Support TEEM

According to its founders, TEEM (Teachers Evaluating Educational Multimedia) was 'a project born of frustration'. In common with teachers across the educational spectrum, ICT consultants Anne Sparrowhawk and Ysanne Heald and Professor of Education Angela Macfarlane, then of Homerton College Cambridge, had searched in vain for advice on multimedia and its use in the classroom. Their response was to set up TEEM, an Internet site where teachers could read objective software and website evaluations written by other teachers.

The pilot scheme, launched in 1998 with the support of the DfEE, was well received, and TEEM went on line at full capacity in September 1999. In addition to the DfEE and Sparrowhawk & Heald, TEEM is sponsored by the Guardian newspaper, BESA (British Educational Suppliers Association), and the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate, which hosts the website. Although 61 CD-Rom publishers now support TEEM, the organisation is independent and wholly non-profit-making. The site has gone from strength to strength during 2000 - its daily hit rate went up to 2,600, and 130 practising teachers were trained as evaluators, bringing the current total to 200.