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Irish president urges students to connect
online
By Laura Baker
Booth Memorial High School
St. John's, Newfoundland |
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Students from Newfoundland and Ireland paired up over
the Internet to work on an animation project and display the
finished product during a visit from the Irish president to St.
John's.
Students and teachers at Booth Memorial High School held an
assembly on October 14 to mark the visit from President Mary
MacAleese, the only school stop during her eleven-day trip to
Canada.
The reason for the assembly was to "Continue The Connection".
Two years ago, STELLAR Schools was launched in Newfoundland,
a program which provides Internet use to students and teachers
for curriculum purposes. Last year, Booth Memorial held a ceremony
to launch STELLAR Schools in Ireland. |
Irish and Canadian students participate
in the animation of a graphic
Clip
1 -Creating an Animation |
This year marked a new milestone in Booth Memorial's technology
advancements. Using a top- notch computer software program, students
from Booth Memorial and students from Christian Brothers Secondary
School in Tramore, County Waterford in Ireland put together an
animated design that included the Canadian and Irish flags. This
was done solely through the use of computers and the Internet. |
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The audience watched the video linkup in awe as Kandi Gray and
Keith Maddocks, grade 12 students at Booth Memorial, displayed
their half of the project. Then, David Dineen, a grade 12 student,
and Tomas Breen, a grade 11 student of CBS in Tramore, took over
the mouse and finished the rest of the design. |
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The president then proceeded to talk with the students, both
those gathered in the school auditorium in St. John's and those
on the computer screen in Tramore, Ireland. She was interested
to know their views on the use of technology in terms of education
and global unity.
When she asked the students in Tramore what the weather was
like in Ireland, MacAleese pointed out that the people who organized
the event in St. John's had even gone through the trouble of
making her feel at home by having fog and rain. She then elaborated
on the many similarities that Newfoundland and Ireland have,
from dialect to culture to food. |
Irish President Mary MacAleese talks with
students in Tramore, County Waterford
Clip
2 -Talking with Tramore
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President MacAleese addresses the
students
Clip
3 -Addressing the students |
After chatting with the students, the president made an address
to the audience. She spoke about the importance of technology
in education and how it could be used to renew and strengthen
Newfoundland's ties to Ireland.
The ceremony at Booth Memorial was broadcast live on the World
Wide Web and on Irish television. Overall, the ceremony was about
multimedia and the future of students. Not only did it show how
advanced a school Booth Memorial is, but also how important computers
are in today's classrooms. |
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