2.4 Case study: virtual exchange
Porto (2016) conducted a study of a virtual exchange among 70 participants: 50 fifth and sixth-form children aged 10–11 in Argentina and 20 seventh-form students aged 12–13 in Denmark. As part of the exchange, students had to carry out a series of virtual exchange tasks for six months. The project aimed to support children’s understanding of environmental issues and ability to recognise similar issues in their own surroundings, by encouraging the children to explore and reflect on environmental issues both locally – in their own communities – and globally. The exchange was carried out in English, which both groups of children were learning as a foreign language.
Design and task sequence
A wiki page was set up for the project, which the participating children used to document the different activities and also to communicate with each other asynchronously. The project involved a wide range of tasks:
- Carrying out a litter analysis in participating children’s schools and then comparing and discussing results in the wiki.
- Carrying out a survey among family members and friends regarding their environmental habits, uploading results to the wiki and discussing them.
- Analysing critically (audio)visual media images and texts, produced in Argentina and in Denmark, to gain awareness of the power the media has in each country in creating stereotypical images of environmental issues that may influence attitudes and behaviours.
- Collaboratively designing posters to raise awareness of environmental issues via Skype and the chat option in the wiki.
- Taking action locally by carrying out some civic actions in their communities. The Argentinian children created videos and songs and shared them on a Facebook page of the project they designed themselves. In Denmark, children put up collaborative posters in their school and their community centre; they also contacted Greenpeace and the local newspaper and shared information about the project.
Learning outcomes
The study reported developing children’s digital reading and writing literacies, as well as the skills involved in intercultural citizenship, namely observing, discovering, describing, analysing, relating, comparing, contrasting, perspective-taking, criticality and reflexivity. In so doing, children discovered commonalities among themselves, reflected on how their interest in the environment brought them together, and in this way created a sense of bonding that transcended geographical boundaries.
The Climate Action Project
A further example of virtual exchange is provided by the Climate Action Project [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] , which brings together teachers and students aged 3-21 years across hundreds of countries to collaborate on environmental topics over a six-week period. The Climate Action Project website offers helpful guidance on running a virtual exchange-based climate action project, including a handbook, lesson plans and an app. The website also shares the outputs of projects that have already taken place.
Activity 2 Virtual exchange in your context
Reflecting on the examples above, can you imagine using virtual exchange to teach about the climate emergency? Make some notes in the box below about how virtual exchange might work with learners in your own context. Think about the benefits and challenges, as well as the technologies you might use.
If you already have some experience of facilitating virtual exchange, think about how you could develop it further in your context or share your experience with other educators.