Small Islands Voice Youth Internet Forum

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Small Islands VoiceYouth Internet Forum
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Objectives

• To find out the views of youth living on small
  islands
• To promote direct interaction between youth in
  different islands and different regions
• To test the potential of an un-moderated internet
  forum amongst schools

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Phase 1 of the SIV-YIF

• Ran from September to December 2002
• 6 secondary schools involved in 6 different
  islands
• Themes included sports, drugs and alcohol, and
  island lifestyles
• At the end of December 2002 an assessment was
  conducted

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Phases 2-4

• Additional schools and islands joined in
• Students selected the themes they wanted to
  discuss
• Assessments conducted at the end of each year
• Phase 3 in 2004 provided a starting point for the
  Youth Visioning discussions in Mauritius (Jan 05)

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Overall Assessment

• Conducted by Darcy Nugent of San Jose University
• During the period February-May 2005, visits made
  to 4 Caribbean islands, 2 Pacific islands, other
  islands involved in the forum were surveyed via
  email
• Still awaiting input from 4 islands
• Final report due summer 2005

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Results of Assessment (1)

• Every school in every country approaches the
  forum in a different manner, approaches range
  from using it as an extra-curricular activity to
  a very structured classroom activity
• This flexibility in approach is seen as an
  advantage

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Results of Assessment (2)

• There is a need for more interaction among
  teachers about how they use the forum
• Further training of the teachers is required in
  some islands
• Some schools wish to see a more structured
  approach to the forum in terms of timing,
  content, themes, expectations

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Results of Assessment (3)

• There is a need for a separate forum for primary
  schools and secondary schools
• Primary schools might be a future focus since
  they have much more flexibility in terms of their
  curriculum

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Results of Assessment (4)

• Main concerns from the students were (1) the
  length of time it took other students to respond
  and (2) the fact that sometimes people write in
  without responding to the previous discussion

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Areas to be discussed

• Should the SIV Youth forum be continued?
• If the answer is yes how should it be
  structured?
• How to provide for the main concern expressed in
  the assessment about the need for more teacher
  interaction?