Tweeting in the footsteps of adventurer

The Year 8 pupils took part in the @GHSJourney project which saw them documenting their way to school through pictures which were then uploaded to social networking site Twitter.

The project was the idea of history teacher, John Sharpe, who took the inspiration from intrepid adventurer John Salopek.

Salopek’s Out of Eden Walk recreates our ancestor’s original journey out of Africa and across the world.

The writer is documenting the seven-year journey online and examining how climate change, technological innovation, mass migration and cultural survival affect different people.

Glengormley High School history teacher John Sharpe tasked his pupils to document their walk to school and set-up a dedicated Twitter account to follow the group’s work.

He explained: “Using Twitter we wanted the group to document their way to school that would help the children make the best use of new technologies.

“They are always on the phone, so the idea is that we try and use the technology as a part of our teaching to benefit their education.”

He went on: “The idea was devised with the assistance of the school’s head of the ICT Department Jackie Stewart.

“I set up a Twitter account for Year 8 girls to tweet photos of their journey into and out of school which has gone on to include whatever they found to be interesting.

“We wanted to start small to develop the idea and see how it would work and the girls have really taken to it well and enjoyed the project and next year we will be expanding it out to include more children.

“Also for teaching it has proved very valuable. There are teachers in other parts of the world who are interacting with us and sharing resources.

“And you can connect directly with historians, the possibilities for teaching are endless and it all goes to help improve education. My A-Level class has benefited in their studies and it is the kind of thing you have to do to keep education relevant.”

The Times was shown a selection of the girl’s best pictures and our photographer, Freddie Parkinson selected the best image from the group, a close up shot of a tree with jet trails from the arriving G8 entourage streaking through the sky by Jody Lee Sinclair.

Freddie said he was impressed with the mix of nature and technology captured in the picture.