Click on the icon
to hear the Duell recording
Contents:
Introduction
Phase I (April - June 1996)
Phase II (September - November 1996)
Open Class (November 18, 1996)
Positive outcomes of the joint project
Difficulties that had to be overcome
"Hands Across the Water" 1997
Thank you for reading this evaluation
Listen to Duell reading a portion of his evaluation
"Hands Across the Water" was a joint class held between Tokyo International University (TIU) and its branch campus in the USA, TIU of America (TIUA). The classes involved were TIUA Prof. Wayne Gregory's Information Science/Applied English Class and Prof. Barry Duell's Freshman Tutorial Class at TIU. From April to November 1996, Gregory and Duell's students conducted joint exercises together under the project name, "Hands Across the Water."
The Internet was a vital link for carrying out this project. Internet features that were utilized (and some of the software that was used) were email (Eudora), the World Wide Web (Netscape Navigator), and video-conferencing (CU-SeeMe). Video conferencing was done between the classes only once, though Gregory and Duell frequently used that medium, and especially email, for joint class consultation. Student partners communicated via email, and the joint class homepage was used to post joint class materials.
Phase I (April - June 1996)
Only a portion of the activities planned for this period were carried out. This time of year will be avoided for the 1997 joint class due to differences in the TIU/TIUA academic schedules, the limited time during this period that TIUA students have to devote to the joint project, and the computer-use inexperience of the TIU students who have newly entered TIU in April, the start of the TIU school year.
A major success of Phase I was the September Duell Tutorial Tour to TIUA. Gregory and his TIUA students were excellent hosts. Unfortunately, only two of the 13 Tutorial students chose to join, but these numbers were supplemented by four additional students who had taken the Duell Tutorial as freshmen.
Phase II (September - November 1996)
The activities of this phase built upon what was learned in Phase I, repeating many of the Phase I activities, and adding new ones. Though the TIU student group remained the same, the TIUA group changed. As in the first phase, students from each school were paired. Since the TIUA group was larger, some TIU students had two pairs.
An open class was held Nov. 18 to allow interested TIU faculty to view the "Hands Across the Water" project in action. That day, a video-conference was also held with Gregory's class which was the first time for the two classes to have such a conference. Due to the time difference (the Duell class period started at 1 PM on a Monday), it was necessary for Gregory's class to gather by 8:00 PM on a Sunday evening, a major factor in deciding to have this conference only once.
The Open Class intended to introduce interested TIU/TIUA English faculty to the potential uses of TIU's Internet facilities for educational purposes. It was hoped that TIU faculty wishing to begin joint projects could save time and energy learning from the successes and failures realized during the "Hands Across the Water" project. On the TIU side, there were seven visitors to the Open Class. However, since a video was filmed of the TIU-side Open Class, additional faculty have been able to view the class. A brief summary of the Open Class Schedule follows:
| 1:00-1:30 PM | Explanation of the joint class, and demonstration of the use of the joint class' homepage. |
| 1:30-2:15 PM | Video-conference during which TIU and TIUA students gave brief evaluations of the joint project. TIUA students asked TIU students questions. Observing professors were invited to participate in the video-conference. |
| 2:15-2:30 PM | Closing statements/questions. |
Positive outcomes of the joint project
Duell was blessed with having an innovative and very cooperative colleague, TIUA's Prof. Wayne Gregory, a necessity for conducting such a project. TIUA's Gunnar Gundersen (Executive Director of Academic Affairs) also provided extensive administrative support.
TIU students have been able to have access to out-of-class, living-English experiences by interacting with their TIUA counterparts and professor. TIUA students have served as eyes and ears to gather overseas information.
TIUA students being sophomores have been able to play a mentor role to the Duell Tutorial freshmen students due to TIUA students being older and having more advanced English skills resulting from their studies in the USA.
The September Duell Tutorial trip to TIUA, during which Duell's TIU students were paired with TIUA students, provided a chance to finally meet TIUA counterparts first hand. TIU students gained much accompanying their partners to class. The trip promoted TIU/TIUA student/faculty communication, and introduced TIU students to the TIUA program. However, regretfully, no 1996 Duell Tutorial students passed the screening for acceptance into the 1997 TIUA program.
TIU students have gained some proficiency in using computers and the Internet.
Due to the state-of-the-art classroom facilities provided in TIU's new Building 13, very little additional expense was involved in conducting a joint project class.
The Nov. 18 Open Class was beneficial not only because TIU/TIUA partners could "meet" for the first time via video conferencing, but also because interested TIU/TIUA faculty could also meet each other, and observe the joint project in action to help them decide for themselves about starting their own exchanges.
Difficulties that had to be overcome
TIU and TIUA's academic calendars differ. By trial and error, it was found the September to November period was the most suitable period for conducting the project. As explained earlier, the spring period did not work well due to differences in the TIU/TIUA academic schedules, the limited time during this period that TIUA students had for devoting to the joint project, and the computer-use inexperience of the TIU freshmen students who had newly entered TIU in April, the start of the TIU school year.
Prof. Gregory's TIUA class met more frequently than the Duell's TIU Tutorial class which affected the pace at which the project could be conducted.
TIU student absences or lateness in doing joint project homework adversely affected the progress of the project schedule.
It was necessary to find a suitable balance between class time required for the joint project, and time required for the TIU Tutorial Class.
It was difficult to get Duell Tutorial students to join the September Tutorial tour to TIUA even though it was very reasonably priced. However, now that students have been on such a tour, word seems to be spreading among students that this is a positive experience to participate in.
Faculty need to learn how to use the necessary hardware and software for conducting the joint project via the Internet which can take far more preparation time than a regular class may require.
Download time of TIUA-created materials on the World Wide Web is very slow. It is more efficient to create a mirror site of TIUA materials on the TIU server, but that requires extensive retrieval time, and time required to alter TIUA materials to make them function properly on TIU's server.
Preparing student materials for the joint class homepage requires a great deal of faculty time. It will be beneficial to teach students to do as much of the preparation themselves as possible.
Incoming TIU freshmen have little or no experience using computers or the Internet. It is necessary, but seemingly out of place, to devote class time during the Spring semester to learning basic typing and computer skills.
The time difference between TIU and TIUA makes it difficult to have live interaction between students. This year's Duell Tutorial time was fixed at 1 to 2:30 PM Monday, which corresponded to 9 to 10:30 PM Sunday (Pacific Daylight Saving Time) or 8 to 9:30 PM Sunday (Pacific Standard Time). Since TIU is a commuter campus and TIUA is a live-in campus, it was decided to have the one "live" class during the TIU Duell Tutorial class time.
The CU-SeeMe video conferencing software had the benefit of being free, but had the disadvantage of having poor quality black-and-white video, and sometimes having difficult-to-understand audio quality.
Gregory and Duell currently have plans underway to undertake a 1997 "Hands Across the Water" project.
Thank you for reading this "Hands Across the Water" evaluation
Please let me know about your Internet for Education successes.
Please send comments, suggestions, or questions to Barry Duell
Listen to Duell reading a portion of his "Hands Across the Water" evaluation
Click on the icon
to hear the Duell recording
Click here
to download the free software needed to hear the above evaluation.
Prepared by Barry Duell. Last changed: April 9, 1997.