After thousands of classes spent a week completing media literacy questions and assignments both in the classroom and at home, it turned out that the class from The Hague had scored the most bits (points), and had therefore completed the exciting serious game the best. “The pupils found it incredibly exciting and we are enormously proud that we won!”, said teacher Annemiek Osthoff. This year, a record number of more than 200,000 pupils were registered for the national MediaMasters competition during Media Literacy Week, which took place from 8 to 15 November.
“An incredibly exciting game with important current themes”
“I have been playing MediaMasters for several years and my class has always been in the top 20. We are therefore enormously proud to have come in first place this year! MediaMasters is full of current media-related themes that are important for a generation growing up in the digital age. The pupils were extremely enthusiastic, worked hard and found the game’s story incredibly exciting. It is important for pupils to think about their own media behaviour and not simply accept things without question,” said teacher Annemiek Osthoff.
Most media-savvy class in special primary education
MediaMasters was also played in special education and special primary education. All categories were able to participate, including deaf or hard-of-hearing children from category 2. Especially for them, the film episodes during Media Literacy Week were supported with sign language and subtitles. Group 7 of Kentalis Professor Huizingschool from Enschede became the winner in the special education category. “The pupils gained a great deal of new knowledge and practised important skills with MediaMasters. Children are exposed to the internet at such a young age. And everyone thinks: they will manage fine on their own. But in practice I notice that this is sometimes disappointing, and I am sometimes amazed at how little material is available. With MediaMasters, you can teach children something about media literacy and digital literacy in a short period of time. Moreover, it is great fun and the children are extremely enthusiastic!”, said teacher Jordi Oude Voshaar.
Pupils can recognise online bullying, but are less able to recognise the characteristics of gaming addiction
The national game results show that pupils perform best at recognising online bullying. Many pupils also know what grooming involves and which tricks are used in the process, such as the use of fake profiles and how these can be recognised. Nationwide, pupils score worst at recognising advertising techniques and the symptoms of gaming addiction. The statements completed by thousands of pupils about their own media behaviour also show that more than 80% of pupils say that they know their friends better through the use of social media. In addition, 72% of pupils say that they could easily go 24 hours without a phone, the internet and social media.
By playing MediaMasters, pupils throughout the Netherlands have built up basic knowledge about media literacy. While playing the game, they worked on topics such as recognising fake news, setting boundaries in online behaviour and seeing through advertising techniques, and they researched new technologies. The national MediaMasters competition is a permanent part of Media Literacy Week.