The internet revolution has led to the proliferation of accessible web-based educational resources.

The IOI-Kids website (www.ioi kids.net) uses the internet as a tool to create awareness and knowledge-sharing about the sea among younger generations.

The website features attractive visual content on the marine environment through interactive educational games and resources, informative articles, quizzes, and video features, including contributions from young authors, teachers, and individuals.

The IOI-Kids initiative is funded by International Ocean Institute (IOI), and was started through its Malta operational centre at the University of Malta. The initiative originated from an idea by IOI-MOC director Aldo Drago.

The project started with the setting–up of the website in 2007. The second phase involved increasing the visibility of IOI-Kids; expanding the educational materials with greater participation from the recipients, promoting cooperation with other IOI centers, notably in Slovenia and South Africa, and establishing the website as a resource for educational and cross-cultural exchanges.

The project is now poised to grow into a system-wide, online IOI platform, involving a wide group of collaborating IOI centers.

The IOI-Kids website is structured into a number of self-contained, interrelated components. Its main elements are classified under three main target streams.

The first is learning through fun experiences: it makes use of a colourful and appealing web environment to present knowledge of the marine environment through leisure activities such as interactive educational games, user-friendly and informative articles, and structured online lessons on interesting themes, as well as audio and video clips.

The second is the IOI-Kids teamwork. This provides a facility for the direct involvement of children from primary and secondary schools to create projects to share with others, interact with other children across the globe, participate in thematic competitions and team-up with friends, working together on projects. There is also a news section where schools can report their activities.

The third stream is a teacher’s resource, providing teachers with additional materials to enrich their lessons, aligned to national curricula. This encourages experts and educators in marine and environment-related fields to submit resources for online publication to share with other teachers and students.

The IOI-Kids website intends to provide a virtual warehouse and information mining service on the sea. In its most innovative element, IOI-Kids creates the basis for virtual learning by supporting a more IT-based classroom, where traditional whiteboards and exercise books are replaced with monitors and virtual writing pads.

IOI-Kids primarily seeks to provide educational resources on the sea, specifically for younger children, as well as teaching aids for educators. The initiative contributes to school curriculums through dedicated tutorials, notes, and video clips, and provides a warehouse of additional information upon which curricular sea-related topics can be established and enhanced.

As its content increases, the IOI- Kids website will aim to provide teachers with the tools to add notes, as well as to post their didactic materials to share with other colleagues across schools and countries.

The intention is to increase content on the website through contributions by teachers who want to share their lessons, as well as by students who want to publish their projects.

In its current format, the website consists of the following key sections: ‘IOI-Kids Games and Quizzes; ‘Info 4 Kids’ (lectures, videos, history and legends); ‘IOI-Kids News’ (Spot the Jellyfish homepage, local and international competitions); ‘IOI-Kids International’ (contains links to other IOI Centres in the world); ‘IOI-Kids Projects’ (allows children to share projects related to the sea); ‘IOI-Kids Opinion’ (provides online forum facilities).

A paper, co-authored by Prof. Drago, Martin Galea Degiovanni, Alicia Said and myself, illustrating the salient features of the IOI-Kids website, was published in the current edition of the Journal of Marine Education, published by the National Marine Educators Association (NMEA) of the US.

The IOI was founded in 1972 and is an international NGO, with centres in 25 different countries and special consultative status within the United Nations.

The IOI’s key missions include disseminating information, shareing and transfering knowledge and experiences, and instilling within the younger generations a greater interest in the sea.

To further spread the legacy of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), IOI also organises the Pacem in Maribus (PIM) conferences.

At the 32nd PIM conference in Malta in November 2007, the emerging Malta declaration called for youth to help protect the marine environment; to move beyond the narrow circles of ocean professionals and stakeholders to broader audiences, whose knowledge and understanding are key to the support of sound ocean policy, and to change perceptions and heighten appreciation for the oceans and its importance to our lives and future.

The IOI-Kids project represents the IOI’s mission to help children, youth, community groups, and teachers across the world share ideas, projects, and experiences about the sea.

Dr Deidun is a lecturer at the IOI-Malta Operational Centre of the University of Malta and the resident marine biologist for the www.ioikids.net website.

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If you wish to contribute an article or would like a particular subject tackled in the Education section, call Davinia Hamilton on 2559 4513 or e-mail dhamilton@timesofmalta.com.

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