competition

The closing date for the MEDEA awards is coming up soon and so we invite all producers of media resources to submit their entries by 31 July. Entry to the MEDEA Awards is free!

This year there are two main MEDEA Awards, the MEDEA Overall Award and the European Collaboration Award. The European Collaboration Award recognizes excellent media-based productions and projects that come about as a result of European cross-border collaboration. This year the organisers are making a distinction between professional and non-professional producers, awarding the best entry in each category.

You can submit your entry in French, English or German and once your entry is completed, you can then follow its progress online. Find out more from the MEDEA Awards website.

The MEDEA Awards 2010 have been launched with the publication of a brand new website which features samples and stories from winning entries in 2008 and 2009.

Online submissions are welcome up to the closing date for receipt of entries which is 31 July 2010. This European awards scheme recognises, rewards and encourages excellent use of media in education and attracts entries from all education and training sectors. Last year more than 250 entries were submitted and they included cartoons, videos, media repositories and animations.

The overall winner of the MEDEA Awards 2009 was announced by Maruja Gutierrez-Diaz, Advisor to the Director of the Lifelong Learning Programme, European Commission on 4 December during a well attended reception in Berlin.

It is Know IT All for Primary by Childnet International (UK), which was represented at the prize-giving ceremony by Lucinda Fell, Policy and Communications Manager, who graciously accepted the bronze MEDEA statuette as well as hardware and software sponsored by Avid and Adobe. In addition to the overall winner, the MEDEA Award for Creativity and Innovation 2009 was won by Daisy and Drago by Terakki Foundation Schools (Turkey) represented at the awards by Özge Karaoğlu.

Traditions Across Europe by Istituto Comprensivo “Don Bosco” (Italy), represented at the awards by Gina Mango won the MEDEA European Collaboration Award 2009 and a special jury prize was given to Eyes on the Skies by European Southern Observatory (ESO) (Germany) in recognition for what the judges described as “a superb example of the value high quality video imagery can bring to an educational production”. For more information visit the MEDEA web site

Entries to the annual MEDEA Awards have been arriving daily to the MEDEA Secretariat in recent weeks and more than 250 were received by the competition deadline of 30th September. The highest number of entries have been submitted by French organisations with organisations in Italy, UK and Germany also submitting a significant number. Judging will begin in mid-October and the organisers hope to have a list of finalists available at the beginning of November.

The MEDEA channel has been launched on YouTube where you can see interviews with previous entrants including several 2008 winners as well as samples of entries from 2008.

Interviews cover topics like how the specific example of educational multimedia was made, how it was used and the equipment and skills required. Subscribe to the channel to be kept up-to-date with new additions.

The closing date for 2009 entries is 30 September 2009, find out more about this competition from the MEDEA web site.

The number of organisations supporting the promotion of the MEDEA Awards for 2009 is growing, and MEDEA now has contact points in almost 20 European countries. Recent organisations to join include Masaryk University Brno in the Czech Republic, the Estonian e-Learning Development Centre, Webstroom in The Netherlands and CSP - Innovazione nelle ICT in Italy. To see the full list, check out the list of partners on the MEDEA web site.

The MEDEA Secretariat now has A2 size posters as well as leaflets for promoting the 2009 Awards and can provide them to anyone interested in helping to spread information about MEDEA. These are available in French, German or English and are part of the current promotional work being undertaken by the MEDEA team.

The network of MEDEA National Contact Points is also growing and there are now partners active in 15 European countries, partners willing to promote MEDEA are still being recruited, so if you are interested, please contact the MEDEA Secretariat.

To find out more about the Awards and how to enter, visit the MEDEA web site. Participation in this competition is for free and the closing date is 30th September!

The call for entries to the MEDEA Awards 2009 is now open with the launch of the new MEDEA Awards web site. Two new awards have been added to the annual MEDEA Awards for 2009, the MEDEA Award for Creativity and Innovation and the European Collaboration Award. This year the Awards will also be fully supported in French and German as well as in English and those submitting entries can also use a fully automated online system to make their submissions.

The deadline for entries is 30 September 2009.

Ulf Hjerppe, Lawyer and Information Officer received the MEDEA Award 2008 for the multimedia programme Rättegångsskolan på webben/Court Introduction during the first MEDEA Award ceremony held on 4th of December at the Hotel InterContinental in Berlin. This was the first edition of the MEDEA Awards and Ulf received the bronze MEDEA statuette during a special ceremony that took place alongside the annual Online Educa Berlin Conference.

This web-based court introduction explains what happens before, during and after court proceedings to those people who have to make an appearance in court including crime victims, witnesses, relatives and perpetrators. In the citation read out during the awards ceremony, it was described by jury members as being very well made and fully consistent with target users' expectations.

A special award was also presented during the same ceremony to secondary school teacher Steven Ronsijn for their outstanding entry submitted by his school Sint-Lievenscollege Gent in Belgium. Their entry, called Anti-Anti is a multimedia pervasive game created by secondary school students to sensitise students in the context of the national day against Unnecessary Violence. During the game students had to find a fictitious murderer in their school through clues provided to them in mp3-files and video clips. The MEDEA judges described the school entry as an exemplar of good choice and use of media, with a very good story and a particular social agenda that is of great relevance to the learners taking part.

The other finalists (who all received hardware and software supported by Apple Europe and Adobe) were ArtisanCam represented at the Awards by Keith Alexander from Artistsatwork.org (UK), Canal Educatif à la Demande by Erwan Bomstein-Erb from Canal Educatif (France), Patient Safety - Mildred's Story by Jon Shears from the University of Leicester (UK) and Pronunciation Tips represented by Callum Robertson from BBC Learning English (UK).

For full versions of the press release in .pdf and .doc

Visit the MEDEA website for more information about this annual competition.

The 6 finalists for the annual MEDEA Awards 2008 have been announced. They are Anti-Anti by Sint-Lievenscollege Gent (Belgium), ArtisanCam by Artistsatwork.org (UK), Canal Educatif (France), Patient Safety - Mildred's Story by University of Leicester (UK), Pronunciation Tips by BBC Learning English (UK) and Rättegångsskolan på webben/Court introduction by Brottsoffermyndigheten Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority (Sweden).

This year, the MEDEA Awards received more than 100 entries from 25 different countries. Entries came from all types of organisation including professional production facilities, schools, audio-visual departments of universities, training providers, public authorities, public service broadcasters and content providers.The overall winner will be announced during the MEDEA Awards ceremony on 4 December 2008 in the Hotel InterContinental in Berlin. More information from the MEDEA Awards web site.