Posted on: 12/10/10
Schools from West Sussex, Lancashire and Dorset have been named the winners of the annual Make IT Happy competition, run by the Parliamentary Information Technology Committee (PITCOM) and e-skills UK, at an awards ceremony held at the Houses of Parliament today.
Getting the community online
The competition challenges 9-11 year olds to demonstrate how technology can be used creatively to make people happy. The theme of this year’s competition has been ‘Get your community online’, inspired by the Race Online 2012 campaign, and has called on schools to share their skills to help local people get online.
Three national winners were chosen from twelve finalists from across Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England. The presentation to the overall winners and runners-up was given by The Rt Hon John Bercow MP, Speaker of the House of Commons.
Showcase for outstanding work
The winners of first prize this year were pupils at Jessie Younghusband Primary School in West Sussex, who created a website from stories they had heard from older people about World War 2, while at the same time showing these older people how to use the internet.
Lord Harris of Haringey, Chair of the Make IT Happy judging panel, said: “I thoroughly enjoyed the judging process this year and appreciate the amount of effort the children put into their entries. The winning projects were well presented and provided a showcase for the outstanding work that schools are doing to help improve the quality of life for members of their wider community.”
Making a difference to others
Rt Hon Alun Michael, MP for Cardiff South and Penarth and Chairman of PITCOM, added: "Seeing young people empowering older people to bridge the digital divide sends a very powerful and positive message about the new generation. For the fourth year running, it’s great to see how the Make IT Happy competition is giving students across the UK the opportunity to make a difference to others, while at the same time learning about technology themselves."
Martha Lane-Fox, UK Digital Champion, leading the Race Online 2012 campaign, praised today’s finalists, saying: “I want to congratulate all the schools here today for becoming Make IT Happy champions. The work that they have done in getting people online in their communities is absolutely invaluable.”
The annual competition is supported by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and the Nominet Trust.
To find out more visit http://makeithappy.cc4g.net/
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