Winners of NEMA Awards using Acorn computers were Hempsill Hall Primary School in Nottingham with an 'Entrance Design Project'; Stephenson Way Primary School in County Durham with 'Mad Mansion'; Handcross Park School in West Sussex with 'Attack of the Blobs'; and Northgate Primary School in Bishop's Stortford with 'Bones'.
Roger Broadie, Strategic Marketing Manager at Acorn Computers, comments:
"Acorn's involvement with this year's NEMA Awards is part of the wider initiative to develop a New Literacy in UK education. In today's IT-rich world, children need a wider range of communication skills than ever before. The creation of multimedia presentations helps children become more confident and competent communicators and presenters of information and ideas; equipping them with the skills they will need in the world of work."The awards ceremony, to be opened by Eric Forth, Minister of State for Education, will take place at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre on 26 July. Computer games guru Dominik Diamond will present winning schools with a selection of multimedia computer equipment, including top-of-the-range Acorn systems.
Founded in 1978, Acorn Computers Ltd designs, develops and markets appropriate technologies to identified markets and is one of the world's leading suppliers of information technology to education. The first supplier of low-cost 32-bit RISC based personal computers in 1987, Acorn remains one of the most cost-effective research and development organisations in the industry, renowned for technology innovation which has led to the formation of Advanced RISC Machines Ltd and Online Media.
Acorn Computer Group plc is the holding company for Acorn Computers Limited, Acorn Australia, Acorn New Zealand, Acorn GmbH and Online Media. Acorn Computer Group owns 43% of Advanced RISC Machines Ltd. Online Media, a division of the Acorn Computer Group, was launched in 1994 with the objective to design interactive multimedia products.
All text which appears on screen is also synthesised as speech in order to enable children who cannot read to access the system. The presentation was created by nine, 10 and 11-year old children, including Special Needs pupils, and covered much of the speaking, listening, writing and structuring aspects of the curriculum.
The children initially set-up video cameras to record the most commonly used pathways and short-cuts across the area before they drew plans on the computers for the redesign. After discussions with the landscape architect, the definitive plan was produced and the builder proceeded to implement the design. The final presentation includes many digitised video images and photographs as well as textual information.
The presentation includes children's sketches, drawings and computer paintings and also the results of a school-wide survey on broken-bones, represented in pie-chart and bar-chart format. An interactive bone quiz, illustrated bone poems and a reference screen with hot text links to other screens are also included. The Acorn computer used by the children of Northgate Primary School was obtained through the Tesco 'Computers for Schools' scheme, currently running for the fourth consecutive year.