Professor Stephen Heppell is awarded the RTS Judges' Award |
On Monday 12th June, the Royal Television Society Judges' Award for Educational Television was awarded to our Chair of Trustees, Professor Stephen Heppell.
We are delighted that Stephen and his work with young people has been recognised in this way, not because of his continued support given to Stepping Stones and the National Hemiplegia Organisation, but also the sheer numbers of projects that, under his direction, has changed the lives of thousands of young people. Stephen's commitment to improving and developing the approaches to learning is staggering and this award reflects his passionate desire to making a better future for young people. Congratulations Stephen.
Read more about Stephen's award below...
“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.”
Read more about Professor Stephen Heppell.