Press Releases
Creativity Celebrated at MOE's Schools - Digital Media Awards 2008
Students and teachers received recognition for their creative video, animation and audio productions at the Schools Digital Media Awards (SDMA) 2008 ceremony on 5 March 2008. Co-organized by the Ministry of Education and Ngee Ann Polytechnic (School of Film and Media Studies), the event honoured the creations from 208 participating schools.
A total of 68 awards for the Students’ Competition (4 Platinum Awards, 15 Gold Awards, 14 Silver Awards and 35 Merit Awards) and 6 awards for the Teachers’ Competition (2 Gold Awards, 1 Silver Award and 3 Merit Awards) were given out at the ceremony. The guest of honour for the event was Mr Daniel Yun, Managing Director of MediaCorp Raintree Pictures.
Previously known as the Schools Video Awards, the ninth edition of the competition was re-branded in 2007 as the Schools Digital Media Awards (SDMA). SDMA 2008 introduced two new categories - animation and audio – in addition to the original video category. As part of its re-branding, SDMA 2008 was held in collaboration with N.E.mation!, the Total Defence-themed animation competition initiated by Nexus (Central National Education Office). Other highlights included the Viewers’ Choice Awards and the use of High Definition (HD) formats in video production. More details of the entries and background information are given in Annex A (24kb .pdf)
The competition offered a variety of themes that reflected local as well as global issues. Participants were invited to express their views through different genres such as documentaries, drama and/or advertisements. A total number of 446 entries from 104 primary schools, 89 secondary schools, 14 junior colleges and Millennia Institute were received for the Students and Teachers’ Competitions. The names of the award winners are given in Annex B (44kb .pdf)
“The number of schools participating this year had increased by almost 20 percent,” noted MOE’s Director of Educational Technology, Dr Koh Thiam Seng. He added, “There was also much improvement in the technical quality of the video entries, for example, in camera and audio work. Many schools were innovative and creative in coming up with varied storylines within the themes provided. The rebranding of the School Video Awards as the School Digital Media Awards would encourage schools to build their capacity in developing audio and animation, in addition to video, for educational purposes.
At the ceremony, winning teams received prizes in the form of trophies, product vouchers, and gifts sponsored by Media Development Authority (MDA), Nexus, Central National Education Office, Speak Good English Movement from National Library Board, Animagine Pte Ltd, Brother International Singapore Pte Ltd, EPECOM Graphics Pte Ltd, Hardware Zone Pte Ltd, Marshall Cavendish, Peripheral Solutions, Pinnacle Systems, Sapura Synergy Singapore Pte Ltd, Science Centre Singapore, Sony Singapore Marketing Company, TABCO Incorporated, The Eighth Note, The Shaw Foundation Pte and Verbatim Marketing (Singapore) Pte Ltd. All participants received certificates of participation.