Koen Timmers

is a Belgian researcher, lecturer, and author. In 2018 he was announced as one of the best teachers globally by Bill Gates as part of the Global Teacher Prize. Koen is Executive Director of TAG inc., and is lecturer and researcher at the Teacher Training department at PXL university college Hasselt. Koen holds a master’s degree in Technology Enhanced Learning, Innovation and Change (Sheffield, 2014). In 2015 he launched the Kakuma project in which 400 educators across 6 continents offer free education to African refugees via Skype. In 2020 he built his own 2 schools in the camp in partnership with UN Refugees Agency. He also launched several global educational projects focusing on several UN Sustainable Development Goals including the Climate Action Project involving 100,000 schools over 90 countries which were supported by the Dalai Lama, Charlize Theron, UNESCO, WWF, NASA, A Align Leftmnesty International, Greenpeace, scientists, National Geographic, etc. These projects were covered by (national) media across 45 countries.

Koen developed Innovation Lab schools in Tanzania, Kenya, Palestine and in collaboration with several organizations including Dr. Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots. The labs aim to offer a free quality education to hundreds of thousands students. This project involves a new curriculum  focusing on the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Koen is a Microsoft Expert Educator Fellow, winner of the HundrED award, National Geographic Certified Educator and TeachSDGs founding ambassador.

He’s co-author of the book “Teaching in the Fourth Industrial Revolution” which is available at Amazon.

Koen spoke about Technology Enhanced Learning in Washington, Beijing, Paris, Moscow, Vienna, Dubai, London, Abu Dhabi, Amsterdam, and at the the European Parliament and European Commission.

He developed several educational apps and founded his own online school Zelfstudie.com currently having 20,000 online students.