Online success for Malfroy boys

A talented trio from Malfroy School has taken the term the digital generation to a whole new level, winning a New Zealand Transport Agency e-book competition.

The Digital Journeys: developing an e-book competition invited primary schools from throughout New Zealand to explore road safety ideas using text, images, video, audio or animation clips compiled into an e-book.

Students Dretyn Harris, 10, Bob Pilsbury, 10, and Caleb Piua, 11, put their minds to the task and, using their teacher's iPad, won first-equal in the nationwide competition.

Bob said they used four different applications to make the e-book, which includes nine interactive pages.

"I enjoyed learning how to use Diptic which lets you put lots of pictures into one image."

He said it took them about three weeks to compile the e-book after mastering applications like Book Creator, Diptic, Photoshop and iBooks.

"I really enjoyed playing with the iPad and choosing the music for each page."

Bob said after their principal Nicky Brell heard they won last week they were asked to present the e-book in front of a school assembly.

He said he and Dretyn danced on stage to the e-book music, while fellow designer, Caleb, displayed their hard work to the audience, educating classmates about road safety.

For placing first, with Tauranga's Selwyn Ridge School, the boys will get up to four days one-on-one with an online professional who will help them make the e-book accessible for schools around the country.

They also receive $3000 of vouchers of the school's choice.

Dretyn said they gained all the information from what they had learned about road safety earlier this year in class and the rest from the internet.

"We used what we knew already and looked up the rest. I really like playing on the iPad, I'd never used one before."

The boys' e-leader teacher, Wendy Stafford, entered them into the competition.

To view the e-book go online to www.education.nzta.govt.nz