Virtual classroom discusses war and peace

Every classroom at the Brooklyn school has Internet access swissinfo.ch

A virtual student exchange between Swiss and American schools is proving that teenagers on both sides of the Atlantic have much in common, even when it comes to the war in Iraq.

The “Virtual Classroom” is part of the “swisspeaks” festival in New York, designed to improve relations between Switzerland and the United States.

Lionel Diaz, a student at the Brooklyn high school of telecommunications, posts a question on the virtual bulletin board.

He wants to know if Swiss students can buy guns and knives as openly on the streets of Switzerland as teenagers can in New York.

At the Lee school in the Swiss city of Winterthur, Christian Forrer is more interested in knowing what it is like to live among skyscrapers.

While student exchanges are nothing new, this is the first time Swiss and American teenagers have had the opportunity to enter each other’s classrooms on the Internet.

Wired

All this week, Winterthur’s Lee and Rychenberg schools and Brooklyn’s high school of telecommunications are hooked up via online chat rooms, bulletin boards and videoconferences.

“I think it is very important that the students learn about each other in these difficult times of war,” says teacher Markus Wettstein of the Rychenberg School.

“It is very important that you get to know individuals,” he added. “The important thing is to forget about your prejudices.”

Rychenberg and Lee were chosen because of the excellent reputation they have developed in Switzerland as English immersion schools.

The Brooklyn institute was picked for its innovative use of the Internet as a key teaching tool.

World Wide Web

And travelling via the World Wide Web is the only way most teenagers at the US school can get to meet students in other countries like Switzerland.

Peter Biencevenga, the teacher responsible for the Virtual Classroom project at the Brooklyn school, says most of his students have never even been in an aeroplane.

“This is a great way for students to really learn about a country, a society and a culture,” he says.

Views on war

“They are gaining first hand knowledge and especially at a time of war. They can really see what another country thinks. It’s an incredible opportunity for students,” he adds.

“Students in both countries have a lot of misconceptions about what the other one is like.”

Student Diaz reads a message posted by a Swiss student on the bulletin board. The Swiss, he says, believe that most Americans support the war. “I don’t really feel that that’s the way it is.”

Diaz has an uncle among American troops in Iraq.

Across the room, Rabeha Atweh, whose parents are Palestinian, initiated a virtual discussion on the war that has now grown to two pages in length.

She adds a new message: “These days, the media portrays the wrong idea about a situation and sometimes the media may escalate problems between two countries or two kinds of people…”

Typical day

It is not all Iraq. The Swiss and American teenagers have built their own websites showing a typical day in their respective neighbourhoods.

To the fore are fashion, pop culture and fast food.

Eighteen-year-old Forrer has made a video, which includes a clip on fast food, to show that the Swiss also enjoy the American way of life.

It produces a giggle from Brooklyn’s Stephanie Gonzalez, who wants to know why the Swiss think there is no more to American cuisine than McDonalds and Burger King.

swissinfo, Dale Bechtel in New York

Swisspeaks summary

The swisspeaks festival includes about 100 events in New York.
The eight-week festival runs until the end of April.
The Virtual Classroom is one of the main educational events.

Virtual school

Two Swiss schools in Winterthur and one in Brooklyn, New York, were chosen to take part in the virtual classroom exchange.

All this week, students are exchanging views on international topics and sharing insights into their lives via the Internet.

They have created their own web pages and are using Internet bulletin boards and chat rooms.

A videoconference will also allow them to take part in a face-to-face exchange.