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 Trent Professor Honoured by The Learning Partnership with 2009 National Technology Innovation AwardFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Dr. Marco Pollanen to be Presented with Prestigious National Award on Thursday, June 4 in TorontoThursday, May 28, 2009, Peterborough
The award, which recognizes educators from across the country whose innovative approaches, through the use of technology, have contributed to making the learning experience more engaging for students, will be presented to Prof. Pollanen on June 4 as part of the National Technology Innovation Awards Innovation and Learning Conference and Dinnerat the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University in Toronto. “I am grateful just to have been nominated and I feel very honoured to receive this award,” said Prof. Pollanen. “It will encourage me to continue to innovate and explore new ways to keep my students engaged both inside and outside of the classroom.” Prof. Pollanen is being recognized by The Learning Partnership for his work in developing enVision, a freeware program that provides web-based whiteboard-chat capabilities to assist students in the communication of mathematical content. enVision allows Prof. Pollanen to assist his students to produce mathematical expressions for on-line communication. The application also makes it possible to engage many students concurrently. As well, the program relieves math anxiety /phobia because students feel anonymous in their interactions. Through this innovative tool, students can have greater access to their instructors for individual help and greater opportunity for student-student and student-teacher dialogue. enVision is also used as a tool to enhance the completion of on-line assessments and has expanded to other disciplines as well. As a professor in Trent’s Mathematics Department for the last six years, Prof. Pollanen has loved his time teaching at the University. He is constantly impressed with the dedication and quality he sees in his students. With the smaller class sizes at Trent, he sees the benefit of the one-on-one communication within the classroom. At Trent, Prof. Pollanen teaches a range of undergraduate courses, including mathematical finance and introductory calculus. In addition to his undergraduate teaching, he also works with students at the graduate studies level. To recognize the outstanding achievements of educators such as Prof. Pollanen, The Learning Partnership established the Technology Innovation Awards in 2003 for the Greater Toronto Area. In 2004 the Awards were expanded across the province of Ontario and in 2005 nominations were invited from across Canada. Today, the awards celebrate the achievements of educators whose innovative use of technology has been instrumental in building modern, interactive learning environments for students in publicly funded schools (K-12), colleges and universities across Canada. The National Technology Innovation Awards also offer the opportunity for educators across the country to share best practices and provide tips on how to replicate the extraordinary projects in all schools. -30- For more information, please contact: |
Trent University Mathematics professor, Dr. Marco Pollanen is one of eight exceptional educators from across the country to be selected by The Learning Partnership as a winner of the 2009 National Technology Innovation Awards(NTIA).