The Australian Council for Computing in Education (ACCE) in conjunction with the Australian Computer Society (ACS) is pleased to announce that Eleni Kyritsis, of Firbank College Melbourne, has been judged as Educator of the Year.

Eleni is an enthusiastic and passionate educator who is currently teaching Year 6 who provides students with engaging and effective opportunities to learn through the authentic incorporation of technology in her classroom.

She was nominated for this award by Digital Learning and Teaching Victoria whose president, Mel Cashen commented:

“Eleni’s belief in the need to create a flexible and connected classroom is lived daily through the use of her personal blog, her Year 6 class blog, Twitter, Google Hangouts and Skype. In addition, she is an active advocate for the use of technology both within her school, and in the global community. She is constantly exploring new ideas that will assist teachers to integrate technology across all facets of the curriculum and to enable their students to share their learning locally and internationally.“

Eleni also leads professional learning days for schools across Victoria, Australia and New Zealand. She has taken on the role of mentor for the Google Certified Innovator program, inspiring and coaching her mentee to develop a project to impact positive change within education, and works at Australian Catholic University as a Tutor to empower pre-service teachers to be active, globally connected teachers when graduated.

“Eleni has presented at a broad variety of conferences as well as presenting and supporting teachers in various schools through both professional learning sessions and her regular planning, organisation and presentations on her monthly TeachTechPlay webshow.” said Martin Levins, President of ACCE, “She regularly writes articles for the Australian Council for Educational Leadership, Education Today, and other technology magazines around Australia.”

The award of Educator of the Year carries a $2 000 prize, kindly sponsored by the Australian Computer Society is to be used to further the awardee’s professional learning.