GPS tracking of some Northern Ireland students – patterns of shared and separated space: divided we stand?

Northern Ireland is a fundamentally divided society and there is evidence of the two main communities there, Protestant and Catholic, leading essentially separate lives. These divisions are reflected in the largely segregated residential patterns for the communities and in the separate schooling that most of them experience. This paper examines these divisions and the young people's perceptions of their impact. Global positioning system (GPS) tracking devices are used to explore the patterns of movement of some young people and the effectiveness of this method of recording spatial mobility is examined. These devices seem, only recently, to be becoming a technology that Geography teachers would consider using in their classrooms and in the field to support learning and to develop an interest in GPS and other spatial technologies. It is argued that there are many potential uses of the devices by Geography teachers.