The MEDEA Awards were set up to encourage the use of digital moving images and sound in education. This year, the MEDEA Awards received more than 100 entries from 25 countries. Entries came from all types of organizations, including professional production facilities, schools, audio-visual departments of universities, training providers, public authorities, public service broadcasters, and content providers.

Mathy Vanbuel from the MEDEA Awards Organising Committee commented: "We are really delighted with the quality of the entries for this first year of the competition and the sheer wealth of resources and materials that were submitted. We are looking forward to a really exciting ceremony in December and to the expansion of the MEDEA Awards in 2009."

On November 7, the six finalists for the annual MEDEA Awards 2008 were announced. They are Anti-Anti by Sint-Lievenscollege Gent (Belgium), ArtisanCam by Artistsatwork.org (UK), Canal Educatif (France), Patient Safety - Mildred's Story by University of Leicester (UK), Pronunciation Tips by BBC Learning English (UK), and Rättegångsskolan på webben/Court introduction by Brottsoffermyndigheten Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority (Sweden).

All finalists will attend the Awards Ceremony on Thursday, December 4, 2008, where they will have the chance to win the main MEDEA Award, a bronze statuette, as well as several other prizes including hardware and software supported by Apple Europe and Adobe with a value of 18,000 euros.

The MEDEA Awards ceremony will take place alongside ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN, the world's largest international conference on technology-supported learning and training, where a special session in the conference agenda will be dedicated to the finalists of the MEDEA Awards 2008. Places for the ceremony are limited and an R.S.V.P. is requested.