Commissioner Reding opens the second Insafe blogathon
 |
I very am happy to be once again writing the first message in the second global ‘blogathon’ for Safer Internet Day 2007. Safer Internet Day is truly a world-wide event, with 43 countries taking part and hundreds of exciting events being organised across Europe and around the globe. One of today’s highlights is the blogathon organised by Insafe, the EU network for internet safety awareness. |
Over the past three months more than 200 schools have been working in cross-border partnerships to create awareness materials on the crucial topics of -privacy, netiquette, and the power of images, as part of the Safer Internet Day schools competition. Today you can see their excellent results on this blog, and I am sure you will agree that the jury had a very difficult task in choosing a winner for each category. It is now my pleasant task to announce the results:
Award for e-Privacy: Poland: Zespol Szkol Handlowo-Ekonomicznych w Bialymstoku and Bulgaria: PGGPT "Nikola Vaptsarov". Project title: “Modern communication tools - for and against our privacy”
Award for Netiquette: Greece: Athens College and the Czech Republic: ZS TGM Mnichovice. Project title: “e-values”
Award for Power of Images: Poland: Gimnazjum Nr 6 w Żorach and Greece: Primary school of Panagia Thassos. Project title: “The picture as the vehicle of bad and good news”
Award for Innovation:
United Kingdom: Semley Primary School and the United States: Athens-Chilesburg Elementary School. Project title: “The Power of Image”
As European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, I am very pleased that we can demonstrate the potential of information technologies in bringing people together across cultures and continents in such a lively way. Blogging is breaking down barriers between people, and is particularly exciting as it gives us a chance to hear the voices of many that may have been excluded in the past. In this way, it is really helping us to discuss, learn and grow together with people in other countries by expressing and exchanging our ideas. At the same time, we need to be aware of our own rights, while also respecting the privacy, freedom and rights of others.
I now declare the blogathon open, and invite internet safety organisations and citizens from across the world to express their thoughts on ‘Crossing Borders’. You are all invited to post comments from Safer Internet Day until 13 February, and enjoy the event with us!
Viviane Reding
European Commissioner for Information Society and Media
Comments
I'm very proud of Semley Primary School and Athens-Chilesburg Elementary School for their Innovation Award! Great job kids! You've worked hard for this award and your "Power of Image" video sends an important message to viewers.
Posted by: Greg Drake | February 6, 2007 02:07 PM
The children and staff at Semley all enjoyed working together with colleagues and children from the US to create the resources for the competition. It is my hope now that this will help schools everywhere to remember that every child matters and that we as educators have a duty to ensure that children are equipped with the right tools and resources to stay safe. Many thanks to all at insafe and i-safe for their help and support.
Posted by: Karl Hopwood | February 6, 2007 07:40 PM
Congratulations students at ACE. You should be very proud of the work you have done with Semeley Primary School. I love your video - it has a very important message!
Posted by: Barbara Barr | February 6, 2007 09:13 PM
Congrats to all winners. The works are innovative and well done... all of them, not only those which won. Nevertheless, I wonder if it wouldn't be more fair to open competitions only between the same grades. It is very difficult for older kids to compete with 1st grades and elementary schools, where the work is mostly done by grown-ups... and so the older kids who really did the technical work on the computer feel as if they couldn't compete. My "kids" (like many others) thought of a theme alone. They acted on it alone and filmed/edited it on Windows movie maker alone. I just made some slight suggestions. When they saw some winning works they said: we never really had a chance against a 1st grade school... so maybe in the future, this contest will put kids from the same grade "competing" with each other. Another question a student-girl asked me was: if the works who won where all from until the date of 2nd February, and the deliver limit was 4th, how do we know that our work was even seen? Are 24 hours enough to see all the delivered works up to 00:00 4th of February? I send the works at 18:00 4th of February but have the feeling that it wasn't even seen. The were almost 100 posted... all the same, it was fun to participate. :)
Posted by: APereira | February 10, 2007 01:11 AM
A group of Italian schools' has started a project in Net, to know and talk about technology and Robotic science.
The project is part of a program promoted by the Ministry Of The Public Italian Education.
the Blog address is:
http://www.edidablog.it/b2evolution/blogs//index.php?blog=275&cat=644
Best regards
Donato Mazzei
Posted by: Donato Mazzei | February 12, 2007 10:41 AM