INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS
UC Links and the Fifth Dimension: A Global Network Convenes in Amsterdam
BY MANUEL FERNANDEZ AND SYLVIA ROJAS-DRUMMOND
Last summer, several UC Links researchers attended the meeting of the International Society for Cultural Research and Activity Theory (ISCRAT) in Amsterdam, Netherlands. ISCRAT researchers explore human activity from a sociocultural perspective that is inspired by the work of Russian psychologist Lev S. Vygotsky and Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin. Vygotsky and Bakhtin both recognized the importance of cultural tools and language for the construction of meaning.
With our UC Links colleagues, we presented a poster session highlighting Fifth Dimension and UC Links sites around the world. In these sites, collaborators create learning environments where children, university students, community members, and researchers explore together the different ways people construct knowledge. To do this, participants engage in informal educational activities and create a "micro-culture" that is an alternative to the culture of formal education. Most Fifth Dimensions and UC Links sites are located in after-school clubs, but some are situated within schools and provide a space where participants can re-think classroom practices.
Dr. Sylvia Rojas-Drummond leads a project in a primary school in Mexico. This program is part of a consortium of sites in California and Mexico called MexLinks, funded by the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States (UC Mexus) and the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACYT). The aim of the consortium is to improve the preparation of young people for college. Participating programs work with families who have had limited educational opportunities, giving them access to resources that support development of literacy, social, and cognitive skills. (For more information about MexLinks, see "Internet2 Videoconferences Connect Partners From Mexico and California.")
At the conference, we discussed with our colleagues the importance of the collaborative involvement of both community and university representatives to support Fifth Dimension and UC Links projects, cultural variations among sites in Mexico and the United States, and the ways that Fifth Dimension and UC Links programs enhance undergraduate and graduate education.
The worldwide UC Links and Fifth Dimension network was well represented at the conference. Our fellow presenters included Bill Blanton (University of Miami), Michael Cole (UC San Diego), Richard Durán (UC Santa Barbara), Pentti Hakkarainen (University of Oulu, Finland), Victor Kaptelinin and colleagues (Umea University, Sweden), Monica Nilsson (Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden), José Luis Lalueza (Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain), Honorine Nocon (Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition, UC San Diego), and Berthel Sutter (Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden). Jim Grieshop (UC Davis), Rosa Montes (Autonomous University of Puebla, Mexico), Charles Underwood (University of California Office of the President), and Mara Welsh (UC Berkeley) contributed to the session but were unable to attend the conference.
Manuel Fernandez is a PhD student in the Centre for Language and Communications at The Open University, United Kingdom. Sylvia Rojas-Drummond is a professor of psychology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City. Manuel Fernandez may be contacted at J.M.Fernandez-Cardenas@open.ac.uk, and Professor Rojas-Drummond may be contacted at silviar@servidor.unam.mx.
Internet2 Videoconferences Connect Partners from Mexico and California
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International Connections
UC Links and the Fifth Dimension: A Global Network Convenes in Amsterdam