Unlike many other competitions, the IN-EDU hackathon did not finish immediately after the best teams received their prizes, on the contrary – the participants were encouraged to realize their creative ideas by using the fund, provided by IN-EDU. The aim was to promote the topic of media and information literacy widely and to do it through the students, in their language, because they know best how to attract like-minded classmates and how to present this topic to their parents. The stimulus for the teams was not only the opportunity to put their knowledge into practice, but also to win the additional awards.

The results speak for themselves – for only 4 months the 6 awarded teams managed to engage more than 500 000 students and parents through their campaigns. They have used their creativity to produce content varying from simple educational posters and posts through interviews with public figures in the form of podcasts to guidebook for media and information literacy. All these materials were created after throughout research and were widely spread both online and offline. Thus they managed to help their audience to orientate better in the digital world.

The teams presented the results of their campaigns during an online event, which was held on 28th of May and streamed for the general public. The public had to make the hard decision who deserves most to receive the two additional awards – 1500 BGN and working visit to the Bulgarian National Television. The teams MEDIAcated and Messengers were selected as the best of the best. The visit in “the kitchen” of the Bulgarian National Television was a special prize provided and organized by Sofia Development Association and it seemed to be highly appreciate by the teams. They got involved in the whole process of getting ready for being on air, met journalists, gave interviews, fell in love in the atmosphere and even considered to follow the lead of the their mentors of the day.

The decision for the rest of the financial prize in the amount of BGN 3,500 was taken by Sofia Development Association and DZZD Obuchenie having into consideration the full reports of the activities of the teams. The awarded teams were MEDIAcated, Messengers and Our voice – now they have the chance to develop their campaigns even further and make a positive change in the online behavior of their audience. Congratulations and good luck!