WORKING TOGETHER
Internet2 Videoconferences Connect Partners from Mexico and California
BY RICHARD DURÁN, JIM GRIESHOP, ROSA MONTES, SYLVIA ROJAS-DRUMMOND, AND CHARLES UNDERWOOD
In the past year, members of the MexLinks Internet2 Project came together to explore the implications of new technology for distance learning in low-income communities in the United States and in Mexico.
Funded by UC Mexus, CONACYT, and UC Nexus, the MexLinks consortium includes participants from the Autonomous University of Puebla (UAP), the Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City (UNAM), three campuses of the University of California (UC Davis, UC San Diego, and UC Santa Barbara), and the UC Links Statewide Office.
Using high-bandwidth Internet2 technology, MexLinks sponsored a series of four videoconference research seminars from February to June, 2002. Participants agreed on a series of readings in sociocultural theory and shared responsibility for leading presentations and discussing research, experiences, and video data. The participating campuses also took turns in providing the technical support necessary for carrying out the videoconferences.
The videoconference seminars provided a valuable opportunity for participants to collaborate in real time with distant colleagues who share an interest in both programs and research focused on children’s linguistic and cognitive development. For example, students and researchers at the Autonomous University of Puebla, who find that they must make frequent trips to Mexico City each semester to conduct research, welcomed the chance to communicate regularly with other Mexican and US scholars without having to travel long distances.
Participants at the Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City also appreciated being able to interact with others who run computer education projects similar to their Fifth Dimension project. Many of Professor Sylvia Drummond-Rojas’s students found that the series gave them a more concrete sense of UC Links programs, which they had previously only read about.
At the same time, MexLinks participants used the videoconferences to assess the limitations and possibilities of existing distance communication technologies for teaching and learning, and used the events as an opportunity to discuss appropriate pedagogies for this medium.
Together, the MexLinks collaborators encountered a number of challenges in their efforts to reach across linguistic, cultural, disciplinary, and pedagogical, as well as national boundaries. Different campuses had different technical resources, so what was a smooth videoconference for some was choppy for others. Secondly, the nature of the technology provided for constraints on communication, and participants had to learn their way around these constraints. By the end of the videoconference series, however, seminar participants agreed that the experience was an auspicious beginning for subsequent distance learning collaborations.
MexLinks now looks to the future in the hope of facilitating educational exchanges among researchers, university students, and the community children and adults who participate in UC Links and Fifth Dimension after-school computer clubs.
Richard Durán is a professor in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at UC Santa Barbara. Jim Grieshop is a specialist and lecturer in the Department of Human and Community Development at UC Davis. Rosa Montes is a professor in the Institute for Social Science and Humanities at the Autonomous University of Puebla. Sylvia Rojas-Drummond is a professor of psychology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. Charles Underwood is Executive Director of UC Links.
Working Together
Internet2 Videoconferences Connect Partners from Mexico and California
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