Technocamps Wins 2022 Best Practices in Education Award
We are delighted to announce Technocamps as the winner of the Informatics Europe 2022 Best Practices in Education Award.
Organised by Informatics Europe and sponsored by Microsoft, the Best Practices in Education Award was presented at a special ceremony on 25 October 2022, during the 18th European Computer Science Summit (ECSS 2022), an in-person event in Hamburg, Germany.
This year we honour the outstanding educational initiative that is dedicated to educate the workforce for the digital transformation. The winning programme, Technocamps, is pan-Wales STEM outreach programme founded and based at Swansea University and with a hub in every single university in Wales, UK. It was established in recognition of the challenges to keep up with advances in digital education faced by the nation's schools, teachers, job seekers and businesses.
Prof. Faron Moller, Director of Technocamps, Professor of Computer Science at Swansea University within the Theoretical Computer Science Group as well as the Founding Head of the Swansea Railway Verification, received the Award on behalf of their programme. During his winning presentation, he mentions, “Wales has a population spread out over a vast region. It has a rugged geography and few fast roads; and its secondary schools have an average catchment area of over 100 sq km. With Technocamps, we've overcome these challenges and established an effective means to engage with and upskill the various communities in Wales. We provide young people with inspirational workshops; their teachers with much-needed professional development; and everyone with opportunities which tackle the social mobility issues that can arise from geographical isolation. We are immensely proud to have our efforts recognised by this prestigious award from Informatics Europe, and hope that other regions in Europe facing similar challenges can benefit from our experiences.”
Prof. Ismael García-Varea (Universidad Castilla-La Mancha, Spain), Chair of this year’s Award Committee congratulates Technocamps for winning this year’s Best Practices in Education Award. He mentions that all the proposals submitted for this year’s Award have received very good evaluations by the members of the Award Committee, but the winner, Technocamps, has been unanimously evaluated in first place.
On behalf of the Award Committee, Prof. Jean-Marc Jézéquel (IRISA/University of Rennes, France), Vice President of Informatics Europe, presented the Award to Technocamps at this year’s award ceremony. Being a member of this year’s Award Committee, he adds, “The Committee is particularly impressed by Technocamps’ efforts in driving the reforming of ICT subject in Wales: a new statutory bilingual Digital Competence Framework (DCF) has been created for all pupils in Wales aged 3 to 16. The Science & Technology Area of Learning and Experience has been developed in the new Curriculum for Wales, and an innovative GCSE and A-Level qualifications in Digital Technology has been created. Technocamps undoubtedly deserves the title ‘Best Practices in Education’.”
The Best Practices in Education Award is sponsored by Microsoft and carries a prize of 5,000 EUR for winner to carry out further work of their project. “Microsoft is continually inspired by the strong nominations received for the Informatics Europe 2022 Best Practices in Education Award. With Technocamps’ mission to foster sustainable digital skills, we hope that the winner’s proposal will encourage organizations and institutions to initiate similar endeavours and support a multidisciplinary approach to lifelong learning and education in informatics”, explains Dr. Evelyne Viegas, Senior Director of Global Research Engagement at Microsoft Research. For more information, visit www.microsoft.com/en-us/research.
About the Best Practices in Education Award
In line with its mission to foster and promote teaching quality in informatics, Informatics Europe annually presents the "Best Practices in Education Award". The 2022 edition was devoted to educating the workforce for the digital transformation. We called for Award nominations of an outstanding European informatics educational initiative that prepares the workforce for the digital transformation in the classroom or beyond, at school or university level, or outside of institutions. Educational initiatives may be technology-based (for example, using instructional technologies, MOOCs, learning analytics, etc.) or pedagogical. Nominations which show experiences in this area, as well as new educational approaches with some evidence of their effectiveness, were also welcomed. To learn more, visit www.informatics-europe.org/education/education-award.html.
About Informatics Europe
Informatics Europe represents the academic and research community in informatics (or computer science) in Europe. Bringing together university departments, research laboratories and industry, Informatics Europe has over 160 member institutions across 33 countries, connecting over 15,000 informatics research in Europe and beyond. Informatics Europe creates a strong voice to promote concerted positions and acts on shared priorities in the areas of education, research, knowledge transfer and social impact of informatics. Explore our website to learn more about our projects and services.