Digital citizens

Intrinsic to the Digital Citizens programme was the partnership with Winifred Holtby’s Citizenship Curriculum Coordinator and Advanced Skills Teacher, Lance Boanas. His energy and enthusiasm for animating this curriculum area was to be a motivating force behind the programme. His commitment to innovating Citizenship delivery and championing cross-sector change was essential in terms of the programmes longer-term impact.

The Digital Citizens programme was inspired by the 2007 bicentennial of the abolition of slavery and Hull's connection to leading abolitionist William Wilberforce. Hull's link through Wilberforce with Freetown, Sierra Leone was a central factor in terms of the international focus for this programme. The settlement of Freetown was originally established as a direct result of Wilberforce's anti-slavery activity in the early nineteenth century. Hull has been officially twinned with Freetown since 1981, but the younger generation in Hull is largely unaware of the significance of this relationship, let alone the hardships facing Sierra Leoneans today. It was essential that the Digital Citizens programme gave Hull's young people a new insight into 'real life' in Freetown.

The Digital Citizens programme's aim was to extend new opportunities for young people in Hull and Sierra Leone to express and exchange their views and stories through digital media.

It was designed to roll out in two halves. The first part was launched in Freetown in May 2006. The creative practitioner team, Jon Robson, Murray Clarke and Matt Stephenson lived and worked in Freetown over a period of two weeks. During this fortnight the practitioners gathered a life-changing insight into the reality of life in Sierra Leone.

Over this period, they worked in partnership with out-of-school learning group iEARN (the International Education and Resource Network) to access around 80 of its young members. Creative learning workshops engaged young Sierra Leoneans in the documentation of their thoughts about their world. Pupil expression and opinion was the cornerstone of this work. The material that resulted was sometimes amazing, often emotional. The wealth of footage was to provide a powerful focus for discussion back in Hull.

In July 2006, Winifred Holtby Technology College hosted the second part of the Digital Citizens learning programme.The aim of this second stage was to provide a new route into Citizenship learning through multimedia ICT.

A presentation of the films from Freetown provided a launch pad for deeper discussions, amongst a targeted Year 10 Btec Media group. Local and global issues were put under the spotlight as pupils explored their hopes and dreams for a better world. Pupils were given a chance to share their views and to contribute to discussion as articulate equals.