Conceived as a community-driven project, Camerise is a user-centred digital platform designed to bring together students, educators, administrators, parents, and FSL organizations in a collaborative effort to synthesize information and communication on existing initiatives and knowledge to address together systemic challenges and find solutions that will facilitate access to FSL programs across the country in order to sustain Canadian bilingualism.
Camerise is an initiative piloted by York University’s Glendon College and supported by a grant from Canadian Heritage and the Ontario Ministry of Education. As the initiative is entering in its second year of development, Camerise is inviting the FSL community to participate in an open forum to allow all stakeholders to play a central role in reflecting on the project foundations and goals as well as in setting up the agenda for the next 6 to 12 months.
Extensive environmental surveys and stakeholder consultations conducted throughout 2020 and since the beginning of 2021 indicated a need for a transformational tool that would progressively aggregate information, research, resources, initiatives existing in the field and offer centralized access to data, insights, reports, community-driven projects, and curriculum-aligned resources. Camerise is being developed to fill this need and is intended to be a space where pan-Canadian FSL initiatives are showcased, where learning, mentorship and development opportunities are supported, and where modalities fostering movement of information from practice to research are enabled.
As the optimization of Camerise continues with these various objectives and audiences in mind, the FLS community is invited to participate in a free online pan-Canadian open forum planned for June 5, 2021, followed by an ideathon/hackathon event, on June 12 and 13.
The two events in June will allow to:
- Collaboratively assess the potential Camerise will afford all audiences
- Launch the co-development phase by drawing on the experiences and expertise of the FSL community at large and building on the existing frameworks
- Allow the FSL community to propose next steps for the evolution of the project
- Bring together teams working on finding solutions to challenges that hinder the success of FSL teaching and learning programs, and that could be implemented through Camerise.
The contribution of the FLS community is invaluable in making Camerise a truly useful tool. Camerise is looking forward to expanding its team with motivated contributors who are committed to sustaining FSL education and bilingual development in Canada.
To find out more information and register, click here.