Johannesburg, 4 May 2015 – Four educators from South Africa joined 300 Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Experts and Student Ambassadors from around the world at Microsoft’s E2 Global Educator Exchange event. The event took place from April 29 to May 1 in Redmond, Washington (USA) at Microsoft’s headquarter. The educators were selected from amongst the most innovative in the world to attend the event, collaborate, create and share experiences with their peers on how to integrate technology and education in ways that improve learning outcomes and equip students for the world of work.
Awarded Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert status in 2014, educators Mabore Lekalakala, Linda Foulkes, Warren Sparrow and Mokhudu Machaba were selected because of their ability to employ technology effectively within the classroom in order to help students develop all-important 21st century skills. These educators demonstrated excellence in creating and leading transformational learning environments.
Mabore Lekalakala’s learning area of expertise is Computer Adventures; to discover Mathematics where she encourages learners not only to practise created content but to construct their own contextualised games, songs, flashcards, PowerPoint presentations, while learning and reinforcing concepts in mathematics and other subjects.
Warren Sparrow’s area of expertise titled ‘HIV Busters’ empowers students to gain a better understanding of the moral and community implications of HIV and AIDS, while substantially advancing their understanding of multimedia and video production. Using their own mobile technology the students created movies about various topics about HIV and Aids that is uploaded to a website that allows other schools to use this as a resource for teaching and learning.
“Our MIE Experts worldwide are transforming the learning environment in truly pioneering ways, and the E2 Global Educator Exchange event gives them the chance to share these experiences amongst their peers and work together to solve the challenges faced,” said Anthony Salcito, vice president, Worldwide Education, Microsoft Corp. “Hosting E2at our campus in Redmond means we can hear their innovative ideas and bring them back into Microsoft, ensuring that we support this transformation and work together to adapt learning to equip students for tomorrow’s workforce.”
As part of the event, MIE Experts will participate in the Global Educator challenge, where they will be divided into groups with peers from different parts of the world to design a project around the use of Microsoft technologies within the specific theme of Bravery, Courage, and Leadership. The E2 Global Educator Exchange event is part of the Microsoft in Education initiative that offers a range of professional development programs to bridge the gap between technology skills and innovative teaching. These programs reach beyond traditional software training to provide a scaffold that supports educators and school leaders of all skill levels on their learning journey. Through these programs, Microsoft trained more than 10 million educators and reached more than 200 million students since 2003 worldwide.
