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From Russia with Love

Marilee Paterson

From Russia with Love rose out of a need to "speak" with the youth of modern day Russia. I had the outline of an Internet project for one of the topics within our provincial ninth-grade social studies curriculum—Russia … Then & Now. The Internet provided many historical Web sites, but my class and I needed to get also a modern perspective. Very naively, I went on the Internet and explored the PenPals Web site (http://www.penpals.com/). The first several hits were messages from Russian women wanting to marry American men! But I was able to connect with people willing to help me make contact with someone in Russia. One response led me to the Web site of Ural Mountain University, and from there, to computer technology teacher, Sergei Osipov. He, in turn, then put me in touch with Yana Kliain, a computer teacher who works out of a center in one of the schools in the Leninsky District. Because schools or homes do not have computers, students come to her center to learn computer skills and to practice their English. Yana was instrumental in the success of this project because of what she teaches and her access to students on a regular basis. I have been corresponding with Yana since October 1999.

The objective was to supplement our historical readings with interactions that would provide a modern perspective of Russia and Russians. Since the inception of this project in October 1999, up to eight classes per year of these 14- or 15-year-old students have participated. Small groups of students have been paired with Russian students. They e-mailed one another each week. The Russian students' responses were read aloud by the Canadian students in the project. Yana only had 11–12 students involved, so we could not really have more than that corresponding. Therefore, the Canadian students just shared the e-mails of their Russian penpals. I also shared any e-mails that came from Yana with my classes. My students were able to group information into cultural patterns and compare them to Canadian cultural patterns.

Our main technology resource was e-mail. We also used software such as iMovie and PageMill, a digital video, and a scanner. Computer technology facilitated our students' learning of social studies and language arts.

After the first year of the project, we were able to secure funding from Telus2Learn (http://www.2learn.ca/), and we sent our Russian colleagues a video camcorder and a digital camera. Since July 2000, we have exchanged video and pictures numerous times. Topics within the videos have ranged from special places in our cities, special celebrations, and activities within our schools. A small group of our students are actively involved in answering a question of the month and relaying the information to the other Canadian students. For example, one question concerned terrorism in the 21st century. It was interesting to read students' responses from both countries. Through each of these media, we have increased our understanding of a country that was closed off to the rest of the world for many years.

Yana and I spent most of the first year of the project e-mailing each other. Yana also created a Web site (http://canada.eimc.ru/) for our project. In the second year of the project, a certain "pod" within the school was responsible for e-mailing and sharing responses with classmates within their pod. That year, we had three pods of ninth graders, so the project rotated after approximately three months. In the third year of the project, we opened the project up to volunteers from the different pods. That resulted in the selection of 2–3 students per pod who attend monthly meetings regarding the project. Those students disseminated the information to the other students in their pod throughout the year. Next year, we plan to have one class be responsible for making the connection and then present their findings to the rest of the ninth graders, parent groups, and other teachers. We expect the students to use presentation software such as PowerPoint or HyperStudio. The expectation of my students in the project next year is to learn about different aspects of Russia (geography, history, economy) with the help of their Russian penpals and other resources. The requirements will include the creation of a multimedia presentation. We are fortunate at my school to have the technology available within the school to attempt this type of project. Many schools in Calgary would not be able to do this. The project fits into Yana's curriculum by teaching computer skills and also enhancing other curriculums such as English.

Students within the small group making the connection e-mailed once per week, scanned pictures, responded to the question of the month, and completed a videotape segment. An exemplary response was to the topic "Terrorism in the 21st Century." The responses were really interesting because they had the same fears after Sept. 11 that we had here in Canada. What I found interesting was that the Russian students felt they could openly criticize the responses of the major powers in the world. For example, the students were critical that the major powers headed into Afghanistan, and even though the students knew Russia was included in the allies, the students still felt comfortable saying that they disagreed with more killing. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union I am not sure they would have felt that comfortable stating opinions of that nature.

The classroom of students watched the videos that were sent, listened to e-mail responses, and collected examples of the cultural patterns within Russia from the e-mails. In our grade 7 provincial curriculum we do an extensive study of cultural patterns to show that every culture really, even though it may seem different on the outside, is similar in many ways to other cultures. This project provided a perfect way of authenticating that concept. From e-mail communications with Russian students and teachers, we learned about educational, political, technological, courtship and marriage, language and entertainment patterns.

Our project is ongoing and will most likely continue through the next few years, in some form. The group of students connecting with the Russian students is active nine months of the year, meeting once per month. The rest of the ninth graders are actively involved when Russia is the current curriculum topic.

Throughout the project, there were ongoing "informal" evaluations. We used examinations, quizzes, projects, assignments, discussions, and presentations to monitor and assess student performance. A few specific examples are:

• Data collection of all e-mail print-outs from both countries have been made into a book, Discovery of Canada. The book will be used in an ESL classroom in Ekaterinburg, Russia. This will be a future reference and will establish a base of knowledge that can be used to examine student performance in the project over time.
• Student performance on Russian-related questions in the Alberta, Canada, Grade 9 Social Studies Achievement Examination will be analyzed.
• Student motivation is measured and noted during various learning activities such as sharing of pictures of Russia, viewing videos sent from Russia and examining the various traditional artifacts that have been sent as gifts.

Reflections
My main objective in beginning this project was to explore modern day Russia and have my students understand what life was like there. To have access to regular people that do regular things definitely made our world smaller. My first realization of this was when we chose the name of our project, "From Russia with Love." I couldn't believe that she had seen a James Bond movie! Why I thought that seems strange now. It has increased our understanding of each other. Their dreams are our dreams. Our days are similar both in work and in school. Growing up during the Soviet era, I was scared to death of the USSR. We now have an appreciation for the Russian culture, their history, their pride in their country and the day-to-day struggle that they find themselves in.

I would like to close by sharing with readers that in July 2002, I had a wonderful trip to Russia. The teachers and students I met who have been involved in the project were unbelievably kind. The historical sites I visited will only enhance my teaching in the years to come. I am so glad I had the opportunity to experience it!

Acknowledgements
I express my deepest appreciation to those who participated in this project:

Principal Russian Project Participants: Yana Kliain and Leonid Federov
Canadian Project Participants: Peggy Schieman, Richard Tapp, Jan Buchoski, Melanie Allen, David Ball, Judy Jess

Marilee Paterson
Tom Baines School
250 Edgepark Blvd., NW
Calgary, AB T3A3S2 Canada
E-mail: mapaterson@shaw.ca or mapaterson@cbe.ab.ca
Web: http://projects.cbe.ab.ca/baines/Russialove/RussLove.htm

Note from the SIGTel Past President
The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Special Interest Group for TeleLearning (SIGTel) congratulates Marilee Paterson, our 2002 First Place Online Learning Award winner!

SIGTel applauds Marilee Paterson and her Russian colleagues for their outstanding collaborative project, "From Russia with Love." SIGTel awarded $250 to the International Education and Resource Network (iEARN) Teachers Conference (http://www.moscow2002.org/) in their honor. Marilee is from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Her colleagues are from Ekaterinburg, Russia. SIGTel recognizes exemplary classroom projects each year. You can read about the 2002 Online Award winners.

SIGTel was organized a little more than a decade ago to further a vision of using telecommunications to facilitate communication and collaboration in an international learning environment. SIGTel members address a range of interests under the umbrella of telelearning including research, technical innovation, distance learning, and curricular application. In addition to our Online Awards, SIGTel publishes the online Bulletin in which you are reading this article. For more information about ISTE's SIGTel, please check out the SIGTel home page. We welcome your participation. Please let us know if you are interested in participating in our 2003 Online Learning Contest!

Thank you,

Betsy Frederick
SIGTel Past President
betsy@silicon-desert.com