DIGITAL BRIDGES - TRANSNATIONAL COLLABORATIVE LEARNING

In 2014 Rudbeck Gymnasium, an Upper Secondary School in Sollentuna, Sweden, launched a full scale one-to-one initiative whereupon all 1779 students received an iPad of their own. The previous fall teachers from Rudbeck and Georg-Christoph-Lichtenberg-Schule in Kassel, Germany where engaged in a two year EU project, Paducation, in which they collaborated on teaching methods using iPads in the curriculum, (presented at ICERI 2013). The project addressed the digital divide prevailing for many schools in Europe. The teachers continuously exchanged thoughts and experiences via a blog platform and met twice a year for workshops. The teachers continued communicating afterwards to fill the gap left by the ending of the project. The use of digital devices was at this time so integrated in education that the collaboration could continue. The two schools had already been affected by the innovations that came forth in this work; collaborative learning, transparency, changing teacher roles, focus on time compression and efficiency as well as the necessity of a functional online based learning environment. Therefore, in 2016, a new idea developed to let the students themselves generate the innovation involved to build digital bridges to their fellow students in the partner country. This initiative became a two year strategic partnership project funded by Eurasmus+. As described in the project proclamation: "It is our intention to create a learning environment for the students themselves to then explore in what manner they can both cooperate and communicate with each other and their partner group in the other country. The immediate results will be that students will be more engaged and learn more about their subject of study. Their ability to present their results to a larger audience will be enhanced and they will gain a broader understanding of what is meant with a European perspective. By confronting obstacles and finding solutions these students will pave the way for many more students to follow in working in a collaborative manner on a transnational level using digital devices to accentuate the learning process." Another component in the project was to engage students from a pedagogical course in the Behavioral Science program to practice how to evaluate this collaboration; to see if the learning experience was on a higher level than ordinary classroom work. Some students worked on a survey already during the first year. This was challenging since the questions were not quantitative. The evaluation became less scientific then desired, but we could already identify obstacles. There were tendencies for problems such as syncing the schools timetables and motivating students to initiate working outside of their already pressed schedule. During the second year students in the pedagogic course contacted project participants via email and asked them to be interviewed. We had at this time studied research methods more intensely and decided to make semi-structured interviews. Students prepared questionnaires based on reading and watching lectures with and about Ruben Puntaduras SAMR model. The research was then easier for students to grasp with a hands on theory. Our paper will present the goals for Digital Bridges project and explore the successes and difficulties encountered along the way. The content is based upon the results of the international seminar concluding the project in May 2018, the student evaluation as well as our own observations.