Euan’s Blog

I love awards ……when I win….they are not so good when you come second and I hate them when I don’t even make the  shortlist.   Not unlike the woman who was upset at coming second in the bake off when she was the only entry …..I am feeling slighted (on behalf of the InQuizitor team …of course).   

In November InQuizitor won its first award, recognised for it’s innovation by the industry’s leading magazine e-Learning Age.    Winning an award in the ‘Most Innovative New Product in e-Learning’ category, the judges commented;  

“This product was highly engaging and almost addictive - even we had a go – but that was its purpose!  The product was developed based on a very clear understanding of their target learners, and its purpose was to re-engage them with learning.  From an independent evaluation this has been well and truly achieved.  3MRT have developed InQuizitor using an intriquing mix of overt and hidden methods and the product is highly entertaining with ‘stealth’ learning as a lasting outcome.”

E learning age  represents the best in the industry, the judging panels and the process seemed transparant and well defined.     It was not surprising after this accolade we thought we would have a good chance at winning a BETT award.   To our surprise InQuizitor didn’t even make the BETT shortlist.  No-one in the category we submitted it to did as no entry was deemed good enough by the judges.  Not that we know who these judges are.   When I saw the judges remarks  I got pretty annoyed;  

“We were disappointed that publishers are still producing this kind of resource, which does not appear to have moved on in seven or eight years.” 

Having researched the gaps in the market before building InQuizitor, having used technologies and techniques unknown 7 years ago, we know we are answering a demand from teachers and kids for a personalisable revision aid which would feel compelling and addictive.   There was no comparable resource in the market!!!  Teachers, kids and parents in our focus groups told us that.  

InQuizitor’s underlying purpose is to engage (which it does) and encourage study (which it does) in a compelling games based engine (which it is) to be deployed without the need for training (which it can).  I just don’t think the anonymous judges took the time to look at InQuizitor at all which means they may not have taken the time to look at any of the products entered for the awards properly.   

Or maybe they had an agenda, who knows?  And that is the problem with awards; what is the underlying motivation of the awarder and judges? 

In BETT’s case the judges remain anonymous, although we do know that Ray Barker Director of BESA is the Joint Chair of Judges and despite his admirable mission in life* to bring literacy and technology together, we do know that attention to literacy within his own organisation isn’t his strong point.   I give you BESA’s Booth (unmanned on every visit I made to it) at the 2006 USA education showcase at the NECC in San Diego (The US equivalent of BETT) .