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Ty Herrington with European University students in St.
Petersburg, Russia.
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TyAnna Herrington's Global Classroom Project was built upon a
continued commitment to educational exchange between the Georgia
Institute of Technology (GIT) and the Russian Academy of Sciences/European
University in St. Petersburg, Russia. Herrington, an assistant
professor of Technical Communication at GIT, worked with Yuri
Tretyakov, director of the language center at the European University
in St. Petersburg, to design a project that would enable them
to teach Russian and American students about technical communication
and particularly about the "communication difficulties that arise
as a result of cultural diversity and digital information transfer."
Their objectives included the creation of an Internet-based classroom
that would provide faculty and students from the home and host
institutions the opportunity to participate in digital classes
and collaborate on research projects.
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Yuri Tretyakov with Georgia Tech students participating
in the Global Classroom Project.
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According to Herrington and Tretyakov, the global classroom not
only introduces students and faculty to the advanced technology
of global communication and distance learning but forces them
to develop the skills necessary to use this technology cross-culturally.
Herrington expects that the Internet forum her Fulbright project
provides will serve to connect U.S. specialists and Russian specialists
with common interests and goals, and that by having participated
in the global classroom, they will have the technical and communication
capabilities necessary to collaborate in education or research.
Herrington and Tretyakov's Global Classroom Project not only
develops the abilities of its individual participants but ensures
long-lasting collaboration between the institutions involved.
With increased technology, geography and culture will decreasingly
function as barriers to international cooperation between institutions
of higher education. Further, the project encourages a mutual
rate of technological development between nations.
To ensure that GIT and the European University continue to share
their digital classroom, it will be necessary to upgrade the Russian
institution's electronic infrastructure. GIT has already applied
for grants that will fund the development of the European University's
technology, and Herrington is confidant that as the project develops,
other institutions in the Eurasia will also be
linked to the global classroom.
Based on the digital courses conducted in Spring 2000 as a pilot
of the Global Classroom Project and their subsequent evaluation,
Herrington and Tretyakov--along with Kenneth Knoespel, project
co-director and a fellow Fulbrighter--continue to shape the project.
To access Herrington's project description and progress report,
visit www.lcc.gatech.edu/~herrington/gcpdescription/.
The site includes links to Web projects created by the students
of the global classroom.
Please contact us
if you would like to submit your own story and/or photographs.
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