As cleanup and recovery efforts continue in and around Calgary, there are even more reasons for well-known locations like the hard hit Zoo and Stampede grounds to be named among the country’s top cultural, natural, and historic places.
National online voting is underway as Canadians help choose the content for a new smartphone app developed to help us appreciate the unique places that make Canada Canada.
More than 20 such sites have already been suggested in Alberta, from Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump to the Aero Space Museum of Calgary.
It’s all part of the newly announced Explore 150: Go Canada! project, which will launch the smartphone app and an interactive website designed to help students connect with local and national history.
In addition to its informative audio/visual content, the app will make use of social media connectivity so that people can exchange tips, information, and fun activities with fellow users.
The app will be released later this year, once voting has finished and all locations selected. The free mobile app will be available on iOS and Android-based devices to start. That’s the first in a series of steps leading up to Canada’s 150th birthday on July 1st, 2017.
Canadian not-for-profit organizations TakingITGlobal (TIG) and Get To Know Society are working with the Department of Canadian Heritage on the new Explore150 initiative, building on their previous work with digital technology and social awareness projects.
“It is vital that young Canadians have meaningful avenues to feel connected to Canada’s history and see their personal stories as part of a collective narrative through places of significance that bring people together,” described Jennifer Corriero, Executive Director of TakingITGlobal.
Toronto-based TIG is known as a “social network for social good” with its educational resources and action tools that encourage and empower youth to tackle the world’s greatest challenges.
Founded in 1999 by Corriero and Michael Furdyk, it has inspired more than 40 million people around the world to positively affect their local and global communities.
As just one example, TIG partnered with international educational and philanthropic institutions to create the Talloires Network Institute (LINK: http://tinyurl.com/lbu96nc) that leverages technology to connect academic and student leaders engaged in positive social change.
Based in B.C., Get to Know seeks to connect young people with nature using hands-on learning opportunities and tech-enabled educational initiatives.
“The Explore 150 app will not only connect youth with our country’s heritage and special places but also to one another; we’re thrilled that youth from across the country will help play an integral role in the development of the new app,” noted Society Executive Director Mary Krupa-Clark.
Get-to-Know has previously released a mobile app, one that encourages young people to connect with the natural world and become ‘Agents of Nature’. A totally place-based app, its first iteration could only be used in Calgary (to visit locations like the Zoo, among others); ongoing plans for updated versions will now also have to reflect the impact of the recent flooding in the city and surrounding region.