Summer School Safer Internet

Maybe you were wondering what this Summer School is all about. Many of us did not know this before we came here and now you are all about to find out!  Join us on our journey in which not only will we make new friends but also learn more about e-safety.

So let’s start! A perfect summer school has to be unforgettable! The best ingredients for this are: a beautiful location- „Mama Cozonacilor” – Bran, Romania, with green landscapes and blue sky, amazing people from 9 countries: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, Poland, Portugal, Romania and great trainers.

The first training was about blogging. Our trainer, Chinezu (the ChineseMan) gave us an inside view of the Romanian blogosphere and revealed us some of the responsibilities that each person who blogs, on a daily basis, should bear in mind. For one hour and a half we all interacted with him and in the end we discovered that both, Internet and blogging are good things and great tools. The choice of deciding what is right or wrong online is in our hands. Chinezu was impressed to by our involvement and he wrote about our Summer Camp here: http://chinezu.eu/2010/07/12/me-as-a-devils-advocate-in-safer-internet-debate/

“It was really interesting, funny and educational” said Austris from Latvia.

Between trainings we witnessed a special moment, the Awarding Ceremony of the Safer Internet Day Quizz. There are three winners from Romania, Poland and Lithuania: Adrian Orlandea, Olaf Tycjan Kowalski and Domante Tribuisyte. The winners received a special trophy handed by Janice Richardson from the European Commission, Sanda Foamete from Microsoft Romania and the representative of Liberty Global. After congratulating them we moved on to our activities.

”I was really excited and happy for being awarded this prize. It was a wonderful experience and I can’t wait to attend the future competitions.” said Adrian form Romania, winner of the Safer Internet Daz Quizz.

The second training of the day was held by the Microsoft team. In addition to the previous one, they talked about some technical details that should make blogs and sites better and more visited. As technology evolved, new tools as Sylverlight, PhotoSynth and IIS Media Services were developed in order to transform online life into a more vivid one.

„It was very interesting because I’ve never seen these products before. I will definitely try to learn some more about it” said Ivan from Bulgaria.

We came on this camp not only to have fun, but especially to do something about the risks we might encounter on the Internet. In order to do this, we attended a session about projects design moderated by George Roman from Save the Children Romania, the national Coordinator of the project. During the next four days we will split in teams of maximum 5 members from two different countries at least. Divided like this we will have to cooperate and make relevant and achievable projects. The best three projects will be sent to the European Commission. Moreover, the authors will be awarded with prizes provided by Kaspersky Lab.

Adam from Germany thinks that this session helps us „improve our ability to write projects. Every project one writes is better than the previous one. This helps us set up aims and goals for a Safer Internet.”

After a full day, there was time to relax. Before the end of the night we played and ice-breaking game. Youngsters had to talk about certain topics for 5 minutes. This was a great opportunity for all of us to interact, to get to know each other better by sharing personal opinions regarding different subjects. The topics were very relevant, we discussed about cultural aspects, things important in our life and, last but not least, online safety. The day ended with a party. A member of the Kaspersky Lab team took the role of the DJ for the night and put on the best songs for us to dance and have fun.

We will keep you posted with everything that happens here. Do not miss it!