Digital Drama received a grant from the Magna Carta Trust to create the Magna Carta Young Curator Badge as part of the 800th Anniversary Commemoration.
The Magna Carta Young Curator Badge Project engages young people in the history and cultural legacy of the Magna Carta through the creation of online media including blogs, video and animation for the Magna Carta Channel on Makewaves, the social network for schools. Students are rewarded with a Magna Carta Young Curator Badge as evidence of their learning and participation.
The Magna Carta Young Curator Badge was piloted with the Runnymede South Confederation of Schools between April and June 2015. The schools performed in the Great Charter Festival on June 15th at Royal Holloway and at the Magna Carta anniversary commemoration at Runnymede on June 16th.
Prince William greeted the performers and eight giant puppets, representing people who had campaigned for liberty and freedom over the last 800 years. Students tracked the progress of rehearsal and interpretation of the themes of liberty and freedom via videos, blogs and animation. This accompanied a specific focus on the history of the Magna Carta and its impact on communities across the world.
A selected group from Buckingham Primary School who had completed their Young Curator Badge were selected for a visit the British Library to see the Magna Carta exhibition.
Following the main activities, the roll out phase of the project involves working with Makewaves to promote the Magna Carta Young Curator Badge to their community of schools (4,000 worldwide) and young users (70,000 worldwide). Digital Drama has created links for teachers of specific project resources and ‘how to’ guides for the open badge to tie in with the Key Stage 3 curriculums for history and citizenship. Digital Drama filmed a question and answer session from students and a Magna Carta expert Professor Nigel Saul from University of London Royal Holloway that has been uploaded to the Makewaves channel as a free resource to mark the 800th anniversary.
Over 60 programmes of students’ media made for the Magna Carta Young Curators Badge can be seen here: www.makewav.es/digitaldrama/c/magnacarta
Commenting on the award, Kate Valentine, Director of Digital Drama said:
“We are delighted to have received the support of the Magna Carta Trust to roll out the Magna Carta Young Curator Badge on Makewaves. The project will enable young people to engage in the legacy of Magna Carta through creating media inspired by the themes of freedom and justice and be awarded for their achievement by the Magna Carta Young Curator Badge.”
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