Dr Roger Austin,
University of Ulster,
Northern Ireland
Dr Austin referred to the influence of the Contact Hypothesis as a framework for trying to support school links. He pointed to the significance of certain key ideas, including the emphasis on cooperation rather than competition, participants being of equal status, links being based on groups rather than individuals and the need for a long
term rather than short term approach.
A third set of ideas concerned the handling of controversial issues. Dr Austin spoke of the need for a gradient approach to controversial issues, building trust among teachers and students before tackling 'hot' issues.Reference was also made to the importance of Habermas' notion of working on agreed approaches to conflict resolution in the absence of widely accepted values in society.
Turning to the implementation of these ideas to actual projects, a case was made for 4 key components;
The first case study was of the European Studies Senior Programme; it has 370 schools in 15 countries, is based on a 1 year programme for 16-18 year olds with 'Clusters' of schools across Europe. Students use email, video-conferencing and the Internet to carry out joint investigation of agreed topics.
There are residential planning courses for teachers and Dr Austin showed examples from the Internet of students' collaborative work.
Accreditation was available in the form of the Certificate in Contemporary European Studies provided by the Associated Examining Board, in the United Kingdom. Students undertake coursework and a written exam which is available in English, French and German; at present this course is followed by students in 5 European countries.
The second example shown by Dr Austin was that of Computer conferencing in International history.
200 schools in 6 countries have been participating in the discussions on 20th century international history; the conferences are 'open' for 6 months for 16-18 year olds, trainee history teachers and 'experts' who offer new
evidence and interpretations.
Students express their ideas in French, German and English. The conference was shown how the system on CampusWorld can handle both text and graphics; a new conference was announced for the start of November
1996 which would stay open till June 1997.
In concluding his comments on computer mediated conferencing (CMC) in history Dr Austin spoke of the importance of new interpretations and evidence being brought into play by experts, the key role played by the
ideas of evidence and perspectives, and the creation of a community of learners with a 'flat hierarchy'. It was also shown that in many cases, taking part in a conference improved motivation and writing skills.
On the broader issue of the role of computer conferencing in conflict mediation, Dr Austin underlined the ways that asynchronous discourse used in e-mail and computer conferencing encouraged time for reflection and equal opportunities for all students to join in. He also pointed to the fact that conferencing put the emphasis on the quality of argument in the text rather than on the person who was making the comment.Finally, he made the point that large numbers could take part at no great expense.
Dr Austin finished his presentation by referring to 4 critical issues.
The first was the significance of self-esteem among young people and the implications for teaching styles and teacher training. The second was the need to reach the disaffected and alienated who often missed out on international projects. The third was the necessity for continued financial support at national and European levels and the last was the urgent need for a truly trans-European computer conferencing network to be developed.