St. Oliver’s Digital Championsvisit Microsoft
St Oliver’s Digital Champions were chosen to visit Microsoft Ireland in their Dublin headquarters on Friday May 4th. This site visit provided students with the opportunity to meet with leaders in the field of technology. Microsoft Academic Program Manager Steve Howell provided a workshop in Micro Bits for the students on the day.
The group then travelled to the Carlton Hotel in Dublin on Wednesday May 9th to showcase the website they created. Minister of Communications, Denis Naughten commended the students of St. Oliver’s in his opening speech at the Cartlon hotel on the development of their website: Guide through the Internet - Digital Citizenship.
The St. Oliver’s Digital Champions include; Holly Kinsella, Gordon Taaffe, Krists Kadaks and Samanta Jirgensone from second year. These innovative students jumped at the opportunity to become involved in the first year of the School Digital Champion Programme in Ireland and under the guidance of their computer teacher Susan Page they have been engaging with technology to address real world challenges.
The St. Oliver’s team decided to make a website to highlight the dangers of cyber bullying and offer ways to tackle this alarming issue. Their innovative website includes original animations, valuable information and advice aimed to combat the dangerous use of technology and come up with ways to encourage people to review their own digital footprint.
Over the course of the programme, teachers and students were provided with training which included workshops on video editing, web design, coding and App design, as well as on communications and presentation skills, marketing and research. This programme has proven a unique opportunity for students to become involved in an exciting and innovative project that has the potential to involve learning on many levels.
The pupils researched the term ‘digital footprint’, designed and created an avatar animation character who will offer a friendly face and guide fellow students around their website. The team have said that they decided to go with this topic to show students how important their actions are online and to ‘open their eyes to the threats they might encounter.’
The students were praised at the event for making a positive contribution to internet safety among young people.