2009 Teaching with Sakai Innovation Award Winners Announced at 10th Annual International Sakai Conference

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (Map) - ANN ARBOR, Mich., July 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Winners of the second annual Teaching with Sakai Innovation Award (TWSIA) were announced this morning during an award ceremony at the 10th International Sakai Conference taking place in Boston, MA.

The first-place award winner is Dr. Andrea Crampton from Charles Sturt University (Australia) for her course "Introduction to Forensic Science." Second place went to Dr.

The Sakai Project is a landmark venture to create open-source course management, collaboration, and online research support tools for the higher education community. Begun through a collaboration involving the University of Michigan, Indiana University, MIT, and Stanford University, it is now in use in more than 160 colleges, universities and schools around the world, which includes more than one-third of the top 100 universities in the world.

"All of the applications this year were extremely impressive," said Josh Baron, director of academic technology and eLearning at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY, and member of the Sakai Foundation board of directors. "The winners of this award have demonstrated how Sakai can truly transform the teaching and learning process and innovate the educational experience."

"At the heart of Sakai, whose community-source mantra is 'built by educators, for educators,' is a deep passion for teaching, learning, and innovation," said Baron. As testimony to this passion, the Sakai Foundation annually presents the Teaching with Sakai Innovation Award, sponsored by IBM and with support from rSmart and John Wiley & Sons, all of which are Sakai Commercial Affiliates.

"IBM is pleased to be involved in this award again this year," said Michael King, vice president, IBM Education Industry. "Like last year, there was participation from all over the globe, and we appreciate all the institutions that submitted entries and congratulate the winners. Our thanks go to the TWSIA organizing committee, the judges, and the Sakai community who make this award possible."

"For nations around the world, education is critical to future economic sustainability. Tools like Sakai are new ways of communicating, collaborating, and exchanging information and help build a smarter classroom for the future across K-12 schools, higher education, and workforce training environments. IBM looks forward to our continued involvement with Sakai and other communities to foster the future of learning," said King.

The panel of judges consisted of Dr. Karen Swan and Dr. Ken Bain, internationally known educators who were also involved in the 2008 competition. They reviewed the finalists' applications and participated in a course demonstration and interview via live Web conferences with each finalist.

The judges were very enthusiastic about the winning courses. Of particular note was Dr. Crampton's use of Sakai Project Sites which facilitated a constructivist approach to the teaching and learning process by allowing each group of students to collaborate on a series of "crime scene scenarios" in which each student played a particular role (e.g., "first on scene officer," "scene of crime officer," etc.). Similarly, judges were impressed with Dr. Sheffer's creative use of the Sakai Wiki tool as a means for students to develop their own historical characters in the context of real historical events. In both cases Sakai was a catalyst for a shift away from passive teacher-centered learning towards a more active student-centered pedagogical approach to the courses.

"Sakai is a magical tool box for the modern educator," Dr. Crampton said. "Whether you use one tool or ten, the only barrier to effectively teaching today's students is your imagination. Further, the Sakai community and TWSIA break down institutional and geographical boundaries, which enables those interested in applying sound pedagogy to their courses to collaborate and share experiences. Where else would you find an educator from a rural Australian university with kangaroos for traffic hazards sharing the stage and ideas with academics from universities in the US, UK, South Africa and elsewhere in the global village? The receipt of this award has been a very humbling experience and represents not just my efforts but those of the team that introduced Sakai to Charles Sturt University."

Second place winner Dr. Sheffer shared that "Sakai's exciting technology platform is truly changing the way we teach. In my class, the Wiki tool enabled students to individualize, experience, and share history in a way that would have been unimaginable without it. I am grateful for this innovative resource and look forward to developing other Sakai projects at Stanford."

To view the winning applications, and applications from all participants who indicated that they were willing to share their work, go to the award Web site at http://openedpractices.org/twsia.

About Sakai

Sakai is an open-source software project driven by the Sakai Foundation, a worldwide consortium of institutions, organizations, and individuals dedicated to providing collaboration, research, and e-portfolio tools. The Sakai Foundation is a nonprofit organization is dedicated to coordinating activities around Sakai and the Sakai community to insure Sakai's long-term viability. For more information, visit www.sakaiproject.org.

CONTACT: Michael Korcuska Executive Director, Sakai Foundation mkorcuska@sakaifoundation.org mobile: +1 510-599-2586 phone: +1 510-931-6559 skype: mkorcuska Public Affairs Marist College 3399 North Road Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 845-575-3174