Be Very Afraid (now in the sixth year) is an annual event organised by professor Stephen Heppell and the team at heppell.net to showcase (for one day only!) the very best learning in technology projects from around the UK in one place.  This year the event took place at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster, London. Visitors from all over the world came to see BVA, and were impressed with the variety of the projects being showcased.
This year the Cleveratom team brought some learners from City College Norwich’s Regional Centre for Learners with Autistic Spectrum Disorders Rugroom project to show off their hard work on one of the stands.
Rugroom is a project the Cleveratom team have been involved in since 2007, and the team at City College Norwich have built the only learning centre dedicated to learners with Asperger’s Syndrome in the country. Cleveratom work hand in hand with the college, its staff and learners to embed engaging, enabling and inclusive technology into learning.
Around 180 learners with Asperger’s now attend and add value to the college life, the Rugroom has gone on to win awards at national level, including the Association of Colleges Presidents Beacon Award.
This year learners from Norwich came to London to showcase the newRugroom Radio and TV offering which the learners have been working hard together to define, refine and build.  Typically learners with Asperger’s are challenged in communication, collaboration and co-ordination, and Rugroom Radio & TV have been a great way to experiment and challenge the learners.
More about Rugroom Radio and TV can be found here.
Learners were on hand to interview visitors, and connected live (via Skype) to their purpose built studio’s in Norwich to engage the London visitors with learners working live on radio and television productions.
To find out more about Be Very Afraid go here.
The photographs Matt from Cleveratom took at the the event are here.
This is not the first time we’ve brought learners from Rugroom to the event, read about the previous Be Very Afraid (October 2008) and their involvement here.
Cleveratom team at the event: Matthew Eaves, Hal MacLean, Sharon Fealy.
Some images from the event: