Digital tech awards celebrate young digital makers

• Annual event recognises accomplishments by schools in digital-making activities
• Campaign makes it into the Malaysia Book of Records this year

THE Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE) and the #mydigitalmaker movement on Nov 21 commemorated Malaysian students, teachers and schools by presenting them the “Digital Maker Awards” for their skills in digital making and outstanding performance in local and global ICT-based competitions.

The ceremony, known as the Anugerah Pembestarian Sekolah 2017 (APS2017), is an annual event that recognises accomplishments by schools in digital-making activities that promote skills such as coding, robotics, app development, engineering design and computational thinking.

Some of the winners of this year’s “Digital Maker Awards” participated in the Beaver Computational Thinking Competition, Computational Thinking Challenge and F1 In Schools Competition that took place during the #mydigitalmaker Fair 2017 in September this year.

“Congratulations to all the winners today who are exceptional young digital makers. It’s great to see how skills like coding and programming shape our educators and youths into creative problem-solvers. I had the wonderful opportunity to see our students attempting the Hour of Code campaign just last week before it concluded.

“It is indeed a roaring achievement for the campaign to have made it into the Malaysia Book of Records this year and to see our students and teachers working together to be digital technology savvy.

“MOE is committed to the #mydigitalmaker movement and continues supporting similar initiatives in the future as we must ensure that all students and teachers in Malaysia receive sufficient exposure and guidance in digital and cognitive skills,” said Deputy Minister of Education II Malaysia Chong Sin Woon.

“We need our new generation to be confident, imaginative and connected life-long learners. Digital innovation in schools requires universal change that is carried out in a concerted effort between government, teachers, students, parents and the local community. It is clear that our youths and educators are enthusiastically embracing digital maker skills.

“By integrating such skills into our education system, constantly training our teachers and nurturing our students, we can be sure that Malaysia is on the right path in producing future digital innovators to steer the country to a more prosperous digital economy. It’s wonderful to see such positive outcomes, especially among our students and I hope the passion for digital innovation and creativity continues to lead them forward to bigger and better triumphs,” said Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) chief executive officer Yasmin Mahmood.

Ariff Amir Ali from SK Taman Tun Dr Ismail feels that we face many obstacles in our everyday life and constantly look for creative solutions to overcome the problems.

“I’m very excited that we are able to solve many challenges with the help of technology. Learning about technology is very exciting and we must learn to understand technology and use it for the greater good,” he added.

Ariff won Best in App Development for this year’s Digital Maker Awards and represented Malaysia globally in a number of competitions such as World Young Inventors Exhibition Award 2017.

"I love solve problems using computational thinking and from my experience I can apply computational thinking beyond classroom walls," said Ong Jun from SJK (C) Ming Terk, who won Best in Computational Thinking (Primary School Category).

Ong competed with other primary school students for Computational Thinking Challenge 2017 that took place at the #mydigitalmaker Fair in September.

MOE and MDEC received a special recognition from the Malaysia Book of Records for achieving the ‘Largest Participation in a Basic Computer Coding Programme’ following the recently concluded Hour of Code campaign that saw participation from 80,037 students from 745 schools across Malaysia.

At the ceremony, MOE and MDEC announced all 11 winners from the Hour of Code campaign.

The first prize for the highest number of student participation under the Open Category went to SK Sungai Binjai, Klang with a total of 3,115 students taking part in the programme.

For the Special Education Category, SM Pendidikan Khas Vokasional Kuantan won the first prize for the highest number of student participation, gathering 209 students.

Both schools received RM7, 000 worth of prizes and certificates each.

For the Most Creative Social Media Post, SMJK Ave Maria Convent, Ipoh school won and went home with RM5, 000 worth of prizes, while SK Long Sepiling, Baram received the Special Award for Hour of Code Campaign 2017, earning them RM3, 000 worth of prizes.

Malaysia has emerged as the country with the highest number of Hour of Code sessions hosted outside the United States of America and surpassed its target of 40,000 students.

This activity an initiative under the #mydigitalmaker movement, which hopes to transform Malaysian youths from digital users to producers in the digital economy.