The Claroline Project - The Claroline Consortium (represented by the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium) provides an open-source platform to 900 institutions in 84 countries and in 35 languages. Claroline is a catalyst for the effective delivery of interactive and learner-centred instruction. It is a model of a global network and community that includes learners, teachers and developers. With the continuous addition of new tools and functions from participating schools and institutions around the world, it provides a robust, open-source learning management system that is easily adapted and customized to meet the needs of educational institutions in different countries. Two thousand online courses are available for open sharing through the network.

Curriki: The Global Education and Learning Community – Dr Barbara Kurshan (United States of America). “Curriki” combines the notion of curriculum with the concept of wiki, a collaborative website whose content can be edited by all users. Curriki, a global education and learning community, was created by Sun Microsystems in 2004 but has since become a non-profit organization. It is a comprehensive internet portal, tool set and user service designed to develop, aggregate, evaluate and support the best open source curricula, catering for the requirements of all age groups and all learning interests. Curriki has established a vibrant virtual community of teachers, learners, parents, ministries of education, schools, as well as public and private organizations. It has a comprehensive online, open and collaborative repository of educational resources that enables learners, teachers and parents to add content to existing curricula. Curriki’s 5,000 learning objects in many languages are used regularly by 30,000 people.

The Director-General of UNESCO will present the prize - a diploma and US$25,000 each - to the two laureates in a ceremony at Organization Headquarters on 19 December. The laureates were chosen from among 68 projects from 51 [*] countries and one international nongovernmental organization focusing on the theme of open access to education. The Prize is placed under the high patronage of HM King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa of the Kingdom of Bahrein.

Honourable mentions will also be given to Sésamath Project - Association Sésamath, France and to Enciclomedia - Instituto Latinoamericano de la Comunicación Educativa (Mexico):

Sésamath is a comprehensive mathematics curriculum developed by a community of experts, designers and close to 300 mathematics teachers. It is honoured for the high quality of its materials and for its proven ability to reach a large public of students and teachers.

Enciclomedia is a basic easy-to-use platform installed in 145,000 classrooms in state primary schools in Mexico, including the most remote and poor areas, as well as in 13 other Latin America countries. It enriches curricula by providing digital multimedia resources such as images, maps, virtual visits, video, audio, music, animations, and interactive learning activities. The platform has helped train 120,000 teachers in the use of ICTs in just two years.

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* Albania, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gambia, Germany, Honduras, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Paraguay, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tajikistan, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, USA and 1 International NGO (International Literacy Institute)