A global classroom

Students at IU Bloomington, IUPUI and Humboldt University in Berlin are defining the term 'civil society' for themselves and classmates in a virtual classroom made possible by IU's Abilene connection to Internet2

By Jayne Spencer

Photo by Paul Martens

Last summer, Larry Friedman of the IU Department of the History and Philosophy of Science at IU Bloomington, and Henry Remak, a professor emeritus of Germanic studies at IU Bloomington, took part in a trial "global classroom" experience using the IP-based videoconferencing technique that has allowed students on three separate campuses to meet this semester.

Through IU's Abilene connection to Internet2, students at IU Bloomington, at IUPUI and at Humboldt University in Berlin are meeting each week in a rare opportunity for synchronous instruction, that is, faculty and students on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean are meeting in real time through the Internet at three separate locations.

IU Bloomington instructors are the Honors College's Henry Remak and Lee Formwalt, executive director of the Organization of American Historians; IUPUI instructors are Giles Hoyt, associate dean of international affairs, and Dwight Burlingame, associate executive director of the IU Center on Philanthropy. On site at Humboldt University is IU Bloomington historian Larry Friedman, assisted by IU history doctoral candidate Peter Kraemer and Humboldt doctoral candidate Philip Kneis, who is majoring in American studies and history. Coordinating the class is Amanda Ciccarelli of the College of Arts and Sciences at IU.

'Not only is this an interesting juncture of American and German university culture, but the professors themselves come from such varied backgrounds—philanthropy, German studies, African American and civil rights history, and intellectual history,' said Formwalt.

'I wasn't sure what to expect,' he said. 'But I did expect it to be awkward, with uncomfortable pauses and technical glitches. I was amazed at how smooth and seamless the conversation among students in Bloomington, Berlin and Indianapolis has been. It is almost like we are sitting around one seminar table.'

The fact that the German students are proficient in English has made the exchange lively. In fact, it is sometimes easy to forget, he said, that English is not the German students' native tongue. During the week, faculty and students communicate by an electronic listserv.

For a generation of students whose views of the world wars of the 20th century may be vague or clouded by time and the retelling, the exchange between the German students and the American students has been engaging. It's been hard, said Formwalt, 'to generalize about the students and which ones seem more savvy about the other's culture.'

The class has studied the writings of both Lincoln and Bismarck for lessons on citizenship and civil engagement; they've read excerpts from Hitler's Mein Kampf and selections from the autobiography of Herman B Wells concerning work in post-World War II Berlin. They've explored the two countries and their cultures during the Cold War, as well as student political and social movements, beginning with the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964. Their jumping off points for discussion have been as varied as the writings of Schiller, Goethe, Kant and Boll to American playwright Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and David Brinkley's Voices of Protest.

Bloomington students meet at the new interactive video studio/classroom at the Center for the Study of Global Change. But according to the Deb Hutton, the center's outreach coordinator, a great deal of credit goes to Steve Egyhazi and his VICNOSS (Virtual Indiana Classroom Network Operations Support Specialists) at UITS Digital Media Network Services for making the technical connections and problem solving along the way.

Using the Abilene connection to Internet2 allows for a higher quality transmission and, said Egyhazi, does not generate the high costs that using ISDN phone lines do.

'Because of our high-speed Internet connection, we have migrated from a costly, dedicated leased-line videoconferencing network of only 22 systems, to an Internet protocol (IP)-based system, which allows people with the necessary hardware to carry on high-quality videoconferencing from any IU data jack,' said Egyhazi.

IU's VIC network has approximately 211 group videoconferencing systems throughout the eight IU campuses and their extension centers, and more are coming online weekly, Egyhazi explained.

While the connection to an international site such as Berlin via IP-based videoconferencing is unusual, he said, IU regularly conducts a number of IP-based distance learning classes and administrative meetings with other Internet2 institutions.

Like to learn more?

Try these Web sites:

http://www.indiana.edu/~video/

http://www.indiana.edu/~uits/telecom/dmns/index.html