A room full of 11- and 12-year-olds and a photo of a fax and a telex on the screen. “What do you see here?”, asks program director Casimir Blokland. “A keyboard that outputs paper,” answers a boy. “A wonderful description,” praises Casimir. Casimir takes the 140 bridge class students on a whirlwind tour of the enormous development that has taken place in the field of technology and digital means over the past decades. From the very first smartphone in 2007, the iPhone1 to all the possibilities of smartphones and AI now. Super handy. For example, as help with your history project. But criminals also make clever use of all technology and digital means. Bank helpdesk fraud, dating fraud, money mules, fake police officers. Unfortunately, there are many forms of crime that take advantage of the digital world.
One of the tasks of the Digital Transformation program is to warn people about these forms of online crime. They are now enlisting a special helpline, the bridge class students from Portus Meridiem. The school offers students practical assignments from the business world or, as in this case, the police, through the Technasium. “With these kinds of assignments, we challenge you to come up with solutions. By being curious and asking yourself: how does this work? What is needed? How can we solve this? What creative solutions can we invent?” explains director Ronilla Snelle of the school community.
In the coming weeks, students will receive some in-depth lessons on online crime at school. After that, it will be time to get to work and develop a campaign. At the end of November, they will present this to a jury. The winning idea will be highlighted on the AVRO TROS Opgelicht website and will actually be used to warn people.
