Now that everyone is back from Brazil safe and sound and over their jetlag (of which fortunately I did not suffer), I thought you’d like to hear 2 terrific podcasts that were done this week with radio stations in the Republic of Ireland. But first a picture of what I refer to as “The Irish Education Mafia”.

From left to right are: Tommy Maher, Seamus Ryan, Deirdre Butler and Kevin Marshall. As you can see they don’t get along at all

The 1st of the 2 podcasts is from Tommy Maher of Scoil Naomh Fiachra with Kilkenny Carlow Local Radio (KCLR).

You can hear Tommy’s podcast HERE

The 2nd podcast is with Seamus Ryan of County Meath VEC and is with TechNet and Pat Brennan

You can hear Seamus’ podcast HERE

2 great Teachers talking about 21st Century Learning and how ICT can play an important role in educating today’s students.

I had said in my last post that I would be putting up more details about the winners of the Innovative Educators Forum Awards. Rather than recreate a lot of new information, I thought it would be best (and easier) to just copy and paste in the official press release from Microsoft'.

In addition to that I have linked all of the winners to their Virtual Classroom Tour (VCT) submissions. They are all posted on the newly launched Partners in Learning website. You will need to register with a Live ID in order to access VCTs. Once registered, go the the Communities tab and join “Innovative Education Forum Brasil 2009 - Teachers & Schools”.

News Press Release
Microsoft Partners in Learning Announces 2009 Worldwide Innovative Teacher Awards

SALVADOR, Brazil — Nov. 6, 2009 —After three days of seminars, teacher exhibitions and judging by an internationally renowned panel of education experts, today Microsoft Partners in Learning announced the winners of the 2009 Worldwide Innovative Teacher Awards at the Worldwide Innovative Education Forum. Partners in Learning recognizes and rewards teachers who demonstrate exemplary use of technology in the classroom to improve student learning. The 14 winning teachers — awarded first, second and third place in four categories — were chosen from among the 250 at the Forum representing more than 60 countries.

The Best Practice winners in the four main competition categories are Mandeep Atwal of England, Innovation in Community; Mark Sparvell of Australia, Innovation in Collaboration; Autumne Streeval and Harriet Armstrong of the United States, Innovation in Content; and Moliehi Sekese of Lesotho, Educators Choice. The 2009 Worldwide IEF award ceremony, held tonight in Salvador, Brazil, was attended by 400 educators, school leaders, government officials and others from more than 60 countries.

“The Innovative Teacher Awards exemplify the dedication and imagination of the world’s most forward-thinking educators,” said Michael Golden, corporate vice president of Education at Microsoft. “The energy and entrepreneurism of the winning teachers demonstrate the infinite possibilities that technology can create to improve learning opportunities and inspire future generations toward greater academic achievement. Microsoft remains committed to supporting the community in this quest. I’d like to extend warm congratulations to everyone who participated in this and the regional events that led up to today’s celebration.”

The following are the top three finalists in each category, in finishing order:

Innovation in Community

Best Practice: Mandeep Atwal (England), “Young Voices”

First Runner-Up: Ollie Bray (Scotland), “Thinking outside the XBOX”

Second Runner-Up: Lucrecio Filho de Oliveira (Brazil), Projeto “Barreiro”

Innovation in Collaboration

Best Practice: Mark Sparvell (Australia), “Connecting Hearts Heads and Hands”

First Runner-Up: Karina Batat (Israel), “The Travelling Mascot”

Second Runner-Up (Tie): Myreia Gussinye (Mexico), “Tolerant”

Second Runner-Up (Tie): Xiaoyong Tang (China), “Exploration of Ant Behaviour”

Innovation in Content

Best Practice: Autumne Streeval and Harriet Armstrong (United States), “US Industrial Revolution Tic Tac Toe”

First Runner-Up: Damien Lebegue (France), “Differentiated/adapted Teaching in PE”

Second Runner-Up: Alex Vieira dos Santos (Brazil), “Fontes De Energia”

Educators Choice

Best Practice: Moliehi Sekese (Lesotho), “Indigenous Plants”

First Runner-Up: Janjira Phongchoo (Thailand), “MS Excel Game Building Techniques”

Second Runner-Up: Isabel Schapdryver (Belgium), “Secondhandshop”

“Winning the Educators Choice award is certainly a great honor,” said Moliehi Sekese of Lesotho who won for her project Indigenous Plants. “Just being here and seeing how teachers from all over the world are enriching the lives of students is ultimately even more rewarding.”

Since 2003, the Partners in Learning award competition has been recognizing individuals with the Worldwide Innovative Education Awards for excellence in teaching. Teachers participate in country-level and regional events. Winners move up to the Worldwide competition.

The judging community includes education experts from all over the world. At the event 36 judges representing 23 countries spend nearly 20 hours talking to the teachers and learning about their projects; then in a private room they discuss, debate and share with one another until the winners are finally selected.

“Every year the submissions seem to get better and better, and this year is no exception,” said Judge Eduardo O.C. Chaves of Brazil. “The level of sophistication of these entries shows that teachers are continuing to innovate and expand the ways they use technology to help students all over the world realize their potential.”

Next year’s Innovative Teacher Awards results will be announced at the 2010 Worldwide IEF, which will take place in Cape Town, South Africa. Country- and regional-level competitions will take place beginning in November 2009. Interested teachers should contact their local Microsoft office for more information or look online at http://www.microsoft.com/education/pil/partnersInLearning.aspx.

At the event, school leaders from 12 Mentor and 30 Pathfinder Schools also participated in a three-day workshop and were recognized for their leadership in driving system-level educational reform.

About the Innovative Education Forum

The Innovative Education Forum is an annual worldwide event. Regional forums are held around the world to create communities of teachers who can share ideas and best practices with their peers and facilitate the creation of collective knowledge. Subsets of regional forum participants are selected to represent their country at the Worldwide Innovative Education Forum.

We had a night to end all nights last evening. The team from Microsoft Brazil put on an evening to be remembered. As I said yesterday, we didn’t know the venue until we got on the buses and what a venue it was. It was the Modern Art Museum (MAM)of Salvador. We were greeted by a Brazilian drum/dance group and everyone got right into the mood.

The was a festive and exciting air about the night seeing people from around the globe were gathered to celebrate excellence in teaching. Here are the teams from India, Scotland and Ghana but they were only 3 of 100 countries participating!!!!

After some local drinks and soups and lots of dancing we headed into the marquee which was erected especially for the event.

The food and drinks were plentiful and the entertainment from the July 2nd Orchestra. This orchestra is only 2 years old and most of its members are in their team. There were incredibly good and the only orchestra I’ve ever seen that were dancing in their seats!!

They played before and after dinner and were called back for 2 encores. It was an incredible testimony to what can be achieved when the will and passion are there

 

 

Then we came to the awards. David wasn’t fortunate to pick up an Educators Award but there was still an air of excitement. There will be more details about all of the winners when I get back to Belfast but the UK Team won two of the major awards for Collaboration. 

 

Mandeep was the big winner for Best Practice and Ollie took 2nd place.

 

This was by far the best night the Innovative Teachers Programme has ever had and I look for to the choice of next year’s location CAPETOWN, SOUTH AFRICA!!!!

As we wrap up the last day of the IEF 2009, we prepare for the final event this evening. It will be the Gala Dinner at a venue that has been kept secret but we know it will be about 20 km away.

This morning the 24 Semi-finalist were announced and unfortunately, David’s “E Portfolio 5-65” didn’t get through. He’s done an amazing amount of work and delivered an incredible innovative way to engage his students. There is one more category up for grabs and that is the “Educators Choice Award”. This morning there was a 3 hour session where all of the participants in both the Teachers and Schools track were able to visit with the exhibitors and discuss their projects. Then each country here voted for their top 3 exhibits and submitted them to the organizing committee. This is where the Teachers say what they liked best. So let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope that the high level of activity David has had for 3 days translates into a place in the Educators Award.

And last but not least, I want to congratulate  Mandeep Atwal from England and Ollie Bray  from Scotland– both of whom are semi-finalists ! (Their projects – “Young Voices” and “Thinking out of the Xbox”, click HERE.)

Congratulations to all of the teachers at this year’s Innovative Education Forum!

     

PS- I've been meaning to put up a photo of my esteemed leader and thank him for all of the things he made possible. So Dr. Kevin Marshall, thanks and I'll buy you a beer tonight

 

It’s important to point out the key roles that are held by Ireland (N+S) at the Forum this year.

The 1st key person is Deirdre Butler from St. Patrick’s College in Drumcondra which has been a College of Dublin City University.

Deidre is currently the Chairperson of the Partners in Learning Advisory Board so she is at the epicentre in helping Microsoft define the direction of the Worldwide Partners in Learning Programme and how it can make a difference in Teachers and Students lives.

From their website:

Deirdre is a faculty member in the Education Department of St. Patrick’s College (a constituent College of Dublin City University) with chief responsibility for designing and co-ordinating learning programs for undergraduate and postgraduate students using a broad range of digital technologies to enable them to understand what being digital in learning can be.
She has close working collaborations with the Everyday Learning research group at Media Lab Europe and Seymour Papert’s Future of Learning Group at the MIT Media Lab.
Deirdre’s doctoral work was conducted in collaboration with Media Lab Europe under the supervision of Dr. Seymour Papert of the MIT Media Laboratory. Her dissertation centres around teacher learning and was entitled, “Self-determined Teacher Learning in a Digital Context: Fundamental Change in Thinking and Practice. Deirdre has developed a model of teacher professional development presently in use in several large projects, including the Empowering Minds community and the Diageo Liberties Learning initiative. Deirdre has consulted to and participated in educational development work using expressive computational materials in Mexico, Costa Rica, several European countries, and rural and urban areas of the Ireland.

Photo is of Deidre giving a Keynote presentation at last year’s event in Hong Kong

PS- She is also and above all a great lady !!!

The 2nd key person is Dr. Victor McNair from the University of Ulster School of Education. Victor has been selected for the 4th time to be a Judge at the Innovative Teachers Event. His deep understanding of relevant and impactful collaborative content and curriculum has been a great help to the Programme over the years. Victor would be considered one of the  Senior Judges due to his many past experiences with the Teachers and their Projects.

Photo- Victor in centre with Byron and Jean Evans in Vienna

A few of Victor’s publications are:

McNair,V. (2005), Using VLEs to support student teachers http://www.members.leadingteachers.com/Newsletters/0008.pdf

Clarke, L.M., Lambe, J.E. and McNair, V. (2004), Embedding e-Learning in Teacher Education http://www.elearningfutures.com/templates/template3.asp?id=38

McNair, V (2004), Using a Virtual Learning Environment to Build Reflective Practice Among Student Teachers http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/connected/connected12/specialfeature/index.asp

McNair V, (2002), Recruitment in Technology and Design in Northern Ireland http://www.socsci.ulster.ac.uk./education/tdweb/tanddrecruitment.pdf

PS again- Victor is also a great guy and a great friend

So rest assured that Ireland (N+S) are playing a key role in Microsoft’s Education roadmap .

Hi all. Apologies for taking so long to get something on the event up for you. Things have been very busy since we landed Sunday evening (3:00 AM your time) and having travelled for 20 hours!!

But now we’re here and settled in. We had Monday to see a bit of the city and visited the market area (Mercado Modelo)

Lots of aggressive sellers but tons of choices from linens, tee shirts, leather goods art and much more. We then spent some time around the Old Town section of Salvador and had a great lunch at an outdoor cafe.

On Tuesday morning the Innovative Schools track kicked off with the Keynote from Anthony Salcito, Microsoft VP WW Education. He was followed by Bruce Dixon founder of the Anytime, Anywhere Learning Foundation. Then we met the 30 new Pathfinder Schools and the 12 Mentor Schools.  The rest of the afternoon was taken up by the Innovative Schools showcasing what they’ve done to make it here. (I’ll have much more about that in upcoming blogs)

Ireland has 2 schools participating in the Innovative Schols track. Dunshaughlin Community College is now one of the 12 Mentor schools in the world and is being represented by Seamus Ryan. Tommy Maher is here as the Principal of Scoil Naomh Fiachra and his school has bee selected as one of the 30 Pathfinder Schools in the world.

Seamus and Tommy

Then last night the Teachers participating in the Innovative Teachers track set up their displays. Here’s David’s and I think it’s a winner

On the table is an actual model of the stage created for the project. You can see the details of his entire project (E-Portfolios 5-65) HERE

The banner showcase all of the key elements and he has attached a screen to play a series of supporting videos.

This morning was the official opening of the Innovative Education Forum with a speech from the Governor of the Bahia Region, Jacques Vagner and then the Keynote was delivered by Michael Golden, Microsoft Corporate VP Education Product Group.

Michael was assisted by Scott Burmester, Microsoft Senior Product Manager. Scott showcased many of the Free software applications the are offered to Teachers and Students around the world. Again, many of these I’ve spoken about in previous articles but there are some new ones I’ll be covering in the coming weeks.

In addition to that, Michael announced the official launching of the new Partners in Learning website which is available for any teacher in the world to join. I will be integrating my NI Innovative Teachers site with this in the coming months.

You can see the official press release HERE

This afternoon the Teachers had to show their work to all of the invited guests and the Judges who have been assigned to them. David was very busy for over 3 hours due to the high level of interest in his project.

So it’s off to dinner tonight with the Western Europe attendees and busy, busy, busy tomorrow, so stay tuned for more updates.