In the Spotlight

The first 2012 issue of Media & Learning News has just been published and in it you can read articles such as 'Media Literacy – a View from the US', 'Belfedar, a fun way to learn to cooperate and manage conflict', and a feature article about the Merchant of Venice, one of the MEDEA Awards 2011 winners, on which you can read more in 'Having fun and learning accountancy at the same time'.

Other highlights include a 'New initiative on Lecture Recording', Tools of the Trade:  Animation, what software or tools to use…', the 'New Voices in Media Education event in London' and 'Commonwealth film competition about relationships'. As always, you will find plenty of other news, notifications and announcements related to the use of media in education and training in this issue.

People from 13 organisations in 12 countries got together in Dublin this week for the launch of a new project in science teaching. SAILS (Strategies for Assessment of Inquiry Learning in Science) is all about putting in place assessment strategies to support inquiry based science education in Europe at second level (students aged 12-18) and is a key development in the enhancement of innovative STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) teaching.

Speaking at the launch of the SAILS project, Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn, spoke about the importance of innovation in this area and praised Dublin City University for taking this initiative. SAILS is a 4 year support action funded under FP7, ATiT are partners in this project with responsibility for dissemination. Initial information about SAILS is available from the project website.