medea

The main theme for the 2013 edition of the Media & Learning conference taking place in Brussels on 12-13 December is Media Education and Literacy: Equipping Learners for Open, Creative Learning Futures. This theme will be at the heart of a unique conference programme aimed at exploring the role of creativity and innovation in education and training against the backdrop of dramatic change in how, where and what learners learn. Conference themes include e-Safety, Media-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teaching, Creating and curating open educational media resources and data analytics. See the full list on the conference website.

The MEDEA Awards 2012: 212 entries from 31 countries, and 95 judges from 29 countries… this is a nice snapshot of the media and learning community. Judges are ploughing through the entries. Looking at games and apps, but also at traditional media such as DVDs or online videos. Are there trends already to be seen? Hard to say when we have not been able to see all entries yet, but in one way it seems that there is somewhat less pure linear content, but that process and context is coming more and more to the front stage. Quality is certainly at least on a par with what we have seen last year, and remarkable is the creative power of many end users who generate their own media materials. One more week of judging to go, and then nominations will be announced. The Awards will be handed out during the Media and Learning Conference at the Ministry of Education in Brussels on 14th of November.

On Tuesday 25th of September 2012, the MEDEA: Media & Learning Association was formally launched at the office of Public Notary Guillaume Roberti de Winghe in Leuven.
Until the first annual general meeting of all members in December 2013 Eleonora Pantó (CSP, Italy), Gerard Casanova (Aunege, France) and Mathy Vanbuel (ATiT, Belgium) will act as President, treasurer and secretary, with Ene Koitla (EITF, Estonia), Bernard Mullarkey (IADT, Ireland) and Wim Van Petegem (DOeL K.U.Leuven, Belgium) acting as additional board members.
The MEDEA: Media & Learning Association has the statute of an iVZW and its main aims are to promote and stimulate the use of media as a way to enhance innovation and creativity in teaching and learning across all levels of education and training in Europe. In order to achieve this objective, the Association will amongst other things continue to organise the MEDEA awards and international conferences and workshops. The MEDEA: Media & Learning Association will also provide online support services including workshops and newsletters and will encourage participation of its members in national and international projects. Membership to the association will be open to all individuals and organisations that are interested in taking these objectives forward. More information on how to become a member can be obtained from the secretariat@medea-awards.com

Partners of two projects, MEDEAnet (funded by the EC under Key Activity 3) and MEDEA2020 (funded under Key Activity 4), met at a jointly held meeting in Leuven on 24-25 September 2012. There are plenty of connections between both projects through their support and activities related to the MEDEA Awards and the annual Media & Learning Conference. Both sets of partners also organise  training in the field of media-based learning, which meant that there was plenty to talk about. This was particularly relevant given the  launch of the MEDEA: Media & Learning Association.

Partners gave reports on the current status of workpackages, such as the number of MEDEA Awards entries, conference registrations, the status of workshops and webinars and other work including the status of the annual report on media literacy and education being undertaken in MEDEAnet.

Thanks to this meeting, partners will be able to work more effectively together to ensure the future of the valuable activities organised in both projects, and opportunities for future collaborations were discussed to sustain the established network.

The 9 finalists for the 2011 Annual MEDEA Awards were announced on 28 October 2011.

The finalists are (in alphabetical order): Armi di distruzione di massa by ITIS Avogadro di Torino (Italy), Changing Lives by Drogheda Special Olympics Club (Ireland), IMPRINTING by Scuola Secondaria di Primo Grado “Brofferio”, Asti (Italy), INgeBEELD by CANON Cultural Unit (Belgium), Monkey Tales by Die Keure and Larian Studios (Belgium), The European Chain Reaction by Qworzó Primary School (Belgium), The Merchant of Venice by University of Education Salzburg (Austria), Twig by Twig (UK), and Werner Heisenberg by INTER/AKTION GmbH (Germany).

This year the competition attracted 115 entries from 28 countries and the overall winner will be announced during the MEDEA Awards Ceremony which takes place on Thursday 24th November during the Media & Learning Conference 2011 in Brussels.

A further 13 entries were highly commended by the international jury. All those entries which are finalists as well as those who are highly commended will be added to the MEDEA Awards’ media gallery of showcases highlighting excellence in the use of media to support teaching and learning.

For more information visit the MEDEA Awards site.

The programme for this year's Media & Learning Conference is now available and features a host of engaging speakers, topical discussions and screenings of excellent examples of media supported learning. The conference has three main themes; future trends and developments in media-supported learning, digital and media production skills and competences including media literacy, and the use and re-use of existing media resources in education and training at all levels.

Highlights of the conference include keynote presentations by Belgian child psychiatrist Peter Adriaenssens who argues that creative education is essential for the development of the brain and personality of children and Richard Harper, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK. Screenings showing excellent examples of media usage to support learning from Thomson Reuters in the UK, TV.Klasse in Belgium, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and finalists in the MEDEA Awards 2011 along with discussion sessions, workshops and demonstrations combine to create a packed programme of activities.

Registration is now open on the conference website http://www.media-and-learning.eu.

The second 2011 MEDEA2020 workshop entitled 'Webinar as a new Media Use Example' is taking place this week in Warsaw and is organised by MEDEA2020 partner Fundacja Obserwatorium Zarządzania.

This workshop is managed by Anna Jaruga and is being led by Piotr Maczuga and Krzysztof Zielinski. It also includes input from Nick Newman from CareersInfo, UK, Deborah Arnold, Universite Nancy 2, France and Mathy Vanbuel, ATiT, Belgium.

During the workshop, participants were introduced to how best webinars can be used to support training which included a review of best practices. Participants are then taking part in practical hands-on sessions using Adobe Connect were they are learning how to prepare and deliver successful webinars. This includes writing and reviewing scenarios, recording and trouble-shooting.

About 30 people are taking part who come from a variety of different education and training backgrounds.

Last week the 11^th DIVERSE International Conference took place in Dublin, Ireland from 28 to 30 June 2011. The programme was full of interesting keynotes and presentations and we were delighted to be amongst them! On Thursday 30 June, Sally Reynolds (ATiT, Belgium) and Deborah Arnold (Videoscop - Universite Nancy 2, France) presented "Sound! Light! Action! Learning? Experiences from the annual MEDEA Awards", a plenary session which combined a presentation of winning MEDEA entries as well as a judging session using a sample MEDEA entry.

The MEDEA Awards were well represented at the 20th annual EDEN conference, held this week in Dublin which attracted about 450 people from all over the world. Philip Penny from IADT, Deborah Arnold from Videoscop and Sally Reynolds from ATiT shared information about the awards, the Media & Learning conference and the other activities associated with the awards including the community of practice and the resources database with participants during a conference session on Monday afternoon and also via the IADT stand which was open to participants throughout the conference.

Media & Learning News readers will be pleased to know that the June issue of the monthly newsletter is out now. In it you will read about how interest in media and digital resources is growing as a US Study on media and learning has been published and questions are raised in our featured article on What's the point of media education? The MEDEA2020 partnership also reports on the First MEDEA workshop on animation and an introduction to the Italian National Film School - Animation Department is also included in this issue, along with tips on interesting sites, tutorials, guides and much more in the new section Top resources which promotes some of the latest resources in the Media & Learning Community Resources Database, and plenty of other news items, notifications and announcements related to the use of media in education and training. You can download this month's issue here and next month's publications will again be available in English, French, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish.