UNESCO King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa Prize

The UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Education was instituted in 2005. The prize is awarded yearly and consists of a sum of US$50,000 (a cheque and a diploma), to be equally divided between two laureates. The prize is funded by the Kingdom of Bahrain.

The prize is awarded to individuals, institutions, other entities or non-governmental organizations for excellent models, best practice, and creative use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to enhance learning, teaching and overall educational performance. Candidatures must be presented by the government of a Member State of UNESCO or an international non-governmental organization, maintaining formal consultative relations with UNESCO and active in the relevant fields covered by the Prize. Each government or international non-governmental organization is entitled to nominate only two candidates per year.

Laureates

The first laureates (2006) were the Cyber Home Learning System for Primary and Secondary Students, a project of the Korean Ministry of Education and Human Resources and the Korea Education and Research Information Service (KERIS) and the eDegree Programme in Lapland developed by Kemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences.

The second prize (2007) was awarded to The Claroline Consortium of Belgium, and Curriki, a U.S.A.-based global education community. Competing for the prize were 68 projects from 51 countries and one international non-governmental organization.

The third winners (2008) were Shanghai TV University for its project Turning the Digital Divide into Digital Opportunity: The Project for Building the Digital Lifelong Learning System in Shanghai. Dr. Hoda Baraka, of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of Egypt, was also chosen to receive the Prize for her leadership in the implementation of several national ICT projects in education.

The winners of the fourth prize (2009) were Alexei Semenov, Rector of the Moscow Institute of Open Education, and the Jordan Education Initiative. The prize was focused on "Teaching, Learning and e-Pedagogy: Teacher Professional Development for Knowledge Societies".

The winners of the fifth prize (2010) were the National Institute of Continuing Adult Education (NIACE) from the UK and the Venezuelan Fundación Infocentro.

Link

• Official Site