大象传媒

So we didn鈥檛 pick up an award at the last week. We lost out to the create-a-logo project from the V&A and the first-person, public information film on YouTube about knife crime , from the Metropolitan Police. Two very different but very impressive projects, particularly Choose a Different Ending. Take a look if you have a moment.

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However, we do have two other awards that we have won. The team at VML, the digital media agency who worked with our 大象传媒 technical and design teams to build the site for us, have won the which is awarded to women for exceptional achievement in the digital media.

The other award was picked up by C大象传媒鈥檚 Relic: Guardians of the Museum, which won Best Entertainment at the Children鈥檚 BAFTA Awards. Congratulations to all the teams at C大象传媒 and the British Museum 鈥� and to the kids that successfully became Guardians of the Museum. (Actually has anyone seen that happen? I swear every episode I鈥檝e seen the kids have been defeated by the Dark Lord and locked in that display case for eternity.)

It鈥檚 been great to have a section of the History of the World project just for children and the huge success of Relic has inspired museums all over the country to run special Relic Trails. Each trail lets families try their hand at solving puzzles and unlocking local history. Many of the trails will be running through into next year, so it鈥檚 not too late to see if there is one near you.

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The end of the year approaches and with it the awards season. We are off to the tonight, where A History of the World is : Integrated Campaign and Arts & Culture.

We are up against campaigns by, among others, the Tate, the V&A and the RSC, two crisp manufacturers and the London Metropolitan Police. There are some really clever campaigns nominated, well worth checking out if you鈥檙e interested in how organisations are finding new ways to use the web to engage people.

We鈥檝e already had some success though as a couple of weeks ago we won a category of the . As a result, we have a very nice plaque in the office with a bull on it 鈥� which is appropriate considering that we too.

However, the most impressive award in the last few weeks was the one Neil MacGregor received from the Queen. He has been made a which is given to 鈥渋ndividuals of exceptional distinction in the arts, learning, sciences and other areas such as public service.鈥�

So congratulations to Neil. Enormously well-deserved for all his work with the British Museum and the National Gallery before that. Personally I鈥檒l be quite happy with a few canap茅s at the tonight. But fingers crossed that we manage to snag an award too.

Since September we've been inviting schools to take part in the Relic Challenge. The idea is to get kids talking about objects from their homes and seeing how they can be used to look at history. Schools are invited to upload a selection of these objects to the site, to add to our growing digital collection.

大象传媒 Learning made some great short videos with Kay Topping from Haslemere Education Museum to give teachers an idea of the power of of objects in the classroom.

Watching the videos again, I thought they would be of interest to more than just teachers, so I've put one of them at the bottom of this post. And to introduce it, I asked Kay to explain why she believes objects can be such powerful educational tools:

When the 大象传媒 contacted us about doing some filming here at Haslemere Educational Museum around the Relic Challenge I was very happy to say yes, as I really believe in the power of the object and this was a great opportunity to show this in action.

School subjects can be learnt through books, film and the Internet but, however good these resources are, they are unlikely to be as powerful as an actual object. Children especially like to be able to touch things and by telling stories through objects history itself becomes more tangible and easier for children to understand.

As a museum educator I have the privilege of using objects everyday, but although I have a real familiarity with some objects, for example the ancient Egyptian shabti that I use regularly, they still have a special wow factor.

When I explain that this object was made for a real ancient Egyptian by another real ancient Egyptian I can see the kids faces reflecting this 鈥榃ow鈥�.听 Only objects and the actual places where events happened are able to do this.

It is often hard to see the children鈥檚 reactions while you are actually delivering a session but watching the film clips and listening to the children as they were discussing the objects confirmed the power of objects for me.

Watching them become really animated and discussing the objects with such passion just proved what I already knew 鈥� that I am very privileged to be able to use objects to bring history alive and spark kids imaginations.

You can see more videos about using obects to teach history and find out how to upload them to the site on our Schools page, including one about Kay's Egyptian shabti.

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