Outstanding New Zealand ICT Teachers Awarded

Outstanding New Zealand ICT Teachers Awarded

Methven and Howick teachers lauded for innovative methods

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand –7 October, 2009 – Microsoft New Zealand today recognised two teachers for outstanding contributions to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education at ULearn, the country’s largest conference for educators. Jan Anderson and Steve Martin received the Microsoft Distinguished Teacher Award for their development of innovative approaches to ICT in the classroom.

Jan Anderson, ICT Lead Teacher at Methven Primary School, integrated a new Microsoft Xbox game each term into her classroom programme. This led to what she called a “transformation in the classroom.” Students became active participants in their knowledge acquisition, engaged and focused using teaching strategies that employed higher order thinking and games in learning.

Steve Martin, Science and Biology Teacher at Howick College, instructed collaboratively using Microsoft Office Live Workspace to create virtual lessons for every learning objective within the Year 9 science course. These lessons were enhanced through the use of Web 2.0 applications and video, accessible by students, parents and teachers at any time.

Anderson and Martin will receive training, hardware, software and a personal kit designed for their teaching methods worth more than $8,000. They will also attend regional and international Microsoft conferences to present their findings and methods to other educators.

Previous New Zealand winners of the Microsoft Distinguished Teacher Award, Nathan Kerr (2007) and Deidre Senior (2008) have received international accolades for their use of technology in the classroom. For example, Kerr was invited in June to speak to 1,400 teachers at the National Educational Computing Conference in the United States about “m-learning,” or presenting video lessons through mobile devices.

A panel of education experts selected this year’s winners following a written application process.

Nils Beehre, Education Manager for Microsoft New Zealand says: “The Microsoft Distinguished Teacher Award recognises and enables teachers to share best practice and knowledge. This year’s winners represent the highest calibre education methods related to technology in the classroom.

“At Microsoft, we understand the power of ICT in education and we are proud to support innovative teachers that are delivering 21st century teaching and learning and that are helping to transform education in our schools.

Two other teachers were also recognised as finalists in the Microsoft Distinguished Teacher Awards:

• Andrew Churches, Information Technology Teacher, Kristin School, for his project using Microsoft Visual Basic.Net 2008 and the Microsoft .Net Platform to provide students with a workbook and supporting materials to learn how to use this programming language and tool. The students quickly took to the material and soon surpassed Andrew’s competence in programming.
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• Mary Robinson, Geography and Social Studies Teacher, St Cuthbert’s College, who uses programs such as Microsoft Office Excel to create living graphs, time lines or population pyramids. She has encouraged students to develop Web sites with animation and movies, create news broadcasts with music and interviews as well movies where students dress up or write and record songs for podcasts.
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