George Auckland

Last updated

George Auckland looking through a reel of tape in the BBC Interactive Factual & Learning Innovations Hub, 22 May 2006. George Auckland BBC.png
George Auckland looking through a reel of tape in the BBC Interactive Factual & Learning Innovations Hub, 22 May 2006.

George Auckland is a UK television and digital media executive known for his long and successful career at the BBC. During his time as a BBC executive he worked on key educational landmarks in British interactive media, including the BBC Micro computer and the BBC Networking Club. He also set up the BBC's first web production unit which was responsible for award-winning websites, such as Teletubbies and Bitesize, and produced many of the BBC's early TV programmes about home computing and the Internet.

Auckland graduated from Durham University (Hatfield College) with a degree in Applied Physics in 1969. [1] Shortly after graduation he joined the BBC as a trainee in the Film Department. [2] During the three-day week he had to get special permission to use electricity. [3] He went on to develop a career as a TV producer, working on various programmes from Blue Peter to award-winning adult education shows including Johnny Ball's Think of a Number. In December 1989, he received a Royal Television Society award for Take Nobody's Word For It (Vermeer episode) with Hendrik Ball, the award being in the 'adult/continuing education general audience (1988)' category.[ citation needed ]

In spring 1996 Auckland helped create the BBC Education Website, and in 1999 he became head of a new department called Digital Media, which won the Royal Television Society, Educational Television, 1999 Judge's Award in (received in 2000) for BBC Education Online. [4] Auckland was known at the BBC for his embrace of new technology; in 1996 he reportedly taught himself HTML in the span of 24 hours. [5]

Auckland ran the Innovations Unit within BBC Learning (formerly BBC Interactive Factual and Learning) until 31 March 2011, when he retired from the BBC after 41 and a half years of service.[ citation needed ]

In 2007 he received the 2006 RTS Lifetime Achievement Award at the RTS Educational Awards. [6]

In 2015 George was awarded the President of the NHK Prize for his "outstanding contributions to lifelong learning both through TV and Online". [7]

Domesday Reloaded

Auckland worked on Domesday Reloaded, which was focused on the preservation and conversion of the Domesday project, from 1 March 2011 to 31 March 2012. Auckland has previously given talks about this and the many copyright issues at the Computer Conservation Society. [8] [ clarification needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fordwich</span> Human settlement in England

Fordwich is a market town and a civil parish in east Kent, England, on the River Stour, northeast of Canterbury.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Bellamy</span> English professor, botanist, author, broadcaster and environmental campaigner

David James Bellamy was an English botanist, television presenter, author and environmental campaigner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BBC Domesday Project</span> Crowdsourced born-digital description of the UK, published in 1986

The BBC Domesday Project was a partnership between Acorn Computers, Philips, Logica, and the BBC to mark the 900th anniversary of the original Domesday Book, an 11th-century census of England. It has been cited as an example of digital obsolescence on account of the physical medium used for data storage.

The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen regional and national centres in the UK, as well as a branch in the Republic of Ireland.

Anne Wood, CBE is an English children's television producer, responsible for creating shows such as Teletubbies with Andrew Davenport. She is also the creator of Tots TV and Rosie and Jim. She was a recipient of the Eleanor Farjeon Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Alagiah</span> British newsreader and journalist (1955–2023)

George Maxwell Alagiah was a British newsreader, journalist and television presenter. From 2007 until 2022, he was the presenter of the BBC News at Six, and also the main presenter of GMT on BBC World News from its launch in 2010 until 2014. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Productions</span> Film production company

World Productions Limited is a British television production company, founded on 20 March 1990 by acclaimed producer Tony Garnett, and owned by ITV plc following a takeover in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Taylor (journalist)</span> British journalist and documentary-maker

Peter Taylor, is a British journalist and documentary-maker. He is best known for his coverage of the political and armed conflict in Northern Ireland, widely known as the Troubles, and for his investigation of Al Qaeda and Islamist extremism in the wake of 9/11. He also covers the issue of smoking and health and the politics of tobacco for which he was awarded the WHO Gold Medal for Services to Public Health. He has written books and researched, written and presented television documentaries over a period of more than forty years. In 2014, Taylor was awarded both a Royal Television Society lifetime achievement award and a BAFTA special award.

The ELTons are international awards given annually by the British Council that recognise and celebrate innovation in the field of English language teaching. They reward educational resources that help English language learners and teachers to achieve their goals using innovative content, methods or media. The ELTons date from 2003 and the 2018 sponsors of the awards are Cambridge English Language Assessment and IELTS. Applications are submitted by the end of November each year and they are judged by an independent panel of ELT experts, using the Delphi Technique. The shortlist is published in March and the winners announced at a ceremony in London in June. The 2018 awards were held in a new venue, Savoy Place, Institute of Engineering and Technology, London, UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlos Frenk</span> Mexican-British cosmologist

Carlos Silvestre Frenk is a Mexican-British cosmologist. Frenk graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the University of Cambridge and spent his early research career in the United States, before settling permanently in the United Kingdom. He joined the Durham University Department of Physics in 1986 and since 2001 has served as the Ogden Professor of Fundamental Physics at Durham University.

Educational television or learning television is the use of television programs in the field of distance education. It may be in the form of individual television programs or dedicated specialty channels that is often associated with cable television in the United States as Public, educational, and government access (PEG) channel providers. There are also adult education programs for an older audience; many of these are instructional television or "telecourse" services that can be taken for college credit, such as the Open University programs on BBC television in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Mohammed</span> British actor

Nicholas George Mohammed is a British actor, comedian and writer. He has portrayed his character Mr. Swallow across both stage and television for over a decade. He is also the creator of the Sky One comedy series Intelligence. Mohammed portrayed the character of Nathan Shelley in the Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso, for which he was nominated in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series category at the 73rd and 74th Primetime Emmy Awards.

Peter William Armstrong is a television and radio producer, whose career at the BBC spanned 25 years. He is best known for innovative religious programming and as the founder and project editor of the BBC's Domesday Project (1986), for which he won a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2004 BAFTAs. He is the father of documentary maker Franny Armstrong.

Philippa Lowthorpe is an English film and television director. She was awarded the Deluxe Director Award at the WFTV Film and Television Awards for the miniseries Three Girls. She recently directed episodes of the second season of The Crown and the 2020 film Misbehaviour.

<i>Planet Earth II</i> 2016 British nature documentary television series

Planet Earth II is a 2016 British nature documentary series produced by the BBC as a sequel to Planet Earth, which was broadcast in 2006. The series is presented and narrated by Sir David Attenborough with the main theme music composed by Hans Zimmer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Bitter</span> American educational technology researcher

Gary Bitter is an American researcher, teacher, and author focusing on educational technology. He is Professor of Educational Technology and past Executive Director of Technology Based Learning and Research at Arizona State University. He was a founding board member of the International Society for Technology in Education and served as its first elected president. He is the co-author of the National Technology Standards (NETS) which have been used extensively as a model for National and International Technology Standards.

Stephen Heppell is a British educationalist, writer and speaker. He held professorships at Anglia Ruskin University and Bournemouth University, and he currently holds the Filipe Segovia Chair of Learning Innovation at Universidad Camilo Jose Cela in Madrid. He was an advisor to the British Government's Department for Education co-authoring 'The Stephenson Report' and chaired their Education Technology Advisory Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Television Society Programme Awards</span> Annual British Television Awards

The Royal Television Society Programme Awards, seek to recognise programmes or individuals who have made a positive and material contribution to their genre: either because their content or originality in form has in some way moved the genre forward, or perhaps even created a new genre; or because their quality has set standards which other programme-makers can emulate and learn from.

References

  1. "Durham University gazette, XVI (ns), supplement". reed.dur.ac.uk. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  2. "George Auckland – BBC Pensioners Association". www.bbcpa.org.uk. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  3. "Save your memories of the BBC". About the BBC. 24 January 2017. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  4. The Judges' Award, RTS Educational Television Awards, 2000
  5. "Learning with George Auckland Play with Learning". playwithlearning.com. 14 April 2011. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  6. Lifetime Achievement Award RTS Education Awards, 2007 [ permanent dead link ]
  7. President of NHK Prize 2015
  8. Computer Conservation Society The BBC Domesday Book Project and its Legacy, 2009 Archived 2011-07-24 at the Wayback Machine (Retrieved 12 April 2011)