22nd May 2002

SCOTTISH SCHOOLS LEARNING CD WINS INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR CINÉCOSSE

A CD ROM designed as a learning tool to help Scottish secondary school pupils studying Home Economics has secured a prestigious Silver Award for video and multimedia producers, Cinécosse, at this year's WorldMediaFestival in Hamburg, Germany.

Entitled 'Cinépedia', the CD ROM has received critical acclaim from both teaching staff and pupils since it was distributed freely last year to all Scottish Secondary school pupils studying Intermediate 2 and Higher Level Home Economics.

Cinépedia was jointly funded by the Higher Still Development Unit, North Lanarkshire Council Education Department, North Lanarkshire Education Business Partnership, Motherwell College and Cinécosse.

Cinécosse spent over six months in research, preparation and development of the CD ROM, with help from course leaders and development teachers and by obtaining vital comments and feedback from teacher seminars held across Scotland.

It makes innovative use of video material from the popular food television series, 'Scotland's Larder', also produced by Cinécosse, based at Ellon, Aberdeenshire.

The success of the project was largely attributed to the CD ROM's interactivity - which students can use as a useful revision aid. Cinépedia features an animated character-led guide who poses a series of questions which the pupils must answer by completing a variety of differently designed games and puzzles. The CD ROM features useful video clips and support notes which the student can call up to help answer the questions correctly.

Cinécosse worked closely with Eileen Mullen, of North Lanarkshire Council's Education Department, and Joyce Henderson, Principal Teacher of Home Economics at Carluke High School in South Lanarkshire, to provide the content for the CD ROM.

Developers Bob Marshall and Fiona Le Marchand of Cinécosse are both delighted at receiving the award for Interactive CD ROM Production. Mr. Marshall said: "We all put a great deal of effort into creating Cinépedia and it was fantastic to receive such a prestigious award that makes spending the extra effort so much more worthwhile.

"It was a great joy to work as a team with both Eileen and Joyce who helped us to develop the structure of the CD around the course material. We've had excellent responses from teachers and pupils who are now using the CD and we are already planning to use the Cinépedia format in the development of other proposed learning applications."

Bob Marshall was accompanied by Eileen Mullen and Joyce Henderson to the WorldMediaFestival Awards Ceremony in Hamburg to collect the award. Cinécosse were one of only two British award winners present at the event which attracts international participation.

The annual WorldMediaFestival event is a forum for communication professionals and open to international participation. Decisive valuation criteria are the effective communication of the message to the intended target-group and quality artistic and technical skills, with entries judged by an international panel of experts in media and communication.

For more information about the WorldMediaFestival - please visit www.worldmediafestival.de or its organising body Intermedia at www.intermedia.de

Visit the Cinépedia support website at: www.cinepedia.co.uk

Further Information
Please contact: Graeme Mowat or Bob Marshall at the following address:

Cinécosse
North Meadows
Oldmeldrum
Aberdeenshire AB51 0GQ
Scotland (UK)

Tel: +44 (0) 1651 873311
Fax: +44 (0) 1651 873300
Email: design@cinecosse.co.uk
Website: www.cinecosse.co.uk