RTS Judges Award 2006

Royal Television Society educational broadcasting awards gosh - there I was sitting enjoying the RTS dinner, wondering who the recipient of the RTS Judges Award was as I listened to Glenwyn Benson describing them... when I suddenly realised - and didn't initially believe - that it was me! Proper shock... but humbled, delighted and honoured of course too. A number of people have asked for links from some of the work mentioned, and to see the short video that gave me (just) enough time to collect my thoughts. So here (below) is the RTS' press release, suitably hyperlinked, and (right) the videod comments: Illumina did a wonderful job of capturing and editing these comments - I had a real lump in the throat as they played on-screen, of course.Luckily, they played just long enough for me to collect a few thoughts to be able to respond to the award. What did I say? Well, you had to be there really, but we have such an extraordinary talent in our educational broadcasting industry that, as it leaps into this brave new 21st century, it is an honour to be mentioned in the same breadth. I said that... and more. Click image to play MP4

Judges’ Award
Professor Stephen Heppell

Glenwyn said: "The recipient of this year’s RTS Judges’ Award is a lifelong champion of young learners. He has done more to cultivate a hands-on approach to media literacy than almost any individual in the UK. He is a passionate advocate of the entitlement of the young to use interactive media to learn.

In a career that spans academic research, teaching, policy development, public and private sector collaboration, development of educational applications, politics, radical thinking and leftfield innovation, it is hardly surprising that the recipient of this evening’s award is often referred to as the “funkiest on-line guru on the scene”. His guru status is not restricted to the UK – he also has an international profile.

Formerly, Director of Ultralab across a twenty-two year period, our winner and his team built the lab into one of the most respected research centres in e-learning in the world. Initiatives such as Think.com and the Learnometer project were accompanied by the wonderful Notschool.net which offers one of the most innovative approaches to learning inclusion currently available in the world. In the sphere of Higher Education, Stephen and the team developed the extraordinary “Ultraversity” project, a radical statement about real entitlement if ever there was one.

When he isn’t travelling to points east, west, north and south, he somehow finds the time to serve on a variety of committees including a governorship of Teachers TV, The QCA Advisory Group for creativity, as Chair of the RTS Multimedia jury and on BAFTA’s Film Committee Our winner also advises both Channel 4 and BBC on issues such as user generated content and IT policy and continues to advise the government on a range of ICT issues.

His deep commitment to shaping the liberating potential inherent in e learning has motivated our winner to make a seminal contribution to UK education.

Not only is our winner widely respected across the entire spectrum of the education community, he is also hugely well liked and loved.”

© RTS

pages last updated: Thursday, August 24, 2006 10:01 AM