BIMA's Schools Digital Challenge winners
Article Date: 8th Jul 2009
British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) names Schools Digital Challenge winnersJuly 6th 2009, London: BIMA, the only independent industry association dedicated to celebrating and supporting the use of creativity in digital technology, has named Hautlieu School in Jersey and Uplands Community College in Sussex as the winners of its Schools Digital Challenge competition.
The challenge, launched by BIMA earlier in the year, asked teams of students to come up with a Digital solution (which might take the shape of a website, interactive game or video) that provides a practical benefit for their community. The brief was deliberately broad to give the students the chance to really use their imagination, with the key objective to encourage them to combine creativity and technology with real social benefits.
Jersey’s Hautlieu School submitted a proposal to produce a new digital archive of downloadable podcasts of the years of the German occupation of Jersey, as a stand-alone website linked to the Jersey Museum and as a video wall in the War tunnels museum.
The archive, created by a team of year 12 and 13 Media Studies, Photography, ICT, Music, Art, History and English Language students would be a first for Jersey, in that it would be available to the whole community to access. It would also break new ground in its aim to place a positive, historical interpretation of the ways in which the occupation changed the character of Jersey, instead of repeating well-known stories of hardship and betrayal.
“The challenge for the students was to create a real interactive archive for the island, which is both serious and relevant to a wide demographic audience that includes both residents and tourists”, said Sandra Peddle, from Hautlieu school. “The students who signed up for the challenge have learnt not only new skills for their future careers, but have also created something which will be a source of personal pride for years to come. The island is a small and close community and this project has really made a difference in bringing us even closer.”
Joint winners, Uplands Community College in East Sussex created the iWADHURST tour, a videocast and podcast available to be downloaded on portable multimedia players in French, Spanish and English. The videocast, created by a team of 12 students from years 9, 10 and 11, will allow the wider community to gain more knowledge about the place in which they live, work, attend school or visit.
The iWADHURST tour will guide people through the small town of Wadhurst directing them to key locations as well as points of historic interest allowing the listener/watcher to learn more about Wadhurst and what this historic town has to offer. The videocast and podcast will be informative and fun and best of all, be created by young people who will interact with their community to create something exciting, engaging and accessible to not only the people of Wadhurst but the world.
“The BIMA Schools Digital Challenge 2009 has given the school and its students the opportunity to think about the community,” commented Phil Rhodes, the teacher responsible for submitting the Uplands project. “The project will allow us to form valuable links with the residents and businesses of the small town of Wadhurst, as well as communities in France and Spain. The project has seen a great deal of excitement among students and staff, allowing them to engage in a worthwhile extended learning project and we are over the moon to have been chosen as winners.”
Mirage Islam, Chair of Education and Innovation Group added BIMA are fully committed to not only inspiring future talent but also creating opportunities both commercially and for education purposes. This particular challenge has created just that with some great additional social benefits.
Looking ahead 2009/2010 will allow for a much bigger Digital Challenge and we have already set up partnerships with the British Council, NESTA and the RSA. We’re also in the process of securing media partners for the year too. Our aim is to build on the success of this initiative and ensure that creativity and innovation lie at the heart of our activities."
BIMA would like to thank, Microsoft, Sky and Contagious Magazine for their support and prizes.
