2009 edition of the UNESCO Award-King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa

Network of Innovative Professors from Chile Foundation receives an honorable mention of the 2009 UNESCO award-King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa.

The Chilean Minister of Education, Mónica Jimenez, will lead the recognition ceremony on Thursday January 28th, at 6:30 pm at the  Oficina Regional de Educación de la UNESCO para América Latina y el Caribe (UNESCO’s Regional Office of Education for Latin America and the Caribbean), located in Enrique Delpiano 2058, Providencia, Santiago, Chile.

The General Director for UNESCO, Irina Bokova, will introduce the two prizewinners of the edición 2009 del Premio UNESCO-Rey Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa (2009 edition of the UNESCO Award-King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa).  For the Employment of Information and Communication Technologies in Education is Alexei Semenov, Dean of the Institute of Distance Education in Moscow (Russian Federation) and the Jordan Education Initiative.   The Network of Innovative Professors of the Chile Foundation received an honorable mention.

The two prizewinners received an award that focuses on the subject of Teaching, apprenticeship, and online pedagogy: the professional improvement of professors available for knowledge societies have been assigned due to the proposal of an international jury that met on November 2009 in Paris. In addition, two honorable mentions were granted to Thailand Cyber University and to the Network of Innovative Professors of Chile Foundation.

Under the supervision of their dean, Alexei Semenov, the Institute of Distance Education in Moscow has offered in the last 16 years a professional training for 30,000 professors every year in their work areas. Professor Semenov has developed exemplary programs so that professors can integrate information and training into their professional teachings. He is also an author for manuals and guides which are widely used in Russia and other countries by the staff of professors. Awarded in several occasions, Alexei Semenov is a member of the Science Academy and the Education Academy of the Russian Federation and he hopes that Information and Communication Technologies could occupy a central post in politics and educational reforms of knowledge societies in the 21st century.

The other winner is the Jordan Education Initiative, presented in 2003. Thanks to the establishment of an innovative cooperation between the private and public sectors, this organization has formed over 3,000 professors in the Employment of Information and Communication Technologies through the use of six online programs that complement and strengthen the national existing programs in this area. The JEI has selected 100 scholar centers to rehearse the introduced innovations, offering all the necessary technical infrastructures. The JEI also promotes the most suitable practice amongst the professors and encourages them to form a community of practice.

Chosen among 39 projects from 29 countries, the two prizewinners will respectively obtain a diploma and a sum of 25,000 dollars, during the organized ceremony at the Organization Venue on January 26th, 2010. This award was established in 2005 under the high sponsorship of His Majesty Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa, King of Bahrain.

In addition, the Thailand Cyber University and the Network of Innovative Professors of Chile Foundation have received honorable mentions. The Thailand Cyber University offers an important online training for professors, including the preparation of the Employment of Information and Communication technologies, through the collaboration for the development of programs with seven departments and technological universities.

Up to now, the Thailand Cyber University has formed over 13,000 professionals of the academic area appointed to 16 training institutes. The Chilean network has created a portal for offering assistance to professors in the Information and Communication technologies area and facilitates the exchange of suitable practices. More than 20,000 professors have participated to this date in the network activities.

For More Information

Network of Innovative Professors

Red de Innovaciones Educativas (Innovemos) de la UNESCO

Contact for attending the ceremony:

Verónica Yáñez, Tel. (56-2) 4724628, v.yanez@unesco.org