The MEDEA Secretariat announced the 8 finalists for the annual MEDEA awards on 9th November. The finalists are in alphabetical order: Daisy and Drago by Terakki Foundation Schools (Turkey), Eyes on the Skies by European Southern Observatory (ESO) (Germany), INgeBEELD by CANON CULTURAL UNIT (Belgium), Know IT All by Childnet International (UK), Les TIC en Classe by VISION FUTURE (France), Planet SciCast by NESTA (UK), Studiecoach by the Dutch Open University (The Netherlands) and Traditions Across Europe by Istituto Comprensivo "Don Bosco" (Italy). The overall winner will be announced during the MEDEA Awards Ceremony on 4 December 2009 in the Hotel InterContinental in Berlin.

This year the competition attracted 254 entries from 39 countries which was a significant increase in entries compared to last year. This clearly shows the high degree of interest there is in the use of media in education and training regardless of the educational level. The purpose of the MEDEA Awards is to provide a platform to recognise and reward excellent examples of use of digital moving images and sound in education. Entries this year came in 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 type of media varied greatly and included linear videos aimed at supporting science education, media supported challenge-based games used by university students for enhancing their skills in sociology, marketing and engineering, second life applications supporting laboratory experimentation, joint creation of cartoons by primary schools, repositories of video clips supporting cross-border collaboration amongst teenagers, online simulations supporting vocational training and language learning and lots more.

Deborah Arnold, from the MEDEA Awards Organising Committee commented "Over and above the sheer number of entries this year, we are particularly impressed with the geographical spread, with examples of high-quality educational media coming in from across Europe and beyond. Running the competition in German and French in addition to English has obviously had a significant impact in this respect."
The finalists were chosen by a jury made up of 76 education and media experts from 26 countries who assessed the MEDEA entries in October. All finalists will attend the Awards Ceremony on Friday 4th December 2009, where they will have the chance to win the main MEDEA Award as well as several other prizes, including software sponsored by Adobe and AVID. The MEDEA Awards Ceremony will take place alongside ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN, the world's largest international conference on technology supported learning and training, where a special session in the conference agenda will be dedicated to the finalists of the MEDEA Awards 2009.

The MEDEA Awards were supported this year by the European Commission's Lifelong Learning Programme. Special prizes awarded this year amongst the award finalists are the European Collaboration Prize as well as a prize to recognise Creativity and Innovation.

To find out more, visit the web site: http://www.medea-awards.com.