Background for the Albert County Youth Video Town Hall project using Flipgrid
In September all MP candidates for the Fundy Royal riding were contacted by Mr. Kelly from Caledonia Regional. He told the candidates that his grade 7 and 8 students had recorded short video concerns and questions and that they hoped to hear back from the candidates in a similar manner by October 11th 2019. He also noted that the students were too young to vote in the coming election.
Student concerns ranged from the cost of sports, to taxes, homelessness, LGBTQ support and even voting age alterations. These kids didn't hold back and hit the MP hopefuls with important topics.
October 11th - After spending precious time viewing all of the student videos again and again (300+ views) the MP Candidates Alaina Lockhart (Liberals), Rob Moore (Conservatives) and James Tolan (NDP) responded in their own way to our students. Alaina Lockhart went very personal naming each student and addressing each concern in a conversational way. James Tolan as well went very personal with the video replies! Rob Moore went more broad with his introduction and thanks while taking the time to answer each specific question. Mr. Kelly would later cut the larger response up to help make them more personal for each student concern. That explains the repetitive intro and outro for each of Rob Moore's responses.
All of these representatives took time from the busiest 2 weeks of the Fall election to record thoughtful and respectful responses for the youth of Albert County. In our eyes they all have already won! In our eyes, our students were the biggest winners this Fall thanks to these responses.
Overall, four out of five candidates expressed interest in replying and as of October 11th 2019 two had actually replied.
We want to wish EVERY candidate the best of luck in late October and thank them for the time and respect it took to reply in this modern format.
The Albert County Youth Video Town Hall, using Microsoft's Flipgrid app, was a super successful project capitalizing on the fact that every student in New Brunswick was gifted Microsoft Office 365 last Fall by the Department of Education. Big choices at the top can have major impacts in classrooms. Our students now feel empowered and it was awesome to use this technology to share student voice with the MP hopefuls and you as a media member.
Thanks for any interest in this process and result.
Mr. Ben Kelly
Caledonia Regional
506-734-3710
Student concerns ranged from the cost of sports, to taxes, homelessness, LGBTQ support and even voting age alterations. These kids didn't hold back and hit the MP hopefuls with important topics.
October 11th - After spending precious time viewing all of the student videos again and again (300+ views) the MP Candidates Alaina Lockhart (Liberals), Rob Moore (Conservatives) and James Tolan (NDP) responded in their own way to our students. Alaina Lockhart went very personal naming each student and addressing each concern in a conversational way. James Tolan as well went very personal with the video replies! Rob Moore went more broad with his introduction and thanks while taking the time to answer each specific question. Mr. Kelly would later cut the larger response up to help make them more personal for each student concern. That explains the repetitive intro and outro for each of Rob Moore's responses.
All of these representatives took time from the busiest 2 weeks of the Fall election to record thoughtful and respectful responses for the youth of Albert County. In our eyes they all have already won! In our eyes, our students were the biggest winners this Fall thanks to these responses.
Overall, four out of five candidates expressed interest in replying and as of October 11th 2019 two had actually replied.
We want to wish EVERY candidate the best of luck in late October and thank them for the time and respect it took to reply in this modern format.
The Albert County Youth Video Town Hall, using Microsoft's Flipgrid app, was a super successful project capitalizing on the fact that every student in New Brunswick was gifted Microsoft Office 365 last Fall by the Department of Education. Big choices at the top can have major impacts in classrooms. Our students now feel empowered and it was awesome to use this technology to share student voice with the MP hopefuls and you as a media member.
Thanks for any interest in this process and result.
Mr. Ben Kelly
Caledonia Regional
506-734-3710
