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Students share virtual version of Ireland trip

11:16 a.m., Jan. 8, 2004--As a group of UD students and faculty from the School of Education studies abroad in Ireland this Winter Session, some youngsters at The College School are joining them in a virtual version of the same trip.

A multimedia, interactive web site designed by Ryan Arthurton, a graduate student in educational technology who is traveling with the group, is making the shared experience possible. The 24 UD undergraduates in Ireland are using the site to post daily updates of their trip, from written descriptions of their activities to photo slideshows complete with audio.

In turn, the children in The College School, which is a private school on the University campus for grades one through eight, are able to access the site each day. The information they acquire about the older students’ experiences and about Ireland is being incorporated into classroom lessons and discussions in The College School. The youngsters also can post questions on the site for the UD students to answer or—by doing some research of their own here at home—let the undergraduates know what to expect as they move to various destinations in Ireland.

“Each class and age level at The College School [TCS] will use 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 is 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 can view them and learn more about Ireland.”

While they are abroad, the undergraduates are taking courses in Irish children’s literature and adolescent development, taught by Gail Rys, assistant director of the School of Education, and Gwynne Ash, assistant professor of education. They are spending time in Dublin, Cork, the western coast of Galway, Sligo and Northern Ireland. At several of these locations, they are visiting schools to observe general classroom lessons, English-Gaelic bilingual issues and a program in Northern Ireland that teaches conflict resolution to adolescents.

After the group returns, Chrystalla Mouza, assistant professor of education, and Arthurton plan to do research on how the interactive e-partnership was implemented in different classrooms and its effectiveness as an educational tool.

Chris Clark, director of UD’s School of Education, says the project “represents an ideal example of vertical integration in our work in teacher education,” because it involves such a wide range of participants: Faculty members are involved as instructors while abroad and as researchers after the group returns; UD graduate and undergraduate students are teaching youngsters in The College School while they themselves are learning; teachers in The College School are enriching their classroom instruction; and the schoolchildren are learning through their electronic interactions with University students and, possibly, with schoolchildren in Ireland.

The students return from Ireland on Feb. 2. Members of the University community and the public can share the study abroad experience on the web at [www.oet.udel.edu/Ireland].

Article by Ann Manser

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