ULAB, Asia Foundation award 5 students for cyber safety content
Three students from Sreemangal of Moulvibazar and two from Barishal have won laptops in an online content creation contest on cyber safety and digital literacy arranged by the University of Liberal Arts, Bangladesh (ULAB) in collaboration with The Asia Foundation - Bangladesh.
The names of the winners were announced in an online event held on Saturday, said a press release.
Prof Imran Rahman, adviser to the ULAB Board of Trustees, Md Afzal Hossain Sarwar, policy specialist (Educational Innovation), a2i and Md Zakaria, senior programme officer, The Asia Foundation – Bangladesh were present at the virtual award ceremony.
The winners were Ananta Durba, Ognivo Pranjon, Debosree Yadav from Sreemangal and Jannati Akther Tuva and Kathak Biswas from Barishal.
The competition was held under a project titled, "Being Safe, Being Cyberpositive," funded by the US State Department's South Asia Governance Fund and administered by The Asia Foundation-Bangladesh.
Under the project, the Center for Critical and Qualitative Studies (CQS) of ULAB conducted a baseline survey to understand the internet-use patterns of students aged between 13 and 19, who live outside the urban centres of Bangladesh.
Based on the findings of the survey, the project team developed a strategic intervention and conducted a series of online workshops for the students participating from five regions, namely Bhairab, Barishal, Satkhira, Jashore and Sreemangal.
Under the supervision of the mentors, the students then came up with writings, drawings, photography, posters and video works, combining their own experience on the virtual world with the knowledge input they received in the workshops.
They later published their creations on digital platforms. The top five content creators received the awards.
In his concluding remark, Prof Sumon Rahman, director of CQS and also the project lead said, "We call these teens cyber-positive as they neither hide nor flee the cyber world seeing dangers, rather, they have created contents on cyber safety, and circulated them on the social media platform, with an aim to usher in a safe virtual world, for themselves and for their fellows."