The U21 Awards recognise individual or team efforts in a U21 university, particularly the development of innovative or extraordinary projects within international Higher Education. The Awards celebrate the work of individuals who demonstrate a true global vision in higher education, who have furthered effective international opportunities for students and staff, and / or improved collaboration within the university and with external partners.
Following a shortlisting and judging process led by U21 Senior Leaders, two winners have been selected. Congratulations to U21 Award Winners, Professor Ricardo Rosas, UC Chile and The Global Classroom Team, Tecnológico de Monterrey.
Professor Ricardo Rosas is a professor at School of Psychology, UC Chile and Director of the Centre for the development of Inclusive Technologies, CEDETi-UC. Since the creation of the Centre for the development of inclusive technologies in 2007, Prof Rosas and his team have created many open access and accessible technologies for supporting the initial literacy of children with special educational needs. One of the most important technologies is SUEÑALETRAS, a software designed to support the initial literacy of deaf children. The software obtained the prestigious WISE award in 2011, has been adapted and translated to 11 different sign language communities. Professor Rosas has also been instrumental in the developing of Spanish language versions of educational video games and tablet-based tests to support and measure the phonological awareness of children. Due to their playful activities and technological platform, the test is an innovation that attracted the attention of scholars from 8 universities in the USA, Argentina, Uruguay, England, Germany, Norway, Hungary, and Australia.
"This award confirms to us the importance of building genuinely cooperative relationships with universities around the world that promote the welfare of our main users, people with disabilities. And in this way, facilitate greater access to higher education for people with disabilities." - Professor Ricardo Rosas, UC Chile
Global Shared Learning Classroom or Global Classroom is an international experience from the Vice Rectory for International Affairs at Tecnológico de Monterrey under the Global Shared Learning (GSL) initiative. Through this initiative, Tec de Monterrey courses are linked with one or more courses from an international university, using technological tools to connect students, foster collaboration and facilitate learning in intercultural environments.
The GSL Classroom model is based on COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning). COIL combines the four essential dimensions of virtual mobility: it is an exercise in collaboration between teachers and students; makes use of technology and online interaction; it has potential international dimensions and is integrated into the learning process. One of the distinguished elements of the GSL Classroom is the accompaniment model. The coordinators provide full guidance to Tecnológico de Monterrey faculty that goes from the training and support with international partners search, to recommendations for the design of activities and the use of technological tools that enables the achievement of the goals set for the collaboration.
"Our mission is to generate experiences of internationalization at home with meaningful learning, linking the student to an intercultural, collaborative, and knowledge-integrating environment; promoting global learning by addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and exposing students to real problems in an international context.
This initiative also enables the internationalization of our professors beyond the classroom through professional development, research and publication opportunities with their international colleagues.
Through GSL Classroom, we have benefited 9,467 undergraduate students from Tec de Monterrey and from 124 partner universities in 31 countries." - Global Classrooms Team
Congratulations to all those individuals and teams who were nominated for the U21 Awards for their contribution to the internationalisation of Higher Education.
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- Amber Bartlett