Industry committee  I participated in the MacArthur Foundation initiative with approximately 40 other schools from around North America, including some in Quebec. Yes, we have reached out and are very much having a dialogue with them. We are working with NASA as one of our clients. They have an interest, as does the Canadian Space Agency, in seeing that students continue to learn.

Industry committee  I thought this was the most important question. I looked at this in terms of venture capital and IT technology, considering Palo Alto and Silicon Valley, where you hatch a billion-dollar company. The question is how Canada can deal with this. I think the model is that you centralize highly educated pockets of academic professionals with venture capitalist accelerator programs, and of course, the start-up companies, and you create more opportunities for people to start small businesses in that environment.

Industry committee  Common core standards were established by working committees in the United States and Canada. Surprisingly, all 10 provinces are represented in the National Science Teachers Association. They have monthly meetings in which I have participated. They established certain common core competencies in science to try to give people across the board and across North America an idea of how you can harmonize and bring people up to speed.

Industry committee  Sure.

Industry committee  From what kinds of institutions?

Industry committee  We do business with the University of Winnepeg by choice. I'm also a graduate from there. We did work with the Canadian Space Agency, and I've had conversations with NASA for the last five years. What I take away from this is that what we are attempting to do now, which is different in developing our own brand, is to create a sustainable model for educational product.

Industry committee  Sure, yes.

Industry committee  It's estimated there is approximately $3,000 spent per student in North America on software. That's a huge figure. It's not always apparent how the digital technology appears in the classroom, but it does, whether through smart boards or through other softwares that are bought. Of course, it's nothing new—let's use the technology in the classroom—but what is new is the capability of that technology to actually increase competency in common core standards, if you will.

Industry committee  I'll just say that very early on we took advantage of tax credits in Manitoba which, for the new media industry, are 40% of your labour. It comes back as essentially cash the next year. With that, over the last four years we developed our own IP and were able to take advantage of that.

Industry committee  Thank you for having me. My presentation is entitled “A Digital Highland”. The first half is about me, and the second half is recommendations. I'm the CEO of Project Whitecard in Winnipeg. Project Whitecard is a company that's been around for eight years. We specialize in creating learning games for children, so you may not have seen our games but your kids have seen them.