Classroom of the Future Foundation Hosts 350 at Education Innovation Awards

5.26.2006 -- The Classroom of the Future Foundation (CFF), a key education partner of the UCSD division of Calit2, hosted their eighth annual education innovation awards ceremony at Calit2@UCSD last night. CFF presented awards to four projects and high-tech scholarships to 17 students in addition to recognizing key contributors to the success of their foundation.

Abel Salgado, "Dell Scholar" winner from Point Loma High School.	Christopher D. Peterson, scholarship winner from University City High School.

The program, led by master of ceremonies Todd Gutschow, chair of CFF, featured a keynote presentation by UCSD Sixth College provost Gabriele Wienhausen and demonstrations of Calit2’s signature super-high-definition, immersive 3-D, and tiled-wall visualization technologies.

Francine Busby, democratic candidate for Congress; Nick Aguilera, member of the SD County Office of Education; and Bruce Braciszewski, executive director of CFF.

Todd Gutschow, master of ceremonies (on display screen) and chair, CFF.

The title sponsor for the evening was Biogen Idec, whose representative David Parkinson said that, “CFF does the kind of things that change people’s lives, the kind of things that show up in places like where I work. We’re here to support this effort, and I look forward to further interactions.” Biogen Idec is among an impressive list of nearly 30 organizations that support CFF.

Keynote speaker Gabriele Wienhausen. Tom Dillon, member of CFF board of directors, and Duane Roth, Calit2 Advisory Board member. Calit2 associate director Bill Hodgkiss with manager of strategic alliances  Laura Wolszon at Calit2 table. Calit2 venue for the event.

The keynote presentation described an unusual partnership among Sixth College, Calit2, the Jacobs School of Engineering, and CFF focused on the California State Summer School in Mathematics and Science (COSMOS) project. COSMOS, a rigorous, four-week residential program for especially motivated high school students begun at UCSD last summer, offers short courses to introduce students on subjects not traditionally offered in high school.

This partnership, said Wienhausen, is based on a core set of shared values: Embracing the future without fear, belief in technology as an aid and problem solver, willingness to take risks, and faith in interdisciplinary approaches. This partnership works because the participants contribute a range of respected talents, they understand their respective roles in the pipeline, they continue to enhance their skills by learning from each other, and they see the practical results of their commitment.

CFF presented the following awards:

• Impact: To Barbara Barnes, Fallbrook Elementary School District – San Onofre School, recognizing a website enabling students to communicate with parents in the military deployed around the world.

• Inspire: To Lynne Harvey, Poway Unified School District, Rolling Hills Elementary, recognizing a project monitoring a pair of nesting Peregrine falcons that enables students to collect data, conduct research, make predictions based on observations, and document findings online.

• Innovate: To Emily Disney, Del Mar Union School District, Sycamore Ridge Elementary School, recognizing a pioneering use of podcasting to enable students to learn about ancient African culture.

• Achieve: To Christopher Oram, National School District, recognizing the use of an instructional software program with implementation of a data warehouse to support student learning in language arts and mathematics.

The CFF partners business with the Regional Technology Center to provide equity of access to learning technologies that improve teacher and student achievement in San Diego County schools. Its motto is “inspire.innovate.achieve.”

Article by Stephanie Sides; photos by Barbara Haynor and Sides.

Related Links

Classroom of the Future: http://www.classroomofthefuture.org/