STAFF NEWS

COL Vice President Professor Asha Kanwar has been awarded the Individual Prize for Excellence from the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE). The prize, which recognises attainment of the highest possible excellence in the fields of open, distance, virtual and flexible learning. was presented at the ICDE’s World Conference in Maastricht, The Netherlands on 9 June 2009. Prof. Kanwar was saluted for her work for the cause of open and distance education, as well as her significant contributions to gender studies.

www.col.org/akanwar

Ms. Rebecca Kinakin has joined COL as Project Manager, Child-Friendly Schools, an initiative between COL and UNICEF involving ten countries in Africa and Asia. She is co-ordinating the development of training materials and teacher training workshops to support the mainstreaming of Child-Friendly Schools into teacher education programmes. Ms. Kinakin has worked with several non-governmental/non-profit organisations including the David Suzuki Foundation, Oxfam America and the World Wide Fund for Nature. Most recently, she spent five years in Cambodia where she co-ordinated and advised on projects involving community-based natural resource management, capacity building and networking, and participatory action research.

www.col.org/rkinakin

Dr. Wayne Mackintosh, most recently COL’s Education Specialist, eLearning and ICT Policy, has been appointed Founding Director of the International Centre for Open Education at Otago Polytechnic in New Zealand. See “Wiki-Educator goes independent” on page 2.

www.col.org/wmackintosh

Mr. Paul West, COL’s Director, Knowledge Management and Information Technology, was the mace bearer at the Commonwealth Day observance in March 2009 that celebrated 60 years of the Commonwealth. As COL’s nominee for this honour, Mr. West preceded Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth into Westminster Abbey.