ICT as Political Action

Evidence from the Comenius Project

The video shows students from Loreto Grammar School, Omagh with their teachers and students from St Aidans, with their teacher engaging in a video conference during the Comenius School Visit, 3 May 1999. At a later stage candidates for election to the European Parliament, Mr Proinnsias de Rossa and Mr Ben Briscoe T.D. engaged in a video conference with students in Omagh Grammar School. On the same day teachers Marian Bilik (Bratislava, Slovakia) Zuzana Kudzejova (Humenne, Slovakia) and Bernardo Marin(Madrid, Spain) took part in a video conference with students in Omagh and Dublin.

These are uses of ICT that are far from learning skills. It is clear that these students and teachers have learned skills. But the evidence of this video is of students and teachers who have taken control of their own lives and are learning in ways that are commensurate with their own ways of knowing and are communicating their knowledge in non-linear ways. Teachers in the video are teaching in ways which are not didactic and are not traditional. They are joining with their students as co-workers and co-learners. They are making their learning public by engaging with each other and by engaging with leaders in our society. They are engaging in communicative action through ICT.

Example of evidence of the collaborative work of the Comenius project can be accessed using the links below:

Comenius project web site
A Comparison Of School Life And Leisure Time – an online Report of the work of the project
Comenius activities report