Focus on Film is part of the National Archive’s Learning Curve project.
The National Archives has won an award at the annual BETT showcase for educational ICT, with an innovative project allowing schools to access and use a treasure trove of film archives.
Beating off competition from a host of commercially produced educational resources the archives won the Digital Content Secondary category at the 10th annual BETT Awards, with their Focus on Film website.
The site, which is part of the National Archive’s Learning Curve project, explores the role of film as a historical source and considers its advantages and disadvantages as evidence for the past.
Users of the resource can investigate different aspects of film evidence and view free original footage from the twentieth century as well as some reconstructions of earlier periods of history. Users can even edit films from the archive using a free editing tool.
“It’s fantastic that a public cultural sector resource like this has won the award in the face of such stiff competition from the commercial sector,” said Culture24’s Head of Learning, Anra Kennedy, who saw the resource at BETT. “The project is also flying the flag for archives – showing how they can be used as an educational tool, whilst breathing life into a treasure trove of film footage.”
The site was a jointly funded project by The National Archives and the South East Grid for Learning.
The BETT awards are organised in association with Becta, the government’s lead partner in the strategic development and delivery of its technology strategy for schools and the learning and skills sector and BESA, the trade association for education supplies and Emap Education, organisers of BETT.
Visit the site at: www.learningcurve.gov.uk/focuson/film
