"It's fun, pretty cool and a way to make new friends," stated Warwick Academy Year 11 student Tyler Balcombe of the World News Share programme launched this autumn term.

World News Share is a new, multi-media, international exchange programme piloted for students in Bermuda and the Lowcountry of South Carolina.

The students of Mr. Luke Burgess and Ms Alex Turley at Warwick Academy and the students of Mr. Grant Kennedy and Ms Renee Kuchler at CedarBridge Academy are using technology and the world of the Internet to share knowledge and develop informed opinions on the current events, culture, politics and economies of their respective communities.

Using the newspaper as the main text, students are following a ten-week course of study designed by their teachers to meet the goals of the English and Social Studies curricula, developing writing and research skills in the process.

"It's a good experience," commented Warwick Academy student Seth Wilson, " You meet new people, make new friends and learn about new cultures. I would like to see different schools in more communities participate."

Classmate Ryan Gunn added, " It's a good opportunity all students should have. It gives you a different outlook on other cultures, so you're not stuck with one point of view."

Students go online to find questions on one particular theme each week. So far they have explored culture and sports and leisure; and an example of one of the questions and student responses can be found on page 13.

Once the students have completed their lessons and had their work approved by their teachers, the completed assignments are exchanged via a secure Internet share site with those of a partner class in Charleston who have completed the same assignment. One CedarBridge class and the Warwick Academy class are twinned with classes in Charleston County School of the Arts.0

Students from the St. Andrew's Middle School exchange responses with students from the second CedarBridge class. The students then review and critique each others' work.

"It's really, really, good," commented Ms Turley. "It's good for developing the use of primary data, and I've been quite impressed with the quality of the students' work. They're enjoying receiving feedback from the (Charleston students)."

She added: "They're finding the newspaper more useful than they thought it would be, and more readable than they expected.

"There's more in the newspaper to interest them than they had expected, and they're surprised at how useful the newspaper can be (in answering the questions)."

Colleague Luke Burgess stated, "It's an incredibly enriching programme, allowing the diversity of children in Bermuda and Charleston to learn about each other's cultures, to build bridges. It's a lot of fun."

Student responses will appear in The Royal Gazette every Thursday for the next five weeks. For more information about the programme contact Jennifer Hind at nie@royalgazette.bm or 278-0136.