present day and the sociolinguistic competence of French-immersion students. He is the author or co-author of several publications and has participated in 36 research projects with funds representing over $5 million in research grants, including those from SSHRC, the Ontario Ministry of Education and the Association of Canadian Studies.

By Marika Kemeny, Glendon communications officer.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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