National eSmart Week 2024 has just wrapped up, proving to be another incredibly successful event. More than 420 schools, libraries, and organisations across the country joined the celebrations, meaning thousands of children and young people were engaged in the activities celebrating online safety. 221 of those schools joined National eSmart Week for the first time in 2024, proving that the event is an exciting way to get schools involved in this important work!
National eSmart Week is a week-long event that celebrates all the incredible work that schools and libraries across the country are doing to promote positive digital citizenship.
Running from March 18 – 25, this year’s event centred around the theme of “Empowering tomorrow’s digital citizens, today”, a call to action for educators to consider what they can do to build a learning environment that supports their students to thrive in a digital world.
To support this, teachers were encouraged to explore our exciting, free online products, eSmart Media Literacy Lab and eSmart Digital Licence+ with their students, to contribute to a national tally of new sign-ups.
We were also pleased to host a series of webinars throughout the week, including a keynote presentation from Education Futurist, Louka Parry.
Teachers who attended the webinars shared that these sessions helped them in many ways, with one teacher outlining that she now has an “understanding that there are different starting points for students' exposure to a digital world” - a skillset that will help improve the way she delivers support in the classroom.
Throughout the week it was exciting to see the many wonderful ways that schools engaged with the learning material, a highlight being the student-led videos created by Our Lady Pines in Victoria, which featured young people from the school sharing tips for parents and peers in their community.
We were also delighted to have 42 classrooms full of students from across the country join us for storytime sessions and a workshop to build their understanding of online ethics.
Staff at the Alannah & Madeline Foundation were also excited to bring the week to life by making pledges for how they plan to be their best selves online and sharing them amongst their colleagues.
To conclude the week on a high note, we were delighted to be joined by the Federal Minister for Communications, the Hon Michelle Rowland MP when she visited Riverbank Public School.
The Minister was there to mark National eSmart Week and to see Riverbank’s teachers and schools engaging with eSmart Digital Licence+.
While National eSmart Week may have finished for another year, the need for focusing on digital wellbeing and safety online within schools has not.
The school year is just starting to hit its stride and now is a fantastic time for schools around the country to explore how the free products and resources from the Alannah & Madeline Foundation’s eSmart program can support their students to thrive.
eSmart Engagement Manager, Peta Simpson was delighted by the outcomes achieved in National eSmart Week, explaining that “It’s great to talk to so many teachers who are working so passionately to provide digital citizenship education to their students – not just in National eSmart week, but all throughout the school year.”
National eSmart Week 2024 Fast Facts:
- Since the start of March, 40 new schools have registered for eSmart Digital Licence+ and 3,956 have been provided access to a module of Digital Licence+ - with 2,388 of those students completing a module.
- During National eSmart Week 477 students completed a module - however many completed modules in the two weeks prior, allowing them to get ready for the week ahead!
- 20 Australian schools have signed up to begin eSmart Media Literacy Lab since the beginning of the year.
- There were 429 registered schools, libraries and organisations registered for National eSmart Week 2024, with the majority of these registrations coming from Victoria.
The eSmart Media Literacy Lab and Digital Licence+ are available for all Australian schools to access, free of charge, thanks to funding from the Australian Government. Visit eSmart to learn more about how your school can gain access.
