MEDIA | NEWS ARTICLES
Over the last 5 years the Awards programme has generated
considerable media attention. By profiling the Awards programme,
and the individual winning projects, Childnet hopes to
encourage "best practice" and draw attention
to the individual winning projects.
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 The
Guardian, 5 February 2003
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT Outstanding websites built by children are being honoured
in this year's Childnet Awards. Anna Soderblom casts
an eye over the shortlist.
Five outstanding UK-based websites have made it on to
the shortlist for this year's Childnet Awards.
The awards, organised by the charity Childnet International,
aim to reward children, and those working with them, who
are developing outstanding internet projects that benefit
other children worldwide.
This year there have been entries to the Cable and Wireless-sponsored
competition from over 50 countries. Nigel Williams, chief
executive and founder of Childnet, says the range of entries
have seen "extreme contrasts".
"It is important for us to recognise excellence,
of course, but also to recongise those who are doing their
best with very limited means," he says.
"This year we have entries from relatively well-off
kids in relatively well-off countries, together with, for
example, a project from Sierra Leone, which is created
by former child soldiers in a war zone, with access to
only a small number of computers and certainly no broadband
connection or anything like that.
"It shows the great leveling influence of publishing,
which the internet at its best is all about. The internet
gives you an opportunity to tell your story, do what you're
good at and allow people to share in it."
Sarah Bowler, a 12 year environmental campaigner from
South Yorkshire, has been nominated in the individual category
for her website Cool Kids For a Cool Climate.
The site encourages people to "think global and act
local" in their concern for the environment, and promotes
the idea of planting trees to compensate for the damage
done by pollution caused by modern transport. It even offers
a tree calculator to help you work out how many new trees
you would have to plant in order to soak up the carbon
monoxide produced by any given journey.
The judges praised the site as "a wonderful example
of how young people can use the web to turn ideas into
action and extend an offline activity so others can take
part online.
"Working on limited resources," they wrote, "Sarah
has produced a simple, easy to understand website which
has huge potential."
Sarah's site faces stiff competition. There is the Daily
Prophet, a hugely impressive Harry Potter fan site. It
has been designed, built, edited and maintained by 17 year-old
Heather Lawver from the United States.
In nominating Heather for the award the judges said, "If
the Harry Potter books encouraged children to read, then
this site engages children with both appreciation and creation
of writing. Heather is clearly a gifted writer, graphic
artist and campaigner and through this online newspaper
has created a remarkable online community stretching around
the world."
Then there is Kidzdom, a series of animated cartoons and
an excellent animation tutorial created by Andrew Fei from
Australia. The judges praised Andrew for his "simple
non-verbal cartoons [that] communicate beyond language
and culture. There is real potential to expand this resource
and help children create their own media."
Priorywood special needs school in Middlesbrough has been
nominated in the schools category. It caters for pupils
with severe learning difficulties, and the website has
been produced by teachers together with children and parents.
The site features projects that the pupils have produced,
and a range of superb learning material that can be used
by others. The judges praised the project, saying: "This
site which is both child and adult friendly, will inspire
many other schools (not just those working with Special
Needs children) to use the web so that both teachers and
pupils can connect with each other and their wider community."
The UK-based Polka theatre is in the running in the Not
For Profit category, for their trans-Atlantic drama and
creative writing project with primary schools in England
and America.
Each school contributes information about their surroundings
and daily lives, which is then turned into a performance
by their partner school with help from Polka.
The judges called it "a simple project which serves
as an antidote to the notion that the web is only about
presentation of information. Rather, technology is used
to help students connect with each other in a protected
environment to share personal stories. An excellent example
of the web strengthening offline collaboration and allow
children to share their creativity both online and offline."
Also nominated in the same category is the Great Ormond
Street Hospital for Children's website, which was described
by the judges as "an outstanding example of how a
hospital can create quality, authoritative information
on issues relating to health in a fun, child-centered and
accessible way."
A special individual teacher award has been given to Stephane
Derone, who has built a site of fun resources for teaching
French. Highlights include Bart Simpson's opening-credit
blackboard lines, and a "football dictionary".
The Bonjour site is already being used by thousands of
schools worldwide, and Mr Derone has gone on to replicate
the model for Spanish, German and Italian.
The winners will be announced at the Awards ceremony on
April 24 at the Science Museum in London.
1999 |
2000 | 2001
| 2002 | 2003
| 2004 | 2005 |