WATCH: Ellon Academy pupils successful in online safety competition
A team of school pupils from Ellon Academy found success in a competition to tackle online safety.
They took part in Robert Gordon University’s (RGU) Maddie is Online project, producing a short story on the ethics of online safety and security.
S1 and S2 students from across Scotland entered the competition and were asked to create a short story, of around 500 words, on the topic.
The project, which is funded by the Scottish Government and supported by Digital Xtra Fund with £11,086 of funding, also included workshops on the ethics of online safety and security, ethical hacking and video gaming that were led by a team from RGU.
Five stories were short-listed for the competition from schools across Scotland, and these have now been developed into animations that can be viewed as part of the Maddie is Online series.
There was also an audience vote at the final showcase that was won by the pupils at Ellon Academy who produced an animation called Friend Finder.
Digital learning teacher Mr Armstrong from Ellon Academy said: “Our pupils have really engaged with the project and put some fantastic thinking into the creation and development of their story.
"They have bonded tremendously as a group and work well together, bouncing ideas off each other whilst praising and being critical as well.
"The nature of the topic and the story that they chose to put together is very mature in its contents whilst also unfortunately being very real for many children; befriending people online in apps or on websites who turn out to not be who they thought they were.
"Our pupils have handled this in very sensitive ways, showing great maturity and creativity in their thinking."
The Friend Finder animation can be viewed below:
As part of the project, the team has also made a special educational toolkit available in e-book format that can be shared by young people across Scotland.
This includes material suitable for children aged nine to 13 with interactive lesson plans, written stories and cartoons created by young people on the ethics of online safety and security.
The overall winning team from Hazlehead Academy produced a story called Lucy The Influencer that focused on the dangers of online hacking.
The competition's runner-up came from pupils at St Andrew's and St Bride's school in East Kilbride who produced an animation called The Yphone Scam.
Project lead, Dr Konstantina Martzoukou, an associate professor from RGU’s School of Creative and Cultural Business, said: “I am absolutely delighted with all the cartoon video stories co-created with young people as part of the Maddie is Online project.
"Everyone involved produced really engaging content that highlighted the challenges many young people face online including navigating online terms and conditions, identifying online phishing and scams and handling personal and private information.
"I hope that through this project and with our newly created freely available e-book for schools we can empower and safeguard more young people online.”
Maddie is Online has been endorsed by the Queens Nursing Institute Scotland and the School and Public Health Nurses Association.
Future plans for the project include rolling out the series to additional schools in Scotland, as well as internationally as part of the EU project BRIDGE.
Visit Maddie is Online for more on the project.
