Case study: using video conferencing for Theatre Studies and Cultural Exchange

Purpose of sessions: To provide an opportunity for students to exchange experience and knowledge concerning their own perspectives on their national culture. The exchange was between British and Dutch students.

A series of videoconferencing sessions were set up using Macromedia Breeze (now rebranded as Adobe Connect). The screen image shows two images of both ends (one close-up and one medium-shot) together with chat windows and windows to share other resources, such as agenda, notes etc.) The software also supports the sharing of presentations.

Also to support the videoconferencing sessions, students were asked to blog information about themselves and converse about aspects of their cultures.

Students also collaborated (one from each country) to produce presentations. These collaborations were mediated through a forum.

The various media were brought together through a project website.

The participants found that bringing these different technologies together supported their interaction and their learning more effectively than any individual technology would have done.

Case Study provided by Mark Childs at the University of Warwick