The Winners
Photo's from the LWF Awards Party - see here
PRIMARY & PRE-SCHOOL LEARNING
INNOVATOR
Jonathan Nalder, Principal Project Officer, Dept of Education & Training, Queensland, Australia
INNOVATION
iLearn4Free, USA
SECONDARY LEARNING
INNOVATOR
Rebecca Smith, Altrincham Grammer School for Girls, UK
INNOVATION
Recharge The Battery, Saltash.net Community School, UK
FURTHER & HIGHER EDUCATION LEARNING
INNOVATOR
Michelle Gallen, Talk Irish, UK
INNOVATION
Mobl21, Emantras, USA
INCLUSION
INNOVATOR
Richard Smartt, CDI Europe, Apps for Good
INNOVATION
Apps for Good, UK & Brazil
SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
JONATHAN NALDER
Jonathan is excited to have been shortlisted despite being from the other side of the world. He worries that this may make vote-garnering more difficult, but then stops to reflect that being selected by such respected judges in the educational technology field has far more weight than a popular vote...
Even more however, Jonathan is excited that the shoulders of those he stands on (the many many great Educators from Smart Classrooms, Slide2Learn, One Laptop per Child Australia schools and the Apple Distinguished Educator program) are also gaining recognition through this shortlisting - AND that he may get the chance to spread the message of how mobile devices can transform learning even further as a result.
Thanks LWF! Now, over to you EdTech loving public. Give Down-under the chance to have the work thats being done here recognised.
Jonathan's blog: 'The Dawn of uLearning'
See this site to download the Slide2Learn teachers guide: www.slidetolearn.info
ILEARN4FREE
iLearn4Free is dedicated to providing free quality education to the children of developing nations through mobile technology. Education is the foundation of an advancing society. By focusing on early literacy, iLearn4Free can provide a platform for a quality education.
Founded by French native Isabelle Duston in 2010, iLearn4Free is creating an application called m4read that will teach children how to read in their native tongue. The interactive activities in m4read can be adapted in many languages, creating accessibility to children of all nationalities and encouraging cultural diversity and acceptance.
m4read is comprised of 30 to 35 units, depending on the language. Each unit implements learning games and short stories that teach a certain reading skill or set of phonemics. The context behind m4read is based on six longer stories, each highlighting a child from a different culture.
The m4read educational content is based on phonemic awareness, systematic phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. We aim to motivate children to tackle the challenges of learning new sounds and recognize new words as they play interactive games.
iLearn4Free believes strongly in international collaboration. Our diverse team of over twenty members, education specialists, graphic designers, programmers and language specialists are located across the globe.
REBECCA SMITH
Rebecca has been an enthusiastic user of elearning being involved in different projects and collaborations. The Departmental VLE includes a resources store, forums and short podcasts. Learning pathways have enabled students who have not studied triple science to have access to this material and help bridge the gap between GCSE and Advanced Level. Across the school, Rebecca has led a group to coordinate a Teaching and Learning area on the VLE to share good practice across the school.
Rebecca has been involved in a collaborative research project with LEB Partnerships and Manchester Metropolitan University. Within this project, she has used Activexpression devices within the classroom. She has pushed their boundaries and experimented with them and the new self pace software to enable students to self assess, differentiate tasks and homework within the lesson that is being set.
A further blogging project using Edmodo and Y12 students, enabled them to link up with researchers from Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Warwick and Indonesia. Researchers shared areas of expertise and uploaded data for students to analyse and evaluate. Students spoke of increased confidence, and a greater understanding of how research links to their learning in class. This was a truly unique opportunity that could only be made possible through appropriate use of technology.
RECHARGE THE BATTERY
Recharge the Battery is a project that has made an incredible impact not just on our students, school and local community but nationally too because it uses innovative technology as a simple concept to teach a science topic and to change lives. The main objective was for students to be able to explain the advantages and disadvantages of intensive and extensive farming and to communicate this to the global community.
Students were given the opportunity to create their own mini curriculum through developing their own objectives and outcomes. They then decided that they would use technology to produce resources that would communicate their message to a wider audience. The rationale behind the decision to use technology was that it engaged them and their fellow students and allowed for greater flexibility and more creative outcomes. They also thought that this medium had the potential to communicate to a global audience. They wanted to focus on using handheld technology like their mobile phones to create videos & podcasts etc.
They felt this project was particularly important as our school is a specialist Science, Maths and Computing school with a rural dimension which means we have a small livestock area on site and the students therefore the students wanted to take advantage of this and brought 8 rescue battery chickens from a local intensive farm to live a free-range life at our school.
While other schools ban students from using their mobile phones in class for this project we encouraged the pupils to use them to record information. The benefits are that this type of technology is readily available as most students own one and more importantly they know how to use it effectively. They recorded videos in class, then edited them in moviemaker and produced films which they then uploaded to a video sharing website where thousands of people watched them and gave them feedback.
However it also impacted more on the community than we ever thought it would. Students were really involved in their subject and decided to make more informed choices about where there food comes from and what food they should eat. They then went home and discussed this with their parents and in some instances whole families have changed what they now buy, for example switching to free range eggs or meat instead of intensively farmed produce.
Becky a student said ““It really has changed my life and my friends we now really think about what food we eat and where it comes from. It has changed our lifestyle and made me think about wider issues.”
It made students think about what food they eat and where it comes from. It has changed their lifestyle and made them think about wider issues. It has developed the tools necessary to become effective 21st century learners and opened their eyes that learning is a life-long process.
http://uk.partnersinlearningnetwork.com/
MICHELLE GALLEN
In April 2008, Michelle Gallen founded talkirish.com - an award-winning social learning network of over 8,500 learners, teachers and speakers of Irish.
Talkirish.com aims to advance, promote and preserve the endangered Irish language through the use of social media and mobile technologies. It provides free and paid-for Irish language learning materials to adult learners. It gives Irish a new digital platform for the 21st century - one that's neutral, positive and friendly.
Talkirish.com blogs publish a free Irish word and proverb a day, along with supporting audio files and flashcards (also distributed via rss, twitter and email).
In media galleries, free audio files, flashcards, documents and video help Irish language learners with the notoriously difficult pronunciation.
Talkirish.com offers a free multimedia dictionary, a word game and quizzes. The site just launched its first paid-for service – Buntús Cainte MP3 course for iPod, iPhone and iPad.
Over 100,000 people have used talkirish.com, creating nearly 1,000,000 page views.
Michelle Gallen has been named the Talk Talk Digital Hero for Northern Ireland for her work on talkirish.com.
Talkirish.com won the Kieran Hegarty Award for Interactivity at the Celtic Media Awards 2010
Talkirish.com was shortlisted for four Irish Web Awards 2009 and won the Best Education/Third Level Website category
Talkirish.com was nominated for an Irish Blogger award 2009 and an Irish Net Visionary Award - Best Use of Social Media.
Talkirish.com was included in the Top 50 Businesses with Irish and the 2009 Courvoisier Future 500 list.
Michelle Gallen received a Social Entrepreneurs Ireland Level 1 award 2009. She won an UnLtd level 2 grant in 2010.
Michelle's top priority over the next two years is to create a self-sustaining website that is accessible and useful to every Irish language speaker, learner and teacher across the world.Michelle believes in what she does, her projects are in many ways an extension of herself. I have never known someone to face so many challenges on so many fronts and yet come out successful. Ideally I would bottle her motivation/determination and give it to every young social and commercial entrepreneur.
Michelle combines great project management skills with diplomacy, determination and creativity which allows her to overcome obstacles which would stop others.
She has taken many knocks and yet keeps delivering. She is a fantastic role model for the few female entrepreneurs in Belfast and the UK.
MOBL21
An award-winning mobile learning application, Mobl21 brings the flexibility of mobile technology and the structure of an educational framework, on to a single platform.
Mobl21 enables educators to develop content that learners can access from their mobile devices, allowing them to study at their own pace and therefore, perform better. Using Mobl21, educators can create content in the form of multimedia study guides, quizzes and flashcards, which learners can then access anytime from their mobile devices.
In addition to a number of app features that help users learn on the go, Mobl21 also provides a number of tools for educators. These tools help measure student engagement and learning levels through a unique CREATE, SHARE, CONNECT & MEASURE® system. So educators can know exactly how much learning is really taking place.
Mobl21 interfaces though multiple mobile devices and environments, including Apple iPhone / iPod Touch, Android, Blackberry, ADOBE AIR app for laptops/desktops/netbooks, and a new iPad app due shortly.
RICHARD SMARTT
Over the past year as education manager for CDI Europe, Richard has been responsible for creating and running the first ever Apps for Good course as well as training three course alumni to become educators. He has not only crafted a highly innovative course that mixes critical design, market research, technical feasibility, marketing and business models, but he also wrote a poem/rap at the first graduation ceremony inspiring everyone. :)
A former IT teacher and poet who grew up on a dangerous housing estate in South London Richard is a true inspiration to young people.
http://appsforgood.org/about/press/
APPS FOR GOOD
Apps for Good is a programme by CDI Europe, where young people learn to create apps that change their world. Since January 2010 the team has been working hard to make this vision a reality thanks to the key support of Dell YouthConnect and most recently the Nominet Trust.
After running two cycles of courses with 14-18 year old girls in Tower Hamlets, East London and 16-25 year olds not in full-time education in Lambeth, South London, we now know the dream is possible. App portfolios these 40 young people have worked on/ are working on include: Stop&Search, StudentVoice, StudioPhly, OysterCheck, BuzzerBuddies and Transit.
For 2011 we are working hard to opensource our content and to bring Apps for Good to more than 1,000 young people in partner schools and community centres around the country. We always aim high and are confident that with great partners like Central Foundation Girls School and High Trees Community Trust and many more in the future we can achieve this!
