Education Portal of the Americas
April/May, 2006
Original source: http://www.educoas.org/portal/en/tema/2006/abr06.aspx

INELAM Awards 2006

The 2006 INELAM prizes will be awarded during the VII International Event on Education, Professional Training and Information Technologies, Virtual Educa 2006, to be held in Bilbao, Spain (or in special ceremonies of the countries of origin of the various winners). As in previous years, the Jury of the Award for Educational Innovation in the Americas (INELAM) met during the months of March and April to study the nominees for the categories: Inter-American Informatics, Educational Quality, Social Responsibility and Corporate Social Responsibility. The INELAM Prize, as well as its special categories, recognizes achievements in the field of socio-educational development through the use of ICTs. The results are as follows:

INELAM 2006 will be awarded to Educar Chile for its drive to improve education and for its contribution to the integration and regional coverage of the Americas. The Jury also agreed to bestow a special prize to Puertos del Estado (Spain) for its contribution to the development of competencies of the public ports system in Ibero-America.

In the field of Inter-American Informatics, the prizes this year will be awarded toAlejandro Pisanty Baruch (Mexico) and Edward S. Angel (USA). This category recognizes research, communication or exchange of experiences in the field of ICTs as applied to the training and development of human capital.

In the category of Social Responsibility, the winners are FUSAT and the Centros Comunitarios de Aprendizaje (CCA). This award recognizes projects that, through the use of ICTs, contribute to finding solutions to the socio-educational problems affecting the development of human potential.

For Corporate Social Responsibility, the prize will be awarded to Instituto Sangari and SubeConnects. The Award recognizes projects sponsored by public, private or other businesses that use ICTs to develop and promote human resources development.

The Award for Educational Quality will be given to Miguel Casas Armengol and to the Spanish Group of Foreign Languages and Literature of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This category recognizes contributions to socio-educational and cultural development and to advance knowledge.

The distinction is awarded to SubeConnects (http://www.subeconnects.org), directed by Agnes Chavez, for its project “Digital Storytelling: Empowerment through Personal Expression" as a teaching strategy to facilitate communication and exchange, as well as to revive the traditions, practices and customs of storytelling. Through elements such as photographs and musical pieces and the spoken word, the computer can be used to create a unique piece to resurrect thoughts and traditions from the past. Rather than having professionals narrate history, digital stories allow “common folk” to retell their own stories. Each digital story lasts 3-4 minutes and can be seen on the computer, television or any other type of screen.