 | Award winner, Ray Stace (centre), is pictured with Dean of the Facult... Award winner, Ray Stace (centre), is pictured with Dean of the Faculty of Education, Professor Paul Chandler (right), and Associate Professor Garry Hoban |
CEDIR academic awarded for outstanding achievement
2 Aug 2007 | Renee Criddle
Mr Ray Stace has received one of the education sector’s most prestigious awards – an Australian College of Educators Award for Outstanding Achievement in Education.
The Manager of Educational Systems Development at the University of Wollongong's Centre for Educational Development and Interactive Resources (CEDIR) was officially recognised at a ceremony held in Wollongong last week, where he was joined by the Dean, Professor Paul Chandler and Associate Professor Garry Hoban.
The award (which is co-sponsored by the Faculty of Education) is given annually to educators working in primary or secondary schools, TAFE, colleges or universities and recognises a commitment to high-quality teaching and excellence over the course of a career. A select few UOW academics have received the award in the past.
The selection process involves each teacher being nominated and then submitting a portfolio and undergoing a rigorous investigation by the award team that visits that teacher’s classroom and interviews parents, students and colleagues.
Mr Stace has been an educator for 35 years, having begun as a primary school teacher in 1972. Since 1986, he has been working at UOW, initially to educate staff in the use of computers as they switched from typewriters to desktop computers.
For the past 18 years, Mr Stace has been assisting academic teaching staff with the design and development of computer-based resources for their teaching. Over those years, he has assisted in the design and development of hundreds of such resources.
Mr Stace was nominated by Honorary Fellow at UOW, Dr Brian McCarthy, who worked with him for more than 15 years.
“I was only one of many colleagues who have benefited from the experience of collaborating with Ray, as well as all the students whose learning experience has been conspicuously enriched by the outcomes of that collaboration,” he said.
“Ray's support in the development of Computer Aided Language Learning materials has been genuine and constant, and has been motivated by a profound dedication on his part to helping a strongly motivated teacher-academic to produce a comprehensive set of computer-based foreign language instruction materials. That teacher, in the process, received a Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching.”
“His integrity is exemplary. He has an enviable breadth of experience, extraordinary foresight, and keeps abreast of developments in his field. He works behind the scenes capably, quietly and modestly. Yet without his ongoing commitment, support, and endlessly patient explanations, the projects would not have got off the ground, and they certainly would not have enjoyed their remarkable longevity.”
Mr Stace said he was honoured and humbled to receive the award.
“It is a wonderful recognition and acknowledgement by my peers of my contribution to education,” he said.
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