French entry Quand la colère fait tomber les masques is the winner of the MEDEA Professional Production Award and Greek entry And the Oscar goes to … is the winner of the MEDEA User-Generated Award. This announcement was made during the MEDEA Awards Ceremony which took place last night as part of the Media & Learning Conference currently taking place in the Flemish Ministry of Education and Training headquarters in Brussels.
Quand la colère fait tomber les masques was made by Université Paris 1 in France and represented during the Awards by Catherine Loire. It is a 35 minute movie with a gripping story of a social conflict between an employee and the new management of a family-owned company in the process of becoming a large multinational. The movie shows the events from different angles: human resource management, employees’ rights, conflict management, business ethics and corporate law. In this way it is an interesting case study for Master Students in each of these areas, a case study that is much more effective and involving than it ever could be on paper.
And the Oscar goes to … was made by the 5th Primary School of Alexandroupolis in Greece and represented during the Awards by Petros Michailidis. It incorporates the way storytelling is used in movies in everyday teaching practice for subjects such as language learning, mathematics, social and science studies, art, English, ICT, as well as for learning attitudes like how to handle bullying. This project gives students the skills and competences to create their own videos on these subjects in collaboration with other countries. It gives learners an opportunity to learn to express themselves in other ways beside the traditional written and oral communication.
Speaking at the awards last night, 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 European Collaboration Award was awarded to Historiana – Your Portal to the Past made by EUROCLIO – European Association of History Educators, The Netherlands and represented at the Awards by Geert Kessels. Historiana is designed primarily for students (from age 14), and their educators (including trainee teachers). It is conceived as being a complementary educational resource for history, heritage and citizenship education in Europe and beyond. 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 and represented by Raúl Jiménez. All that Jazz is the media part of a lifelong learning course which uses multiple media: video, audio, face to face classes, presentations, DVD, as well as a class blog.

Two additional prizes were awarded, the first, the Special Jury Prize was given to Flying Start made by the University of Leeds , UK and represented by Lizzie Caperon. This entry is built around a generic core content that introduces a range of academic skills throughout the 4 week period between the students receiving ‘A’ levels and starting at university. It was given this prize in recognition of the excellence of the underlying design.
The other finalists who took part in the MEDEA Awards last night were: Schoolovision made by schools all over Europe and represented by Steffen Töppler who were the popular winner of the audience favourite prize; Il Girotondo del Tempo made by Hyperfilm srl, Italy represented by Andrea Tua; Moving Image Techniques made by Christina dePian, Greece; and SignMedia made by the University of Wolverhampton, UK and represented by Christine Jolly.
This year the competition attracted 213 entries from 32 countries. The closing date for receipt of entries for MEDEA 2013 is 30 September 2013.
In addition to the finalists, the Organising Committee also announced 15 entries that are Highly Commended. These are: A letter, a Story, Greek Educational RadioTelevision of the Greek Ministry of Education (Greece); Cartini Animati, Istituto Scolastico Comprensivo Statale Ponte San Nicolò (Italy); Child’s Play: An Educational Issue, Deirdre Shelly (Ireland); Crocodox, Unaymedia (Spain); Don Giovanni dans tous ses écrans, Université Rennes 2-CREA (France); El placer de la experiencia (I) y (II), La Red Información (Spain); Face Up, Ariel Trust (UK); Forum of Generations @School, Obchodna academia (Slovakia); Gloria trova un vero padrone, Giunti Progetti Educativi (Italy); In Trouble, UAM (Spain); Mustard vs Ketchup, Istituto professionale “Tommaso D’Oria” (Italy); Online projects among Greek and French EFL students, Maria Markaki School of Foreign Languages (Greece); Plataforma “Cuenta Regresiva” 1 acción = 1 cambio, Educ.ar S.E. (Argentina); Projekt “Podróże kształcą”, Miejski Zespół Szkól nr 2 (Poland); Think Sustainable – Little Eco-houses, Scuola Brofferio – Asti, Italy.
Presentations by all the finalists were given during the Media & Learning Conference which attracted over 270 participants from 40 countries and which provides the context for this year’s MEDEA Awards. Showcases on each finalist and Highly Commended will be added to the media gallery shortly.

For more information about the MEDEA Awards: http://www.medea-awards.com.
For more information about the Media & Learning Conference: http://www.media-and-learning.eu.
Contact information
Nikki Cortoos, MEDEA Awards Secretariat
Address: ATiT, Leuvensesteenweg 132, B-3370 Roosbeek, Belgium
Tel: +32 16 284 040, Fax: +32 16 223 743, E-mail: secretariat@medea-awards.com