20th November 2008

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The use of ICT in schools is dissolving boundaries and having a dramatic impact on schoolchildren living on either side of the border, according to new research by the School of Education in the University of Ulster and its cross-border partner NUI Maynooth.  

Based on data from 170 schools on both sides of the border, the report called Making a difference with ICT, paints a dramatic picture of how young people aged between 9 and18 years, including those with special needs, are ignoring the border in the interests of working together.  

Dr Roger Austin, co-director of the programme said the report’s findings provided clear evidence of the benefits of using ICT in schools. “ICT can improve literacy skills as well as other skills needed in citizenship such as respecting difference and valuing diversity. These qualities are also the ones needed to build a knowledge-based economy.”  

A teacher of deaf children agreed with Dr Austin’s positive assessment of the programme saying that their students would have a lot of literacy problems and using ICT to work collaboratively with other schools had really boosted their confidence. 

"Having to communicate with hearing people meant that they were at first very hesitant to show their literacy skills. But as time went on and they saw that the girls were responding positively to their messages, it gave them a lot of confidence, they used it a lot more which has really improved their literacy skills.” 

Dr Austin said that during the programme teachers observed how pupils in primary schools became so involved in their joint work with other schools that they followed up on their school activities by exchanging messages from home after school which meant them taking more responsibility for their own learning. 

“The boundaries being dissolved are also professional ones for teachers. One secondary school teacher commented on how she had to learn new ICT skills, such as video-conferencing and the on-line learning system to enable the pupils to exchange messages and build a website together. As she said, ‘it’s kind of pushed the boundaries out for me as well’”, he added. 

The Dissolving Boundaries programme is now in its ninth year and since its inception 400 schools have taken part, reaching close to 50,000 young people.

The programme is funded by the Departments of Education in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and managed by Roger Austin, Jane Smyth, Marie Mallon and Hazel Bailie in the School of Education at the University of Ulster and colleagues in NUI Maynooth.

For further information, please contact:

Trina Porter
Telephone: 028 71675511
Email: Trina Porter