Otago Daily Times, Saturday, 15-May 2004

Website designers win international award

Two Dunedin women have won an international technology award for their interactive Internet education programme for school pupils.

Monika Fry (53) and Ann Trewern (53) discovered yesterday they had won a Stockholm Challenge Award 2004 for education for their "Sniff, Swing and Swipe" project.

They were among 10 category winners announced at a ceremony in Stockholm on Thursday night chosen from 103 finalists and 900 entries by a jury of international experts.

The Stockholm Challenge is an awards programme for pioneering IT projects worldwide, according to its website.

Other winners include a project which develops and deploys telemedicine systems in poor areas in South and Central America and Singapore's Access to Archives Online project.

Yesterday, the two former teachers were still reeling from their win which sees them receive a trophy created by artist Jonas Torstensson.

"We are delighted. There were entries from real heavyweights so we never expected a tiny thing from here [would win]," Ms Fry said.

Sniff, Swing and Swipe allows pupils from throughout New Zealand to develop items which will help animals in zoos.

It is all Internet-based with pupils reading about zoo keepers and their animals online, then posting their creations on the site for the keepers to comment on. Pupils then refine their creation and keepers decide whether it could be used.

"We've had some really weird and wonderful creations and some really good ideas which have actually been used at the [Auckland] zoo," Ms Fry said.

The programme fitted in well with the New Zealand school curriculum, was very hands-on and encouraged research, design and testing skills, she said.

Ms Fry and Mrs Trewern have worked on a number of interactive programmes aimed at school pupils since meeting in 1999 and have just finished the third instalment of Sniff, Swing and Swipe.

The first and second instalments involved only Auckland Zoo but the third involves most of New Zealand's zoos.