The director:
Suneeta Kulkarni has a background in counseling and child development. With a doctorate in Psychology, she taught for more than 25 years at the university level, as well as engaging in many field projects directly with children, parents and teachers. She became involved in a major way with Sugata Mitra’s work in 2008 when she was Research Manager for the OGEF* project through which the first Indian SOLEs* were set up. Suneeta has been directing the Granny Cloud since before its formal launch in May 2009. She was the Research Director for the duration of the School in the Cloud TED Prize Project from 2013-2016. She has led the initiative with passion and persistence, even through challenging times, demonstrating her powerful belief in the rights of all children to learn. * OGEF = Orient Global Education Fund, SOLE = Self Organised Learning Environment
The core team: The core team formed in 2014, to support Suneeta in processing Granny applicants and helping define policies and procedures.
Jackie Barrow is a retired teacher who started out in Modern Foreign Languages but moved into teaching English as an additional language. This was as part of a city-wide service in Manchester, UK and involved supporting the children, their parents, the teachers and the schools. Integrating refugee and asylum seeking children into schools was an important part of the role. She became a Granny at our launch in May 2009.
Liz Fewings is also a retired teacher and is also one of our original Grannies, joining in May 2009. Among her earlier professional activities, she was a ‘reading recovery’ teacher.
Edna Sackson is the primary school Teaching and Learning Leader at Mount Scopus College in Melbourne, Australia and a workshop leader for the IB Primary Years Program. She blogs about teaching and learning at What Ed Said. Edna has been involved in the Granny Cloud since late 2009.
Clive Elsmore is an electronics design engineer at a nuclear fusion research facility near Oxford, UK. He was introduced to the Granny Cloud by Edna whom he met online while volunteering as a teacher in Asia, 2008-2011. He joined the team in 2012, originally helping with technical aspects.
Melanie Harvey is a retired teacher who spent most of her working life in Early Years Education. She joined the Granny Cloud in 2015 and since then has been able to visit three of our centres. Loves travel, theatre, dance and ballet, reading and gardening, but especially being a Cloud Granny!
Lesley Keast is based in Madrid, Spain, where she works in teacher education and teaches primary-aged children. She joined the Granny Cloud in 2014, shortly followed by her first trip to India.