This week we have part 1 of the keynote address from the 21st Century Learning & Sharing: Engaging for Success! This is an online conference replacing the annual Virtual School Society Conference that was cancelled this year. The address was given by Susan Patrick former Director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education and now CEO and President of iNACOL, the International Association of K-12 Online Learning. She brings a global perspective of how Online Education is changing Traditional educational methods around the world.

Hello fellow educators, its podcast number 108. In my last two weeks I have been addressing the issue of Independent School Funding and responded to a move from District 79 her in BC to aggressively remove Independent School funding. As a result of the podcast I had the opportunity to meet face to face with our local Member of the BC Legislator and spend some time telling him what a great job his government has done in the area of Independent Schools as well as allowing for DL education. He was quite taken back to have someone meet him on a Saturday morning and say well done. He cleared his calendar for the next hour and asked question after question about our role in education. One mom, in our school wrote in and clearly pointed out that if it wasn't for Independent school funding she would not be home educating her son. I shared her story with him as an example of the many families that similar in our schools. We will follow up on the BC Trusties meeting this week and see if the motion is carried by all of our public school trusties. I will try to keep you informed on this. Our good friend, teacher and frequent contributor to the Christian Educator Podcast, Mark Daley, summarizes the discussion well:

"Hi Greg. I appreciated your careful handling of this series. Positive too that you heard support from all sides – parents, politicians and professional educators. Steve’s insightful comment brought me back to a couple things that the political elite overlook or fail to understand altogether. Political theory makes it all too apparent that when a democracy loses its careful balance – in other words, if the political elite push too hard against the diversity of interests – this privileged system of government will in time fail. Democracy fought against the monism of sovereign rule, but here ironically lurks “in democracy” the old elitism that presumes for the many the wisdom of the few. How arrogant, ignorant and ungrateful, really, for the favourable kind of system we do live in. History has not changed much has it. Except, I dare say, if we are a little wiser to this old-world tyranny and manipulation, then when 11% of the population base does come to terms with being politically jockeyed from having its “voice,” it will be no small thing; revolutions have been waged over much less. On the other hand, maybe this is the very thing the Christian community needs to shake it out of complacency – i.e. to lose Christian education may be to gain whole new kinds of Christian invocation. In any case, the battle is the Lord’s. And so, we must be, as you have notably been, the watchmen (Ez. 3:17, etc). Well done!"

Thanks Mark as always, your insight is like a prophet in the wilderness pointing his boney finger towards the way of the Lord. I am just glad that we have the privilege at Heritage to listen to and follow that finger.

Every year for the last 12 years I have been attending a conference here in BC of Online Educators put on by BC EDonline and more recently the Virtual School Society. Because of financial difficulties in our public schools the conference was cancelled. But a group of us have been working behind the scenes to bring the conference online. Our online school educators are giving no less than four of the workshops. Today I want to bring you the keynote address in from the conference by Susan Patrick the president of iNACOL, which stands for the International Association of K-12 Online Learning an organization that Heritage Christian Schools is now an active member of. She is the former Director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education. In her keynote she brings a global perspective to the reality of Online and Blended learning in the classroom. Here is her address, please forgive the quality as it was given online throughout Canada using Elluminate live:

Audio Only.

Next week we will finish this address where Susan speaks of our role in Canada and the amazing success in BC as well as presenting recent research and definition to Blended Online and Classroom learning. Please email us your comments and thoughts on this podcast. Also, if you would like us to mail you a free copy of my book or send you the download link for the audio version of, Discipling This Generation for a Digital World, simply send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and let us know what type of an educator you are, home schooler, classroom teacher, school administrator, or interested parent. Please let us know how you heard about the podcast and, of course, please include your mailing address. Thank you for listening and thank you for your commitment to discipleship-based Christian education.