FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   Contact: Yvonne Marie Andres Phone: 760.635.0001

World’s Greatest Global Teachers Win $10,000!

Global SchoolNet Announces 2005 Online Shared Learning Champions

[San Diego, April 7, 2005] Throughout the world educators are asking, “How can I prepare my students to succeed in an increasingly inter-connected and borderless world?” Global SchoolNet’s Online Shared Learning Award recognizes champion educators, who have made significant contributions to global collaborative learning. Ten teachers were selected for this honor from across the USA, Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, and Uzbekistan.

The top award winners are Janet Banstable from Percy Julian Middle School in Oak Park, Illinois, United States and Rene de Vries from De Wadden Primary School in Haarlem, Netherlands. Each receives a cash award of $2,500 and a trip to the National Education Computing Conference in Philadelphia, June 25-June 30^, 2005 where the awards will be presented.

In addition, five finalist champions each receive $250 USD.

    * Brenda Dyck from Calgary, Alberta, Canada

    * Marsha Goren from Petach Tikva, Israel, Israel

    * Karen Kliegman from Albertson, New York, United States

    * Stephanie Moore from St. Louis, Missouri, United States

    * Jennifer Wagner from Corona, California, United States

And, three honorable mention awardees are recognized.

    * Adrian Bruce from Ballina, NSW , Australia

    * Natalya Hamidova from Karshi, Kashkadarya, Uzbekistan

    * Morey Norkin from Saga-Ken, Japan

“Global SchoolNet was founded twenty years ago by teachers who believed that the real promise of technology is in its ability to create people connections,” said Al Rogers, Global SchoolNet co-founder.  “It is our core belief that the Internet is not merely a library of information -- but a conduit for communication and a way to connect with one another.”

Winner Janet Barnstable describes her teaching style as “Socratic,” and says, “My real job is thinking about what needs to be learned and setting up situations where students can find out the answers for themselves while collaborating with their peers.” She believes using the Internet to collaborate has opened up the world for her and her students. According to Barnstable, “I've never learned so much and so quickly as I have by working with teachers from around the world.” She goes on to say, “But, what students describe as unique teaching is actually what I've learned works well during the 43 years that I've been in the classroom.” Her original projects include CyberDictionary, CyberTeen Magazine, and Postcards from Paul.

“In order for today’s youth to become world citizens, we must create opportunities where they will gain a better understanding of their own future plans, the conditions that will affect the future of their community, and issues of global importance,” said Dr. Yvonne Marie Andres, President and co-founder of the Global SchoolNet Foundation. 

Winner Rene de Vries teaches in Haarlam, Netherlands and engages his primary students in future-thinking authentic research about wildlife preservation, historical communities, and service-learning. His unique projects include Animal Diaries and CityQuest. A year ago he launched the Ukunda schools project to raise awareness about life in the small Kenyan village of Ukunda, and to provide help for Ukunda schools. De Vries says, “We all share the vision that if we bring our students together online and let them collaborate on projects… that this will help to bring some peace and happiness to the world.”

Under the stewardship of these exemplary educators, students around the globe interact with one another in meaningful educational, cultural, and scientific projects. The opportunities are diverse -- ranging from studying marine life and sea turtles, to learning physics by rolling hard boiled eggs, to promoting bicycle safety, to creative story telling and sign language.

GSN’s annual award program saw nominations from nine countries including candidates from Australia, Canada, Germany, Estonia, Israel and Japan. The entire award process is paperless, and managed by GSN’s innovative Web-based system that solicits nominations, obtains candidate information, collects testimonials, and allows rubric-based judging. You can learn more about the outstanding accomplishments all of the Online Shared Learning Champions at www.globalschoolnet.org

About Global SchoolNet

Global SchoolNet combines smart teaching ideas with web publishing, video conferencing and other online tools that bridge geographic gaps, allowing young people around the world to learn together. Global SchoolNet, headquartered in San Diego, California, is an international network of 80,000+ educators, who engage in online project-based learning activities. Since its inception, Global SchoolNet has reached more than a million students from 45,000 schools across 100 countries.  GSN partners with schools, universities, communities, businesses and other organizations to develop free or low cost programs to help students become literate and responsible global citizens, and to prepare them for the workforce. Global SchoolNet is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit education organization.

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