School Competition Outcome

‘Ethics of online safety and security’

Competition short-listed teams

Throughout the summer 'Maddie is Online' sought creative student teams (third level - S1 and S2) from schools across Scotland to share a short story of around 500 words on the theme ‘Ethics of online safety and security’. The competition was organised by Robert Gordon University as part of the ‘Maddie is Online’ project which is funded by the Scottish Government and supported by Digital Xtra Fund.

Download the competition poster

Judging panel and criteria

The judging panel included:

Kraig Brown (Digital Xtra Fund)
Daniel Devine (Digital Skills Education)
Grace Mak (iDEA)
George Milliken (Education Scotland)
Gina Wilson (Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland).

Criteria:

Criterion 1. Alignment and engagement with one of the topics.
Criterion 2. A balanced story, showing both the benefits/advantages/opportunities of online tools as well as the problems/challenges.
Criterion 3. The rules of being a good citizen and what that means for the online environment.
Criterion 4. Characters.

Selected (short-listed teams)

The decision was difficult as there were many great stories, but there were a total of 5 stories short-listed from three schools in Scotland.

Ellon Academy - Story title: 'Friend Finder'

Ellon Academy short-listed team when received the news

Ellon Academy short-listed team in action

Hazlehead Academy - Story 1 title: 'Lucy the Influencer'

Hazlehead Academy 'Lucy the Influencer' team member working on the story

Hazlehead Academy - Story 2 title: 'Violet'

Hazlehead Academy - some members of the 'Violet' team receiving their presents

St Andrew's and St Bride's High School - Story 1 title: 'The Yolo Classroom'

St Andrew's and St Bride's team 'The Yolo Classroom' working on their story

St Andrew's and St Bride's High School - Story 2 title: 'The Yphone Scam'

St Andrew's and St Bride's team 'The Yphone Scam' working on their story

The teams will now receive support to develop their story, using cartoon characters, voice-overs and animation and will develop creativity, technical and teamwork skills as well as confidence as they design and create their own projects.

Congratulations to all the teams!

Workshops

As part of the project we are also running the following online free workshops (recordings are available, please contact: k.martzoukou@rgu.ac.uk).

Theme 1. Online behaviours - 13th Oct at 3.45pm.
Theme 2. The Internet of Things - 1st November 3:45pm
Theme 3 Understanding online terms and conditions - 15th November 3:45pm.

The following two workshops will be available to register:

Theme 4 Identifying online scams/phishing, fraudulent websites and digital messages - 29th November 3:45pm Register
Theme 5 Private and Personal Information - 15th December 3:45pm

Winning team

There will be a final winning team announced at the end of February/beginning of March 2023.

For more information contact Dr Konstantina Martzoukou k.martzoukou@rgu.ac.uk

About the work

“Maddie is Online: a creative learning path to ethics of online safety and security for young people” is a project funded by the Scottish Government and supported by Digital Xtra Fund.

‘Maddie is Online’ is a non-profit, community based project created with the contribution of young people, parents, library science students, new and experienced library professionals and academic researchers, who all commit to the idea of supporting young people’s development of information, digital and media literacy. They have donated their time and talent to make this creative work happen.

Thank you for following our project.