UDMessenger

Volume 12, Number 4, 2004


Exploring the world...

...sharing the experience

Technology is being used at UD to create innovative, long-distance partnerships that sometimes extend between cultures and continents.

During Winter Session 2004, a group of students and faculty members from the School of Education who participated in a study-abroad program in Ireland were able to share their day-to-day experiences with youngsters who attend The College School. In turn, the first- through eighth-graders virtually traveled along to the Emerald Isle without ever leaving their private school on the University campus.

The College School children were able to ask questions of the UD students about their activities or--by doing some research of their own--let the undergraduates know what to expect as they moved to their various destinations in Ireland.

The interactions were made possible by a multimedia web site [www.oet.udel.edu/Ireland] designed by Ryan Arthurton, a graduate student in educational technology who traveled with the study-abroad group. The site was set up to enable the UD students to post daily updates of their trip, including written descriptions of their activities and photo slideshows complete with audio, which The College School (TCS) students had the opportunity to access, study and discuss in class.

"Each class and age level at TCS used the tool on a different level, with the classroom teachers deciding exactly how involved they would like to be," Arthurton says. "One of the keys of the partnership was the ability for both the UD Ireland Team members and TCS students to upload images, video or other files to the site so that the opposite party could view them and learn more about Ireland."

The 24 undergraduates in the program took courses in Irish children's literature and adolescent development, taught by School of Education faculty members Gwynne Ash and Gail Rys, while abroad. They crisscrossed Ireland, visiting numerous historical and cultural sites and several Irish schools, where they observed general classroom lessons, English-Gaelic bilingual issues and a program in Northern Ireland that teaches conflict resolution to adolescents.

Meanwhile, teachers at The College School were incorporating the study of Ireland into their classroom lessons. Younger children perused the photos and videos Arthurton posted on the web site, and they practiced such skills as map-reading by following the UD students' travels around the country. Older students delved more deeply into research, in books and online, on Irish history, and they sometimes e-mailed questions that forced the University students to do some research of their own in order to answer them thoroughly.

"Sending back an immediate answer wasn't always possible because the kids asked such good questions," Arthurton says. "It was also very interesting for me to watch the UD students in Ireland as they tried to formulate their answers in the best way for a particular age group."

"The trip was definitely one of my best experiences at the University," says participant Liz Behr, CHEP '06, an elementary education major. "It was put together so well, and interacting with The College School kids made it even more interesting and fun."

The high-tech approach, with its immediate interaction and reliance on computers, also appealed to the younger students, TCS teacher Linda Alles says. Her class worked in teams, checking the web site daily during the Ireland trip, sending questions and information to the UD group, doing research on Irish history and reading Irish literature that Rys and Ash had supplied to The College School before the trip.

"I really liked using the web site," 11-year-old Michael says. "It was a lot more fun than just reading a book about Ireland, because you could ask questions and the students would answer."

His classmate Josh agrees: "E-mailing back and forth helps you learn a lot. Plus, you learn about what's happening right now in Ireland, not what somebody wrote in a book a long time ago."

Now that the group has returned, Chrystalla Mouza, assistant professor of education, and Arthurton have interviewed and surveyed the participants to research how the interactive partnership was implemented and its outcome. They are collecting and analyzing data to try to determine how the web site was used in communication between the two groups, how TCS teachers integrated the project into the curriculum and how the initiative enhanced student learning.