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.