Background information
The Marshall McLuhan Center on Global Communications is
a non profit benefit corporation (501)(c)(3) dedicated to honouring
teachers who are outstanding in engaging students K-12 in a technology
rich environment and at the same time to honour the memory of the
late Marshall McLuhan, emminent
international scholar, social critic, futurist and teacher. To date,
the Marshall McLuhan Center on Global Communications has recognized
425 teachers who best use information technology in the teaching-learning
environment. The program was piloted with great success in Los Angeles
in in 1984, and in San Francisco and San Diego in 1985 through 1987.
At the request of then Prime Minister of
Canada Brian Mulroney, the program was brought to Canada in
1986 to honour and publically salute K through 12 teachers across
all ten provinces and territories.
In August, 1995, the Marshall McLuhan Center on Global Communications
moved it's head quarters to San Francisco.
The Marshall McLuhan Center on Global Communications will be launching
it's first teacher recognition program in the San Francisco Bay
Area beginning with the greater Silicon Valley. Plans are underway
to introduce the first Silicon Valley "Marshall McLuhan Distinguished
Teachers Awards" program in March, 1997. Applications to the
teachers will be dissiminated to the schools across Santa Clara
and Mateo counties in December, 1997.
The purpose of the Marshall McLuhan Center is to promote understanding
and progress amongst all people of the world through the communication
of knowledge by advancing the effective use of technology to support
learning and professional development.
The mission statement of the Center is to shape
the development of advanced technology applications to support the
systemic transformation of the education system and to develop advanced
interactive multimedia environments that facilitate learning in
school, at home and at work.
The inspiration of the "Marshall McLuhan distinguished TeachersPrize"
program came from Advisory Board Member, Walter Cronkite, and was
developed and implemented by Mary McLuhan and the Honourable Shirley
M. Hufstedler in Los Angeles in 1982. Mrs. Hufstedler, Esq., former
U.S. Secretary of Education under President Carter, has been a member
of the McLuhan Board of Advisors since 1982.
Mary McLuhan, the founder and chairman
of the Marshall McLuhan Center on Global Communications is a former
member of the California State Board of Education. She has been
chairman of the Marshall McLuhan Center on Global Communications
since it's inception as a nonprofit public benefit corporation in
the State of California in 1981.
One of the most important responsibilities of the Marshall McLuhan
Center on Global Communications is to promote the use of communications
technologies in the teaching-learning environment. As the world
of communications undergo revolutionary changes, our children need
the guidance of excellent teachers to help them prepare for the
for the challenges of the "Information Age." Marshall
Mcluhan, best known as a critic and theorist, was also a renowned
teacher and visionary who encouraged independance of mind and creativity
of thought in his students. To this end the Marshall McLuhan Center
on Global Communications has rewarded 475 teachers in their pursuit
of of innovative applications of communications technologies in
the teaching learning environment. The presentation of the "Marshall
McLuhan Distinguished Teachers Prize" program offers an occasion
to acknowledge the precedent-setting work of dedicated teachers
throughout the world and to encourage others towards similar achivements.
The Marshall McLuhan Center will expand the "Marshall McLuhan
Distinguished Teachers Awards" program and the McLuhan Forum
into other countries in the next several years ... thereby creating
a "Global Village of Teaching Excellence."
See The Future: THE GLOBAL VILLAGE
Mary Corinne McLuhan
The Marshall McLuhan Center on Global Communications is a charitable
public benefit corporation registered in the State of California
1981.
| 