medea awards

French entry 'Quand la colère fait tomber les masques' by is the winner of the MEDEA Professional Production Award and the entry And the Oscar goes to ... is the winner of the MEDEA User-Generated Award, a collaboration between two classes from 5th Primary school of Alexandroupolis in Greece and Ecole Primaire de Rolampont in France. This announcement was made during the MEDEA Awards Ceremony which took place on 14 November 2012 as part of the Media & Learning Conference in the Flemish Ministry of Education and Training headquarters in Brussels.

Speaking at the awards, Mathy Vanbuel, Chairperson of the MEDEA Awards Committee, highlighted the fact that both winners have a really strong narrative element which highlights the importance of storytelling for learning. “Narration is increasingly used to capture interest in the learning context, it is a way to keep learners motivated, to encourage them to press forward and to take a real interest in what is going on through their concern for what is happening to the characters in the stories that we tell. Everyone loves a good story, and nowhere is this more evident than in the MEDEA Awards this year.”

This year the Special Prize for European Collaboration was awarded to Historiana - Your Portal to the Past by EUROCLIO - European Association of History Educators, The Netherlands. The prize for Educational Media Encouraging Active Ageing, set up to coincide with the European Year of Active Aging and Solidarity between Generations was won by All that Jazz made by Fundación Universidad Carlos III, Spain.

Two additional prizes were awarded: the first, the Special Jury Prize was given to Flying Start made by the University of Leeds, UK. The second, winner of the audience favourite prize, was won by Schoolovision made by schools all over Europe. The other finalists who took part in the MEDEA Awards last night were: Il Girotondo del Tempo made by Hyperfilm srl, Italy; Moving Image Techniques by Christina dePian, Greece; and SignMedia by the University of Wolverhampton, UK.

This year the competition attracted 213 entries from 32 countries. In addition to the finalists, the Organising Committee also announced 15 entries that are Highly Commended. 

Find out more about these winners, finalists as well as the 15 Highly Commended in the press release (PDF) and don't forget: the closing date for receipt of entries for MEDEA 2013 is 30 September 2013.

The MEDEA Awards aim to encourage innovation and good practice in the use of media (audio, video, graphics and animation) in education. The awards also recognise and promote excellence in the production and pedagogical design of media-rich learning resources.
In recent years there has been remarkable interest in the creation and use of digital video and audio in education, boosted by the increasing impact of multimedia and video based websites and applications on the internet and mobile devices. The pedagogical vision is clear: it is only when video and audio are routine components of education and online learning, that we will have an educational environment that reflects the media-rich world in which our learners now live.
Entries need to be submitted via the online submission form and sent to arrive at the MEDEA Secretariat via post, e-mail or fax before the closing date: 17 September 2012 (midnight). All finalists will be notified in the beginning of November and will be invited to take part in the awards ceremony taking place during the Media & Learning Conference 2012, where the final winners will be announced.

 

A series of five online discussions have been launched in the conference community which is open to all. They are: What is the best business model for a learning game? What are the implications of social networking on media and learning? What impact does the move from a literacy culture to a media culture have on learning? What is the best way to create sustainable, media-rich learning repositories? And can media make a difference in supporting early and special needs education? These discussions will continue live during the conference itself, taking place on 24-25 November. You can join in here.

Confirmed keynote speakers for the Media & Learning Conference are Pascal Smet, Flemish Minister for Education and Training, Constantijn Van Oranje, Cabinet member and senior advisor of European Vice-President Neelie Kroes, Peter Adriaenssens, Belgian child psychiatrist, Conor Galvin, researcher from UCD in Ireland, Richard Harper, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK, Nikos Theodosakis, Canadian author of “The Director in the Classroom: How Filmmaking Inspires Learning", Pere Arcas, Head of the department of learning programmes and projects at Television of Catalonia in Spain, Lizbeth Goodman, Director and Founder of the SMARTlab Digital Media, Donald Clark, e-learning advisor and Dom Elliott, from YouTube EDU.

The programme includes screening sessions showing excellent uses of media to support teaching and learning, practical workshops fostering hands-on learning experiences, high level presentations and a wealth of opportunities to exchange, learn, interact and network. During the conference we also provide the Pigeon SMS messaging service which enables participants contact one another easily without revealing their own mobile number.

They also plan on having fun and invite participants to try out different devices in the conference Play Area where you can enjoy a cup of coffee and socialise at any time.

The MEDEA Awards Ceremony will be a highlight of the programme and takes place on Thursday 24 November beginning at 18.15. 9 finalists from all over Europe are competing to win one of the two MEDEA Statuettes this year, you can see who they are for yourself and decide who you think should win. This is an open event, if you would like to come, just let us know.

Follow what is happening in the lead-up to the conference on our Facebook and LinkedIn groups. Register for the conference here.