Issue date: 7/24/08 Section: Campus

Media Credit: Madda, Mary Jo Residents display campaign signage for the upcoming election in front lawns around Evanston.

Kindergartners across the state of Illinois will be able to cast their presidential vote on November 4, thanks to select members of Northwestern University's Information Technology department.

Not that their votes will count toward the general election. Rather, the folks at NUIT hope that participation in the iVote08 initiative will trigger something greater in the minds of youths.

The goal of the iVote08 initiative, a project which has been in the works for over a year, is to motivate youth and young adults to turn their civic concern into political advocacy. The iVote08 project exists within the larger Collaboratory project, an online public policy forum that was funded by a grant from the McCormick Tribune Foundation and is used by educators statewide. The grant was initially intended for Illinois students ages 15-22, though the project has been extended outside of state and age parameters.

"We hope to bridge the gap between civic engagement and democratic participation," said Roxana Hadad, the instructional designer and support specialist for the Collaboratory. "This isn't just an election about personalities; we're not even necessarily talking about the national election. It could be a local election or referendums."

Hadad says that the main goal of the initiative, and the Collaboratory as a whole, is for young people to have a place to express their concern and get other people to care about and take part in their passion for certain issues.

Along with the general election that will be held in November, there are a multitude of resources available for teachers and students who are registered Collaboratory participants.

A similar presidential election was hosted by the Collaboratory in 2004 and 4000 students voted online. "What is cool is that you can manipulate the data from that election and see how kids in southern Illinois voted compared to kids in northern Illinois," said Hadad,

There are over 13,000 educators and 50,000 students who are registered users of the Collaboratory project. "We were able to, through the Collaboratory, promote our own programs and encourage the kids who participate in our programs to sign up and participate in the iVote process," said Nisan Chavkin, the associate director of the CRFC.

"It's not a direct system and it's hard work. That's reality; it's not a cute little civic lesson," said Chavkin.

Diana Hess, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is conducting a study to assess whether initiatives like iVote08 will influence the future democratic participation.

"Her preliminary data suggests that students do become more attuned to public policy questions," said Chavkin. "You'll find that any place in America, any place in the world, you'll have kids paying attention to what's going on and it's worth listening to."

elizabethclark2010@u.northwestern.edu

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools