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Methodologies for Effective Distance Learning
Using New Technologies and Models
Collaborations with International Business Schools
During Spring 2002, the Lauder Institute spearheaded a project for the University of Pennsylvania that showcased the use of next-generation technology. Utilizing the high-speed bandwidth of Internet2 -- via Penn's MAGPI gateway network and France's Renater@network -- Lauder students, Penn undergraduates, and faculty, in collaboration with their peers at the University of Grenoble, developed a simulation model to discuss a business case: whether a fast-food franchise would succeed in Grenoble. All of the sessions were conducted in French.
Since then, Penn Lauder CIBER has continued to utilize this technology through a series of videoconferences with the Audencia School of Business in Nantes, France. This project facilitates discussions about the key challenges faced by six major French global companies in the banking, food, distribution, electronics, and high-tech communications business areas in their globalization efforts and aims to develop recommendations for each. Again, all of the sessions are conducted in French.
Penn Lauder CIBER is expanding our videoconferencing partnerships. During the 2002-2003 academic year, two debates took place via videoconferencing with the students at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). A Fall 2004 videoconference project with the University of Munich included discussion of a business case. Similar projects involving videoconferencing in language have included one with Waseda University in Japan. Others are in development.
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Collaborations with Middle Schools and High Schools
In collaboration with MAGPI, the three CIBERs in Pennsylvania -- University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, and Temple University -- are developing a series of projects that will further utilize this videoconferencing technology to enhance the classroom learning experience and will collaborate with faculty from middle schools, high schools, and institutions abroad.
This project design produces a number of very powerful learning opportunities for all of the participants -- students (at all levels), faculty, staff, and technology teams -- who learn and create (1) useful and meaningful lessons about cultural differences, (2) the co-production of curriculum and methodology, (3) a live business challenge, and (4) the use of the target language to negotiate with native speakers.
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