ONTARIO CENTRES OF EXCELLENCE
OCE's AdvancingEducation Program Funds Exciting Classroom Innovations

The first six projects to be funded through the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) AdvancingEducation program include a game-based  approach to motivating children, a multisensory chair for children with autism and a new approach to distance education. 

A partnership between the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services (MGCS) and OCE, AdvancingEducation brings innovation into classrooms across the province by matching needs in the public education system with innovative products and services from Ontario companies. With the goal of advancing innovation in the ed-tech ecosystem, a second round of funding is underway and OCE will be accepting applications until January 23, 2017.  

OCE will also be presenting the AdvancingEducation Partnering Forum which will provide insight into challenges and opportunities in Ontario's public education system that could be addressed using innovative technologies. The forum will take place Wednesday November 23, 2016 from 8:30am to 4:00pm at the Tannery Event Centre, 151 Charles Street West in Kitchener, Ontario.

Originally unveiled in February of this year, the $5 million AdvancingEducation program will connect Ontario's English and French publically funded elementary and high schools, and post-secondary institutions with Ontario companies to test early market interest and demonstrate innovative products and technologies in an education setting. The program invests in collaborative innovation projects as a means of building a strong case for adoption and system-wide scaling.

Successful projects in the AdvancingEducation program will assist students in learning everything from time and task management utilizing assistive technology, to demonstrating knowledge integration through complex and instructionally-rich simulations.

"OCE's AdvancingEducation program brings innovation right into the classroom, delivering real benefits to Ontario's education system and, most importantly, the students," says Dr. Tom Corr, OCE's President and CEO.

The first six projects to receive funding are:

• A media-rich, self-directed program designed to strengthen students' skills in mathematics, increase achievement in mathematics and increase student engagement levels.
  Partners: Humber College ITAL, Toronto Catholic District School Board and Vretta Inc.
• An expansion of Brili's internationally successful routine and activity time management software platform to meet the specific time management and self-regulation needs of students in classrooms.
  Partners: École secondaire publique Omer-Deslauriers, Semaphore Research Cluster at the University of Toronto and Brili, Inc., with support from IBM Canada Inc.
• An initiative that integrates partners from post-secondary institutions, K-12 and the technology sector to build a bridge of experiential, generation-engaged, personalized education delivered through common mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets.
  Partners: York University, Quanser Consulting Inc., and St. Robert Catholic High School
• A partnership that will improve assessment of student work in the distance education setting using an online collaborative grading and analytics platform.
  Partners: University of Waterloo, University of Guelph and Crowdmark
• The development of an intelligent simulation platform through which non-technical teams can build and share complex, interactive simulations in law, medicine, engineering and business using cognitive computing and natural language processing.
  Partners: Queen's University and Ametros Learning
• The development of a telecommunications system, called the Webchair, with a multisensory system, called the Emoti-chair, so that children with autism can control their social and auditory presence at school.
  Partners: Ryerson University, Tactile Audio Displays Inc. and WebChair

"Ontario has one of the highest-performing education systems in the world. We will continue to work with educators and leaders to build on our accomplishments by supporting innovation, transforming our classrooms and giving our students every opportunity to excel and build a prosperous province," said Marie-France Lalonde, Minister of Government and Consumer Services.