Global SchoolNet - Meet the 2006 CyberFair Judges

 

Candidates for an international Review Board of distinguished Internet and education professionals are selected based on their experience and devotion to online collaborative learning and their reputation as visionaries of the Global Information Infrastructure. Duties and requirements for Review Board participation include participation in a judges’ information listserv and review and ranking of semifinalist contest entries.

Distinguished 2006 Judges

Claude Almansi - CyberFair JudgeClaude Almansi, Switzerland

Sara Armstrong - CyberFair JudgeSara  Armstrong
USA
Bonnie Bracey - CyberFair JudgeBonnie Bracey
USA
Yue-Chane Hsing - CyberFair JudgeYue-Chane Hsing
Taiwan
Jennifer Corriero - CyberFair JudgeJennifer Corriero
Canada

Barbara Dieu - CyberFair JudgeBarbara Dieu, Brazil

Mark Esposito - CyberFair JudgeDr. Mark Esposito
Switzerland

Janet Feldman - CyberFair JudgeJanet Feldman
USA

Jeanne Meyers - CyberFair JudgeJeanne Meyers
USA
Don Mitchell - CyberFair JudgeDon Mitchell,
USA

 

Bob Pearlman - CyberFair JudgeBob Pearlman
USA
Lukas Ritzel, CyberFair JudgeLukas Ritzel
Switzerland

Ethel Liang
Taiwan

Judyth Piazza - CyberFair JudgeJudyth Piazza
USA
Janette Toral - CyberFair JudgeJanette Toral
Philippines

John Gottsman, CyberFair JudgeJohn Gottsman, USA
World Future Society

Susan Echard,
USA
World Future Society

Tim Mack, CyberFair JudgeTim Mack, USA
World Future Society
 
Claude Almansi - CyberFair Judge

Name: Claude Almansi, Switzerland

Position: Claude Almansi has taught in various schools (from kindergarden to university) for about 30 years, mainly French and English as foreign languages, in Switzerland, Italy and UK. She has also been an editor and translator of literary books. She still translates, but has now specialised in texts about distance learning projects using IT. She is in charge of information and training at ADISI , i.e the Cyberlaw Association of Italian-language Switzerland, where she also edits Bollettino di ADISI (a blog). She represents ADISI within Comunica-ch, the Swiss Coalition for Information Society. She is member of the Swiss Forum New Learning, and participates in the discussions and actions of Wilhelm Tux and FSFE Switzerland. She is also member of the Digital Divide Network.

Website: http://www.digitaldivide.net/blog/Claude

top

Sara Armstrong - CyberFair Judge Name:  Sara Amstrong, United States of America

Position: Dr. Sara Armstrong has been an educator for 30 years. Her classroom experience included integrating technology and telecommunications into the curriculum in the early '80s. More recently, Sara worked as an independent consultant on a variety of projects, including professional development, curriculum design, issues of information literacy, and storytelling and technology, and as the Director of Content at The George Lucas Educational Foundation. She is the author and co-author of several books, including "A Pocket Tour of Kidstuff on the Internet," and "NetSavvy: Information Literacy in the Communications Age." She contributed a piece to "Future Courses: A Compendium of Thought about Education, Technology, and the Future," (Technos Press, Jason Ohler, ed., 2001), and is the editor of “Snapshots! Educational Insights from the Thornburg Center” (Starsong, 2003) and "Edutopia: Success Stories for Learning in the Digital Age” (Jossey-Bass and The George Lucas Educational Foundation, 2002). Sara also serves on the boards of the National Storytelling Network and the Center for Accessible Technology. She is an Associate of the Thornburg Center for Professional Development, and a frequent national and international speaker. Sara has been awarded a Gold Disk by California's CUE (Computer-Using Educators, Inc.).

Websites: www.sgaconsulting.org | www.tcpd.org  |  www.gsn.org  | www.storynet.org

top

Bonnie Bracey - CyberFair Judge

Name:  Bonnie Bracey, United States of America

Position: Bonnie Bracey is a teacher-agent of change, working on technology integration projects with classroom teachers and national organizations. She also works internationally with Global Information Infrastructure initiatives as a consultant. She does outreach teaching with the George Lucas Educational Foundation. A former Fulbright Exchange Teacher in India and an elementary school teacher in Virginia, Ms. Bracey was selected as a Christa McAuliffe Educator by the National Education Association. She is also a Challenge Center Fellow and an Earthwatch Fellow. She served on the faculty of the Challenger Center and is a NEWEST Graduate, Langley, and NEW graduate of Goddard Space Center. She is a longtime advocate of science, math , engineering and technology learning for children at an early age. Ms. Bracey is currently involved with two MIT projects: the Games Project and Media, Education and the Marketplace. Ms. Bracey is a frequent speaker at educational technology conferences and those focusing on bridging the Digital Divide.

Ms. Bracey has served on numerous advisory boards including: Technos, The National Urban League, E-School News, On the Horizon, African Schoolnet, CTCnet, the President's National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council, the White House Technology Initiative-Cyber Ed., and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education Task Force. She was the original network director of the 21st Century Teacher's Network and serves on the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Kinetic City Advisory Board. She was co founder of the Online Internet Institute, an NSF funded grant. She is a member of the ISTE Minority task force and has several listservs, one for digital equity, one through her participation with gender equity through teacher tech at Rice University, and one through the MIT channels on technology outreach.

She is involved in a digital equity project and a technology resource project with the National Community Innovations projects which share content with resources with PT3 projects. The National Institute for Community Innovations offers a Digital Equity Portal full of on-line resources for educators to increase digital equity Nationally she also works with  with the Imagiverse Project,  and is a student of Ubiquitous Technology. She was selected  as one of the 25 most important women on the web, and is a webby judge this year in the educational section. Internationally, she produced the high technology  and the indigenous project for the Third World Summit in Thessaloniki, Greece, and works with the Med Agora Project. She has worked in 17 countries around the world and this year was honored for this work. Bonnie Bracey, a change agent and inspirational outstanding advocate for teachers, kids, and teacher educators was recognized for Outstanding Service to Digital Equity at the SITE 2004 Conference. Bonnie has been an important contributor to the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE) Symposium on Digital Equity since its inception bringing her passion to bear on the core of educational renewal: teacher education. Sir John Daniel, Assistant Director-General for Education, UNESCO presented her award.

Website: www.tcp.org

top

Yue-Chane Hsing - CyberFair Judge Name: Yue-Chane Hsing, Taiwan

Position: Ms. Yue-Chane has been devoting herself to Children's education for fifteen years. She has been an active author in Chinese children's literature and has published eight books for kids. She was chief editor of science section for the Chinese Children's Encyclopedia and for Kid's Monthly magazine. She was chief editor of information page for the only children's newspaper in Taiwan, Mandarin Daily News. She is currently the president of the Dragon Book Co. Ltd., as well as the producer of Digital New Education program, for the Educational Broadcasting System in Taiwan. She is also in charge of several internet based projects namely, the Taiwan Schools Cyberexchange program, the 2000 Taiwan Schools CyberFair program, the Kids Care for Kids program, and the Bancroft and Arnesen Expedition curriculum in Taiwan. She is currently a country coordinator in Taiwan for IEARN.

top

Jennifer Corriero - CyberFair Judge Name: Jennifer Corriero, Canada

Position: Co-Founder, Executive Director, TakingITGlobal

Position: Named by the World Economic Forum as a 'Young Global Leader', Jennifer Corriero is a young Canadian innovator, bringing tremendous insight into understanding, reaching and engaging youth. Jennifer is co-founder and Executive Director of TakingITGlobal, a non-profit organization with the aim of fostering cross-cultural dialogue, strengthening the capacity of youth as leaders and increasing awareness and involvement in global issues through the use of technology. The website currently has over 100,000 members in over 200 countries and receives over 1 million hits each day. Jennifer has served on the Official Canadian Government Delegation to the World Summit on the Information Society and has traveled around the world to speak at various conferences and events. She has been a consultant and advisor for a range of groups including Microsoft, VanCity Credit Union, and the Ontario Science Centre. Currently, Jennifer is pursuing her Masters on Youth Engagement and Capacity Building Across Cultures at York University.

Website: www.takingitglobal.org

top

Barbara Dieu - CyberFair Judge Name: Barbara Dieu, Brazil

Position:

Barbara Dieu has been an educator for more than 30 years and presently teaches EFL at the Lycée Pasteur, a bilingual secondary school in Săo Paulo. Her passionate involvement in international projects and collaboration  online  placed her among the 2003 and 2004 finalists of the Global SchoolNet Award. She represents This is Our Time project, of which her school has become home base for the French and Portuguese speaking countries. She belongs to the Tesol  Technology Advisory Committee, coordinates the Braz-Tesol EduTech SIG  and co-runs Dekita.org, a project dedicated to promoting peer-to-peer communication in language learning.

As an active member of the Webheads in Action, European Schoolnet and Cyberlangues, she has led numerous live and webcast presentations and workshops, collaborated in, planned and organized ICT projects so as to promote networking, interaction, creativity, knowledge acquisition and cultural understanding.

Website: http://members.tripod.com/the_english_dept/projects/files/collaboration.html

top

Mark Esposito - CyberFair Judge Name: Dr. Mark Esposito, Switzerland

Position: Dr. Mark Esposito is Co-Professor of the first virtual classroom experiment, held among four universities in Switzerland, USA, China, and Gambia. He regularly hosts "e-nteractive" experiments and endeavors within courses. Dr. Esposito works as Program Director of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Switzerland and Visiting Professor for some renowned European and Asian Universities. He is Companion for the Institute of Management Specialists in the UK and Regional Director of the Academici Forum in Switzerland.

He works as an active contributor to UNESCO, Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau for Education and serves the ICT Program as an Educational Advisor. He has authored textbook chapters and educational journals, with focus upon Emotional Intelligence Management, Cultural Heritage and Cross-cultural contexts . He is also involved in corporate consultancies. He is a member of the Prasena ThinkTank's group.

Websites:

UNESCO Profile http://www2.unescobkk.org/education/ict/v2_2/detail.asp?id=17763

Teaching Blog
http://www.20six.co.uk/markesposito

Interview www.prasena.com/public/cybrainology/DrMEsposito/andragogy.htm

top

Janet Feldman - CyberFair Judge Name: Janet Feldman, United States of America

Position:  Janet Feldman is the founder/director of two HIV/AIDS-related organizations--KAIPPG/International, an HIV/AIDS nonprofit whose parent organization is in Kenya, and ActALIVE, an international arts coalition composed of groups and individuals who use the arts to address HIV/AIDS--and has also been the co-creator of several ICTs-related projects in the areas of health, nutrition, education, women's empowerment, and poverty alleviation. Her background is in the arts and international diplomacy--with a specialization in conflict resolution--and she has worked in a mediation program, been the director of a public arts space, and been an arts consultant. She is a volunteer for several educational endeavors in Haiti, has recently finished a stint as news director for the international music festival, One World Beat, and has served as an adviser/ally to youth-related organizations such as the II IYSCA and AIDS2004Youth.

Website:

top

Jeanne Meyers - CyberFair Judge Name: Jeanne Meyers, USA

Position: Jeanne Meyers is the co-founder and director of The MY HERO Project a not for profit interactive multi-media journal. This award winning on-line project has been used by students of all ages in schools around the globe. A decade ago, Meyers along with co-founders Rita Stern and Karen Pritzker decided to provide a venue in the media where children could find and share stories of heroes from all walks of life. Today the MY HERO web site is visited by millions of people who contribute their vision to this ever growing internet archive. As digital story telling tools and technology become more accessible to children and parents around the globe ---Meyers and the rest of the MY HERO team are committed to providing them with a child friendly---commercial free place in the media where they can share their stories of heroism and celebrate the best of humanity. To bridge the digital divide MY HERO has partnered with other not for profit organizations to train educators and students on the use of media and technology to tell stories about those making a positive difference in this world. Outreach has taken place in libraries, schools, and international educational conferences in China, Russia, Africa, Europe and across North America.

The MY HERO web site hosts many interactive areas including: a teachers room with lesson plans and resources, a library, a virtual art gallery, a Spanish language version (miheroe.org), The AP "Heroes in the News" section, a forum, as well as the CREATE template so that visitors can author web pages with images, text and links that honor the people making a positive difference in their lives. In 2005 Free Press published MY HERO's first book --MY HERO: Extraordinary People on the Heroes Who Inspire Them is a collection of essays written by some of the most remarkable people of our time including Muhammad Ali , Wangari Maathai , Erin Gruwell, Senator John Glen, Elie Weisel and many more contributors who donated their stories to help support this educational project. The Best of the 2005 MY HERO Short Film Fest can be viewed as online.

Meyers received her training in producing multi-media at the American Film Institute (AFI) and Brown University where she also served as Director of Media Services. As a freelance producer for NBC News, she covered stories around the world, including China, Japan, Europe and Russia. She is passionate about the positive use of media for global storytelling.

Website:  www.myhero.com

top

Name: Ethel Liang, Taiwan

Position:

 

 

Website: www.taiwanschoolnet.org

top

Don Mitchell - CyberFair Judge Name: Don Mitchell, United States of America

Position: Don Mitchell entered civilian federal service in 1970 as a management intern at the Department of Agriculture. In 1972, he moved to NSF, and began a career in contracting. In the mid-70s, he developed a system for motion picture production which was adopted in 1977 for government-wide use, pioneered the use of support contracting (before) and cooperative agreements (after) the inception of the Grant and Cooperative Agreement Act and managed the first civilian agency SBIR solicitation, as well as the first procurement which put a microcomputer on the desk of every employee in a federal agency. In 1987, he left NSF's Division of Grants and Contracts to join the newly formed division of Networking and Communications Research and Infrastructure (NCRI) shortly before the beginning of the NSFNET Program.

In addition to his role in NSFs major infrastructure activities, he was personally responsible for the Global Schoolhouse Project, Cornell University's (CU-SeeMe) Conferencing Software development and Cells-in-Frames projects, the InterNIC, the Internet Scout Project, Dave Hughes Wireless Field tests, the National Laboratory for Applied Networking Research, the Internet Caching Project, the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis, the National Center for Data Mining,the very high performance Backbone Network Service and the High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network.

During the period from June 1, 2000 through December 32, 2002, he served on an IPA assignment to the National Computational Science Alliance as Visiting Associate Director for Strategic Collaborations. Located at ACCESS, in Arlington, Virginia, he was instrumental in moving the US-Russian High Performance Network project to NCSA and establishing a formal partnership agreement with the Kurchatov Institute (the premier research institution in Russia). He was also actively involved in the development of the Multi-Sector crisis Management Consortium.

Don retired from NSF in January 2002 and enjoys fishing and reading. He remains active in projects involving networking, wireless systems for field science, and education and has recently joined the Board of the Global SchoolNet Foundation.

Website: http://www.globalschoolnet.org/about/bio/donmitchell.htm

top

Bob Pearlman - CyberFair Judge Name: Bob Pearlman, United States of America

Position:  Bob Pearlman has been a key leader of educational reform efforts nationally in a unique 30-year career as a teacher, Co-Director of Computer Education, teacher union leader and negotiator, Foundation President, and Director of Education and Workforce Development. Pearlman’s experience and expertise includes Whole District Reform, New School Development, Business-Education Partnerships and coalitions, School-to-Career and Workforce Development, Union—School District Negotiations, School Restructuring and Technology, Project-Based Learning, Professional Development, Educational Finance, and School-site Assessment and Accountability.

Pearlman is currently the Director of Strategic Planning for the New Technology Foundation in Napa, CA, which supports the replication of New Technology High School in twenty-four sites across Northern California, Southern California, and the United States. Additionally Pearlman is a Strategy Consultant for education reform, assisting key reform initiatives around the country. Among these are Sacramento's e21 high school reform initiative, and LINC 2 the Future, Boston's new 5-year technology plan for the schools and the community. He is the former President of the Autodesk Foundation and former Director of Education and Workforce Development at Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network.

Pearlman previously served as Coordinator of Educational Reform Initiatives for the Boston Teachers Union.  As the former National Consultant on Educational Technology for the American Federation of Teachers and as a founder of the Co-NECT School New American School Design Team, Pearlman has been a pioneer in designing new schools, integrating project-based learning, work-based learning, and technology into the schools, and in training teachers, administrators, and parents in the application of new technologies and their role in restructuring schools. Pearlman has been a leader in building coalition organizations that bring together educators, business, labor, and community leaders to support education reform. Key coalition organizations have included the Bay Area School-to-Career Action Network (BaySCAN), the California School-to-Career Action Network (CalSCAN), Business and Education for Schools and Technology (B.E.S.T.), and the Boston Compact. The National Alliance of Business named BaySCAN its 1998 Local Coalition of the Year.

Website: http://www.bobpearlman.org

top

Judyth Piazza - CyberFair Judge Name:  Judyth Piazza

Position:  Judyth Piazza is the CEO of the Student Operated Press. The Student Operated Press is a cutting edge news organization that’s intention is to provide novice writers and student journalist with the opportunity to showcase their talents while practicing ethical journalism in an environment that rivals all major media outlets.

Websites:

WWCI TV 10 news anchor, www.thesop.org

Senior Editor, www.thecollegepress.com

top

Lukas Ritzel, CyberFair Judge Name: Lukas Ritzel, Switzerland

Position: Lukas Ritzel is CoFounder of Change Management consulting company Prasena , his company got in 2004 the Purple Cow award of companies who "make a difference" from the FAST company. He is a specialist in Creativity, eLearning and Knowledgemanagement Systems. His own teaching site is at http://www.dct.ch/ict/dct.htm . Lukas Ritzel is further Switzerland chapter President of the Digital Workforce Education Society . Lukas Ritzel has been speaker (in real as well as virtual) at many international conferences, some of his best presentations can be seen at Prasena's Virtual_U . Lukas Ritzel can be reached at lritzel@prasena.com or through skype (skypename: lritzel). Latest contribution to education during the ICLORD international conference in 2005, April in Bangkok on the topic of collaboration tools for schools, teachers and students http://www.prasena.com/public/events/iclord2005.htm . Lukas Ritzel is Swiss and Cyber citizen!

Websites: http://www.prasena.com/public/virtual_u.html 

top

Janette Toral - CyberFair Judge Name:  Janette Toral, Philippines

Position:  Janette Toral is the site owner of DigitalFilipino.com, BeadClubPhilippines.com, CMMIPhilippines.com, and PrimaPlaySchool.com. She started the Philippine Schools Cyberfair affiliate in the Philippines in 2001 and aggressively promoting educational content development in both Filipino and English for elementary and high school students.
 

Website: http://www.digitalfilipino.com

top

Name:  Susan Echard, United States of America

Position:  Susan Echard is WFS Vice President of Membership and Conference Operations and has been with the World Future Society since 1977.  She has has a BS in Education and Criminal Justice and an MA in Counseling.  She has taught at the elementary school level and was nominated at that time for National Teacher of the Year. Ms. Echard is a certified counselor and has counseled children and youth through high school age and their families.

Website: www.wfs.org

top

John Gottsman, CyberFair Judge Name: John Gottsman, United States of America

Position:  John Gottsman is President & CEO of the Clarity Group, a venture investment and strategy firm specializing in business, and education knowledge acquisition software and services.  Gottsman has been a strategy advisor and active venture investor for the past 8 years.  His career focus as CEO of 4 corporate turnarounds and 2 startups has been the acceleration of knowledge acquisition for customers and staff.

Gottsman has a demonstrated deep personal commitment to helping learners accelerate knowledge acquisition in K-16 education, and with employees in commercial organizations.  For over 15 years, he has been paid by Public School Districts and Colleges to provide quality of life and instructional services, including distributed learning, to students and instructors.

Gottsman serves on boards of several Silicon Valley startup companies; the Center for International Leadership in Washington, D.C., The World Future Society, The Greater Educational Opportunity Foundation, and served on the board of the now merged Institute for Research on Learning, and The Foresight Nanotechnology Institute.  Gottsman was a co-founder of an Orange County incubator; Gazelle Lab. Gottsman has been active in the World Future Society for over 20 years.  He was Chair for the 2003 WFS conference in San Francisco, and was Chair again for the 2005 WFS conference in Chicago.  Gottsman is also Chair of the Silicon Valley Node of the United Nations Millennium Project.    He has an engineering degree from Villanova University, and a Master’s degree in business from George Washington University where he was also ABD for a DBA.

Website:  

top

Tim Mack, CyberFair Judge Name: Tim Mack, United States of America

Position:  For the past 19 years, Tim Mack has edited the oldest and best respected professional journal in the foresight area, Futures Research Quarterly. And in June of 2004, he will assume the Presidency of the World Future Society, which has been the leading organization in the field for 40 years.

Like the field of foresight, Mr. Mack’s background is broad and eclectic. He has been a member of the New York and District of Columbia bars since the 1970s and has served as General Counsel for a number of non-profit groups involved in trend analysis, social dynamics and public policy. After holding research positions at the JF Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the National Academy of Sciences, Tim Mack joined the Budget Policy Task Force at the US General Accounting Office, which serves as the analytical arm of the US Congress.

This academic background allows him to combine public policy analysis with the hands on experience he received working for the next decade as a consultant and lobbyist for associations and civic groups struggling with the issues facing the nations small and larges cities. During this period he wrote for Governing Magazine, published a large number of articles on economic and social trends, and served on a series of high technology start up companies which had developed solutions for pressing environmental and energy problems.

As a change consultant, Tim Mack has assisted the US General Services Agency and the US Dept of Defense in developing strategic planning and change management strategies for such challenges as privatization of public services, superfund clean up and transportation planning. In addition, he has managed global trade issues at the local state federal and even global areas, working with clients in each continent including serving as leading trade trainer for the Institute for Global Chinese Affairs (ranked Number One three years running by the Foreign Experts Bureau in Bejing).

This wide-ranging consulting experience has provided extensive subject area background in such areas as financial services technology, electric power reliability, and civil engineering. Mr. Mack has testified as an expert witness before the White House Conference on Small Business and is presently writing a book on the social and economic impacts of the Internet on modern society.

Website: www.wfs.org

top