Educational Computing Organization of Ontario

The Educational Computing Organization of Ontario (ECOO) is a non-profit group established in 1979 for the purpose of facilitating the integration of new computing technology into the educational curriculum.

ECOO conference

Each year ECOO hosts a conference in November. In 2008, the ECOO conference moved to the Sheraton Parkway North Hotel and Suites in Richmond Hill. In 2013, the conference moved to Niagara Falls.[1] Bring IT Together was held October 23–25 at the Scotiabank Convention Centre.

A variety of educators and administrators attend this three day conference. Presenters include industry professionals, instructional leaders and higher education as well as many school board teachers. Some representative teachers come from school boards such as the Toronto District School Board. TDSB Toronto District School Board, York Region District School Board YRDSB York Region and the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board to name a few.

As an addition to each conference, ECOO publishes a Proceedings, summarizing the presentations and other activities during that year's conference.[2]

Bylaw changes

According to the organization's main web site, proposed bylaw changes were voted on May, 2009. The 2008-09 Board of Directors had put together a series of bylaw changes designed to help ensure the ongoing health and flexibility of the organization. Attendees of the 2008 Conference were considered voting members and were invited to participate, either in person or by proxy.

Computer Programming Contests

ECOO organizes programming contests for Ontario secondary school students. A free online practice contest, DWITE, is available as a preparation for the ECOO contests. All of the contests are free of charge to students and consist of five (labeled 0 to 4) problems to be solved in three hours. Programs are to input .txt files and output onto the screen. Part marks are given to partially correct outputs and a time-bonus is also allotted for every five minutes before the end of the contest when submitted. Each team can have a maximum of four members from the same school. The ECOO contests consist of three parts:

Boardwide Programming Contest

It is distributed by email to convenors of school boards. The school boards use this contest to select the teams that will represent them in the Regional Programming Contest. The maximum number of teams that the school boards can send depend on the size of the school boards.

Regional Programming Contest

It is held at several locations across Ontario. These contests are used to determine the teams that will represent their regions to participate in the Final Programming Contest.

Final Programming Contest

The top twenty teams meet at a location to compete in this contest to determine the top three teams for awards.

Publications

The organization publishes a magazine titled Output which is delivered to members.[3] In 1994 the organization presented a report to the Ontario Royal Commission on Learning.[4]

References

  1. ↑ "Building video games add up to more than fun for math class" by Roger Belgrave Brampton Guardian
  2. ↑ Brock, Patricia Ann. Educational Technology in the Classroom, 1994.
  3. ↑ Towards Discursive Education, Cambridge University Press.
  4. ↑ For the Love of Learning, Ontario Royal Commission on Learning.

External links