LIME Internet Summer School

The curtains came down on the 2010 edition of LIME’ s Internet Summer School last Saturday, August 28, with a graduation ceremony.{{more}}

292 students took part in this programme, ranging in ages 8 to 18 years of age, including 53 students from the Chateaubelair.

Since 2005, LIME has committed itself to providing persons of different ages an overview of the benefits of the world wide web, according to Sandra Matthews, LIME’s Human Resource Manager.

The three-week long programme covered a number of Internet related topics, including search engines, web browsers, data base and spread sheet, and introduction to networking.

Featured speaker at Saturday’s function, Kyle De Freitas, spoke of the importance of having working knowledge in the information and technology field.

“Our generation must be equipped to deal with the changing world that we live in,” De Freitas said.

“The CSME and globalization are inevitable forces which we must utilize technology to be more competitive.”

Despite its usefulness, the Internet can also “build you or break you,” De Freitas explained.

“The proper use of the Internet will separate the excellent students from the average students,” De Freitas said.

This point warranted a call from Minister of Technology, Dr Jerrol Thompson to parents that they needed to become “responsible agents.”

Minister Thompson spoke on the issue of providing students with laptops, saying that while the project has some support, some persons are of the view that students’ handwriting will become affected; students may become more distracted and be more exposed to cyber crime.

“And the answer is yes, but we are going to have to work very hard with parents, and we have passed legislation that makes it illegal for hacking, harassment or to do any sort of other illegal activities on the Internet,” Thompson said.

“And we are going to partner with companies to ensure that cyber crime does not become a serious issue here in St Vincent,” he continued.

“We are not going to totally prevent, but it does not mean that we should not engage in technology.” (DD)