Young digital citizens take on the world

Left to right: Emily Choi, Anusha Ahluwalia, Sanara Swaradhipathi, Liam Boxall, Senthil Narayan and Baje Charman.

With a project promoting responsible use of cyberspace, six 11 to 12-year-old students may be winging their way to the USA to compete in an international Problem Solving Competition after winning the NZ Community Problem Solving (CmPS) Competition recently.

The team, from Mission Heights Schools, who call their project ‘Creative Cyber Citizens’ (CCC), entered the prestigious competition with their project designed to teach younger students to be safe and responsible Digital Citizens.

The CCC team identified the extensive use of technology in their school and wanted to promote responsible behaviour in cyberspace to all students at the school.

The CCC team also held an evening community event for parents and caregivers to encourage the same responsible behaviours at home.

The team used the Hector’s World® resources (www.hectorsworld.com), which are available free to NZ schools, to implement their project with the younger students at Mission Heights Primary School.

They chose the Hector’s World resources because they encourage young people to be good digital citizens in their use of all technologies, including the internet and mobile phones.

Judges evaluated the group’s concept, follow-through and future plans and awarded the CCC Team first place in the Junior Division of CmPS.

The CCC team will now work alongside another winning team from the Mission Heights Junior College to fund raise the $75,000 required to get the students and their coaches to the International Future Problem Solving finals in the USA in May 2010.

“The CCC Team is inspiring in their passion for mentoring younger children,” says managing director of Hector’s World, Liz Butterfield.

“Their enthusiasm and creativity can’t help but engage the younger students and we hope this idea catches on in other schools. The mentoring is itself a superb example of digital citizenship – sharing valuable on-line skills and knowledge with other members of the school community.”