29th November 2000

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Deputy First Minister, Seamus Mallon MP, MLA, today linked up with young people across Northern Ireland from the Jordanstown campus of the University of Ulster using the Internet and videoconferencing.

The event, ‘Schools On-line’ was established as a pilot project to allow 13-16 year olds in school to use Information Technology to talk to Mr Mallon and ask him questions about the governance of Northern Ireland. The project is supported by the University of Ulster’s School of Education and the Department of Education.

At today’s event, Mr Mallon responded to on-line comments and questions from pupils which had been posted into an online conference hosted by the Northern Ireland Network for Education (NINE).

He also linked to two of the schools, St Pius X in Magherafelt and Dromore High school by video-conference to talk to pupils about their experience of ‘open government’.

The online discussions began less than two weeks ago when UU student teachers started working with teachers and pupils in their teaching practice schools to answer questions the Deputy First Minister had posed. The items for debate included the pupils’ hopes and fears for the future of Northern Ireland, what role they thought information technology might play in their lives and what they thought about the present arrangements for governing Northern Ireland.

In just seven working days, a total of seventy messages from across Northern Ireland were sent to the Minister, in what University of Ulster Lecturer, Dr Roger Austin said was “a very impressive example of open democracy for young people using new communications technology.”

Dr Austin added:

“It is also impressive evidence of how government spending on ICT in schools is impacting in the classroom and of the growing confidence of teachers and student teachers in the use of ICT for such important work.

“For the University’s School of Education, this is the latest in a series of ICT events and projects which have received almost £1m in funding over the last 4 years.”

For further information, please contact:

Press Office Department of Communication and Development
Telephone: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk