News Release
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Board Launches Into International Deeper Learning Project
On December 4, a diverse group of stakeholders met at Nipissing University to launch the Near North District School
Board’s participation in the international project, New Pedagogies for Deep Learning (NPDL). This group included
school teams made up of elementary and secondary students, parents, teachers, and administration, along with
educational technology staff from the Board.
The four Near North schools initially participating are Humphrey Public School in Seguin, Land of Lakes Public
School in Burk’s Falls, and Widdifield Secondary School and Vincent Massey Public School in North Bay.
“This is the work we have unknowingly been preparing for over the last few years – designing activities and creating
the environments in which student learning goes deeper and where student engagement leads to positive action in
students’ own lives, the lives of their families, and has an impact on communities beyond the walls of our schools,”
said Humphrey Public School principal and project lead Steve Krause. “This is not a prescribed initiative to simply be
implemented. It is collaborative work where we will create and refine these new pedagogies or ways of teaching
together.”
NPDL is a global partnership involved in the implementation of deep learning goals across whole education systems
that are enabled by new methods of teaching and accelerated by technology. There are 1,000 schools participating
from around the world, with 100 in Canada. Deeper learning includes character, collaboration, citizenship, creativity,
critical thinking and communication skills – and the measuring of student’s progress along these competencies.
Greg Butler, a NPDL Global Director from Australia joined the meeting via video link and said “Deep learning should
be irresistibly engaging for both students and teachers, elegantly efficient and easy to use, technologically ubiquitous
24/7, and steeped in real life problem solving.”
“It was a day of thought-provoking and meaningful conversations with all of the important voices at the table, learning
and collaborating together. It suggests significant changes in the way we teach and how and what learning is valued
and measured – are soon to follow.” said Krause.
To conclude the day, students presented the results of a Design Challenge to create and present their ideas for learning
spaces that would meet their learning styles and needs.
