World’s first blogging competition for schools at national level

Singapore, 9 September 2005 -- After frenzied voting by online supporters and creative work put in by their students, Victoria Junior College and Nanyang Girls’ High School have won the first National Interschool Blogging Championship.  The championship is co-organised by SingTel and the Ministry of Education (MOE).

Victoria Junior College and Nanyang Girls’ High School ‘outblogged’ 51 other Singapore schools to emerge champions in the ‘Junior College/Centralised Institute’ and ‘Secondary School’ categories respectively.

The ‘Most Popular Blog’ awards went to Victoria Junior College and Yishun Town Secondary School.  Together, their blogs attracted 5,000 unique votes from online readers.  A total of 18,000 unique online votes were cast for all the school blogs during the competition.

Mr Thomas Yeo, SingTel’s Vice President (Consumer Marketing), said: “At SingTel, we are heartened to have been able to achieve both the excitement and educational objective in organising the world’s first blogging competition for schools at the national level.  Beyond the hype of blogging, this championship shows that content is just as important in capturing your audience’s attention.

“It is also an excellent example of how mobile and Internet technology can connect various groups of people.  We believe teachers, students and online readers of the school blogs have all gained from the perspectives of the student bloggers on a myriad of issues.”

Dr Tan Seng Chee, Assistant Director, MOE Educational Technology Division, said: “When we blog, we write to a real audience, to someone out there who might be reading and, most importantly, responding to our blogs.  Through this we learn new ideas, gain new perspectives, and learn to appreciate alternative views.

“I hope our participants have also learnt that because we are writing to a real audience, what we say has a real impact. We have to be sensitive to the feelings of others and be responsible.  If not, we could hurt others unknowingly.  Even in the face of new technologies, our moral judgments should still be key.”

Selection criteria

The preliminary round of the National Interschool Blogging Championship started on 1 June 2005.  During this round, the schools had to start and maintain a group blog based on the sub-theme “My Teenage Years: Pet Peeves & Inspiration”.

Five junior colleges and 20 secondary schools made it to the final round.  This was based on the number of unique online votes for each school blog as well as scores by a panel of judges.

In the final round of the competition, which ran from 9 - 31 August 2005, the schools were judged based on the content and presentation of their blogs.  The sub-theme was “Technology and Me”.

The judging panel was made up of representatives from SingTel, MOE, and the National Institute of Education as well as Ms Penny Low, Member of Parliament for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC and Government Parliamentary Committee member for the Ministry of Community Youth and Sports.

Prizes

A school prize of $5,000 was awarded to Victoria Junior College.  Each of its five student leaders received $200 and a Sony Ericsson Z800i 3G mobile phone.

In the secondary school category, Nanyang Girls’ High School won the first prize of $3,000 for the school as well as $200 and a Sony Ericsson K600i 3G mobile phone for each of the student leaders.

For winning the ‘Most Popular Blog’ award, Victoria Junior College won an additional $3,000 as a school prize while its student leaders received a Sony Ericsson K600i 3G mobile phone each.  The same prizes were awarded to Yishun Town Secondary School for having the ‘Most Popular Blog’ among secondary schools.

The full results of the National Interschool Blogging Championship can be found in the Annex.  To read the participating schools’ blogs, please visit the competition site at www.campusmoblog.com.sg.

Fuelled by the momentum of the competition, a number of student bloggers, including primary school students, have begun their own blogs at the competition site.

Further collaboration between SingTel and MOE

The success of the championship has prompted both SingTel and MOE to look at further initiatives to engage the student population.

In the coming months, SingTel and MOE will co-organise the New Media Programme, with the support of the Media Development Authority (MDA).  The programme will involve customised modules to educate primary and secondary school students about technology-related topics such as blogging, 3G video editing, Internet safety and Intellectual Property Rights.

Ms Pam Hu, MDA’s Director of Community and International Relations, notes: “Blogging is a raging phenomenon amongst the youth today.  This new form of communication may have created a platform for the youth to share their thoughts and life with others in the cyber world. It may however bring with it potential harm and negative influences, if adopted inappropriately.

“We hope that through such competitions, it will help to raise awareness of the values and best practices of being a responsible blogger. MDA supports SingTel and MOE’s New Media Programme as this initiative is in line with our cyber-wellness vision for youth in Singapore.”

Leveraging the youths’ preference for visual communication, SingTel will also be sponsoring and helping to judge the 7^th Schools Video Awards.  This is an annual event co-organised by MOE and Ngee Ann Polytechnic for all primary, secondary and pre-university students.  Winning entries from the video awards will be showcased on www.campusmoblog.com.sg as well as SingTel’s 3G portal.

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Annex

Results of first National Interschool Blogging Championship 

Junior College/Centralised Institute:

Secondary Schools:

Most Popular Blogs: