Small Islands Voice Youth Internet Forum

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

Phase 1 of the SIV-YIF Ran from September to December 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

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)

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 Still awaiting input from 4 islands Final report due summer 2005

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

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

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

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

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?