Teachers from across sub-Saharan Africa gathered in Mauritius recently for this year's Pan-African Innovative Teachers Forum (ITF) awards.

Now in its fourth year, the ITF is an annual event that brings together a community of teachers who enhance their teaching and learning through the use of technology.

More than 40 teachers from 12 countries across Africa, who competed in and won their local event, were invited to represent their school and country in the Pan-African awards in Port Louis.

The teachers' projects range from eradicating malaria, to teaching the elderly community blogging skills and enhancing geography lessons by using information and communication technology (ICT). All demonstrate how ICT can be used effectively and creatively to better engage with students.

Speaking at the award event, Dr Vasant Kumar Bunwaree, minister of Education, Culture and Human Resources in Mauritius, said actions spoke louder than words.

"These awards indicate that technology companies such as Microsoft are committed to empowering Africa and driving education, which is the key to helping Africa unlock its future prosperity," he said.

Dr Cheick Modibo Diarra, Microsoft's chairman for Africa, said, "Technology in the classroom can transform the way educators teach and students learn. It... can extend the walls of the classroom to the furthest corners of the world."

"The Microsoft Innovative Teachers programme... (enables) creativity, (encourages) teamwork and (engages) students. (It) connects enthusiastic teachers to the resources and people who support their teaching goals."

All projects were evaluated by independent judges in the following three categories: Innovation in Community; Innovation in Collaboration and Innovation in Content.

All the silver award winners were South Africans, and Cheryl Douglas of Cape Town won a gold and Nicci Hayes of Grahamstown a bronze.

Douglas, of Bishops High School, won the Innovation in Collaboration category, with her Teaching for the Future project, which uses ICT to encourage learners to be aware of global issues with an emphasis on sustainability.

This ongoing project increases awareness of global issues in the classroom through the creation of an extramural global issues network group.

Fiona Beal of Fish Hoek Primary won silver in the Innovation in Community category for her Bonding through Blogging project, in which Grade 4 and 5 pupils found that blogging and Web2 opens the door to new exciting relationships and enriched learning experiences.

They connected with the local elderly community - teaching them how to blog - as well as with classrooms around the globe, in collaborative writing projects.

Frans Kalp of the Ligbron Academy of Technology in Ermelo, Mpumalanga won silver in the Innovation in Collaboration category for his Teaching and Learning from a Distance project, which shares mathematics and science lessons with rural, disadvantaged and under-performing schools by using video conferencing and desktop sharing.

Experienced teachers share their lessons during school hours and teachers and learners of the connected schools can work on the same lesson from their own classrooms. All the connected schools are in a radius of 50km from Ligbron Academy.

Rae Gagiano of Eunice High School in Bloemfontein, Free State won silver in the Innovation in Content category for her Anywhere Art - Bringing Art Wherever You Are project.

The aim of the project is to introduce learners to visual literacy through a diverse range of visual images by means of a virtual reality art museum.

Learners work in groups to investigate art through interviews, studio visits, Skype, Web pages and the internet. The museum will be accessible for teachers and pupils via Thutong or the distribution of CDs.

Nicci Hayes of Victoria Girls' High School in Grahamstown walked away with a bronze award in the Innovation in Community category for her Lights, Camera, Action! project.

In this dramatic arts project, pupils made short videos for organisations that serve the community. Pupils were required to find "clients" who needed videos, then film and edit the videos for them. Some videos were calls for help, while others were to raise public awareness.

The ITF is part of the Microsoft Innovative Teachers programme - a key component of Microsoft's Partners in Learning (PiL) efforts. Microsoft PiL is a global initiative designed to actively increase access to technology and improve its use in learning.

The goal is to help schools gain better access to technology, foster innovative approaches to education and professional teacher development, and provide education leaders with the tools to visualise, implement and manage change.

Michel Cordani, Microsoft Country Manager in the Indian Ocean Islands, said: "Technology can help solve many of the most critical macro problems in education. It can help to make lessons more interesting and engaging, solve the challenge of low student enrolment and even teacher shortages."

Diarra congratulated the teachers and wished the winners luck as they go on to participate at the worldwide ITF in Brazil in November.