Productions

This month's newsletter includes a feature article on the educational outreach programme of the San Francisco Film Society which will be celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2011. It also includes a description of the programme for the Media and Learning conference in November 2010 which combines a variety of presentations, discussions and online activities. The tools and services section contains an article about developments in camera technologies which are making high quality video recording far more affordable for educational video producers. The newsletter also contains a reminder about the grant deadline for taking part in an educational video production workshop for teachers and trainers in Leuven, Belgium in February 2011 - the closing date for grant applications is 15 September. Other articles include news about a new WEBTV service in Italy launched by CSP and an introduction to MEDEA's new national contact point in Bulgaria, Zinev Art Technologies Ltd. (ZAT).

On behalf of the ESHRE Special Interest Group Reproductive Surgery, ATiT produced a 3 hour long live interactive satellite TV broadcast of surgical interventions on Tuesday 29 June 2010. This session was coordinated and moderated by Professor Stephan Gordts from LIFE Leuven. The programme connected three operation theatres in the Hospital  Maternité Schiltigheim, IRCAD Strasbourg, with an audience of about 1000 participants of the ESHRE conference in one of the large auditoriums of the Fiera di Roma. Amongst the operating surgeons were Prof. Dr. Arnaud Wattiez abd Dr. Joseph Nassif (IRCAD  Strasbourg), Dr. Sara Brucker (Uni-Frauenklinik Tübingen), Dr. Rudi Campo, (LIFE Leuven), Dr. Antoine Watrelot (Part-Dieu Lyon), Dr. Guardin and Dr. Hummel (IRCAD Strasbourg).

More than 6 cameras, 2 SNG links and 2 satellite channels were used to capture and transmit the images of the gynaecological interventions in the best possible quality. Operating surgeons answered questions from the audience while demonstrating innovative surgical techniques and procedures. Amongst the cases were Deep endometriosis, Vaginoplasty Rokitansky, Hysteroscopic septum, Endometriotic cysts, Laparoscopic myomectomy, Transvaginal ovarian drilling and finally Tubal anastomosis.

The programme, sponsored by Karl Storz lasted for more than three hours and was received very well by about a thousand viewers. The viewers in the auditorium were impressed with the scientific quality of the programme as well as with the technical and organisational quality of the live transmissions.

This month's issue highlights a forum on Video and Active Citizenship, a new special interest group on video in higher education, a teachers' resource on the topic of cyberbullying and a report on the level of interest in educational video during the Global Learn conference Conference in Malaysia.

Readers will also notice a new feature about tools of the trade, now launching with an insight into Adobe's new eLearning Suite. In our feature article on past winners, finalists and Highly Commended now we now explore the multimedia literacy project INgeBEELD, a MEDEA 2009 Finalist.

You can read the entire newsletter for more interesting articles on relevant organisations, events and competitions such as the Erasmus EuroMedia Awards and the ALT/Epigeum Award.

Almost 400 people attended the EDEN annual conference held in the beautiful city of Valencia from 9 - 12 June. The theme of the conference this year was 'Media Inspirations for Learning' and so a presentation of the MEDEA Awards given by Sally Reynolds from ATiT turned out to be a popular choice for lots of participants.

This presentation provided a snapshot of how the MEDEA awards scheme has been growing since its launch in 2007 and a description of the types of entries it receives.  It was also a timely reminder that the closing date for receipt of entries this year is 31 July.

EDEN also provided a good opportunity to promote the Media and Learning conference being held in Brussels on 25 - 26 November in collaboration with the Flemish Ministry of Education, where themes related to to how best to utilise the impact of media will be the main focus of discussion.

The Global Youth Anti-Corruption Forum, held in Brussels from 26-28 May, brought together almost 50 young civil society leaders, musicians, and journalists from around the World to exchange their experiences and to formulate action plans to fight corruption in their countries.

This dynamic event aimed at strengthening the Global Youth Anti-Corruption network (GYAC) by engaging emerging leaders, many of whom come from Fragile States, in a dialogue to build stronger social accountability mechanisms.

The forum combined discussions, musical sessions and the creation of a dynamic online community to support the work of these young leaders as they advocate for good governance to be more effective in the fight against corruption.

Apart from the main working group of young civil society leaders, the forum also supported the emergence of a strong network of young journalists who will collaborate on a global level to play a strategic role in promoting good governance. These journalists are supported by the European Center for Journalism.

The Forum also supported the work of young musicians who have been promoting the message of fighting corruption all over the world. Three of the winning bands from the DRC, Palestine and Malawi were selected to take part in the Forum through their participation in a competition organised by Jeunesses Musicales International.

The Forum concluded with a performace of a special song promoting the anti-corruption message composed and performed by the three bands in the Beursschouwburg, Brussels where this event took place. This forum was supported by the World Bank, visit the GYAC website for more information.

This week ATiT launched Pigeon - its new, all-in-one, standalone SMS networking, voting and audience response tool.  This new tool offers a confidential messaging system that allows conference and exhibition visitors send text messages to other subscribers of the service without exposing their mobile number. It also includes a handy, user-friendly audience response system based on SMS messaging - avoiding the need for costly keypads which can be used for all types of audience responses including voting.

Launched just in time for the IMEX exhibition in Frankfurt next week, you can  find out more about Pigeon at IMEX, the worldwide exhibition for meetings and incentive travel by visiting the Abbit Meeting Support Stand D780. You can also contact ATiT for more information.