Winner of RGU internet safety project announced

The secondary school children from Hazlehead Academy took part in RGU’s ‘Maddie is online’ project, producing a short story, on the ethics of online safety and security.

S1 & S2 from across Scotland entered the competition and were asked to create a short story, of around 500 words, on the ‘Ethics of online safety and security’.

The project, which is funded by the Scottish Government and supported by Digital Xtra Fund with over eleven thousand pounds funding (£11,086), 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 viewed as part of the 'Maddie is online' series.

The winning team from Hazlehead Academy produced a story called ‘Lucy The Influencer’ that focused on the dangers of online hacking.

Reflecting on the school’s success, Diane Scott, School Librarian at Hazlehead Academy, said: “Taking part in the ‘Maddie is Online’ project has been an incredible learning process for our pupils from beginning to end. Back in the summer term 2022 our then S1 pupils embraced the competition after watching some of the Maddie is Online series in class and we spent several lessons working on their storylines.

“We found out after the summer that two of our teams had been successful in having their ideas chosen and then began a series of workshops with RGU to develop the stories fully, create a script and make an animated film. Working like this enabled to pupils to develop so many new skills from working with animation software, recording a voice over, developing a script as well as working in a team and with a visiting specialist. This has been an invaluable experience for all pupils involved and one they have learned much from”.

The runner up for the competition came from pupils at St Andrew's and St Bride's school in East Kilbride who produced an animation called 'The Yphone Scam'.

There was also an audience vote at the final showcase that was won by pupils at Ellon Academy in Aberdeenshire who produced an animation called 'Friend Finder'.

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 9 – 13 with interactive lesson plans, written stories and cartoons created by young people on the ethics of online safety and security.

Project lead, Dr Konstantina Martzoukou, an Associate Professor from RGU’s School of Creative and Cultural Business, explains more: “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 safe-guard more young people online.”

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/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. 

Secondary school pupil from St Andrew’s and St Bride’s school, Aiden Kurdell, whose team came runner up in the project, said: “Taking part with my group has helped us learn to animate a story we’ve created together and to keep myself safer online. People can get easily scammed and it’s important we know how to prevent it.”

‘Maddie is online’ has been endorsed by the Queens Nursing Institute Scotland and the School and Public Health Nurses Association (SAPHNA).

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.

Image shows winning team from Hazlehead Academy including School Librarian, Diane Scott,  Amy-Lee Handsley, Kalie Dines, Hayley Buchanan, Ashley Renu, Moulka Barchouchi. Also part of the winning team, is pupil, Ava Milne, who was not available for the photograph.