Physical distance, but socially close

From bonding over a shared passion for dancing to deep realizations on climate action; A few weeks into the Virtual Exchange ‘Climate Movements’ all involved are already experiencing plenty of highlights.  We approached Helen Eve from our partner ESIEE Paris to share thoughts on the relevance of Virtual Exchange for her students; "Young people today need several international experiences in order to be ready for a globally-connected workplace."

With nearly a decade of experience in developing large scale online interactive educational programmes, we’ve learnt a thing or two about what works well and what doesn’t. Here are our top tips for everyone involved with remote teaching, elearning and online instructional design.

Climate change is considered one of the most pressing concerns of our time, and has already had a significant impact on human movement and life on earth. Young people have been a major source of momentum behind climate action in recent years. Through Virtual Exchange we wanted to offer the opportunity for young people to connect with each other on this theme. How do they experience and perceive climate change? And how do they feel about their role as young people? We collected some of the experiences from the Virtual Exchange ‘Cultural Encounters: The Big Climate Movement 2020’. 

With contributions from leading Virtual Exchange practitioners and developers, 'Designing and implementing virtual exchange – a collection of case studies' offers tangible examples of different VE models. This publication brings together case studies to illustrate various ways of implementation in formal and non-formal education, across a range of disciplines.

Based on our expertise in Virtual Exchange pedagogy Sharing Perspectives Foundation is organizing a workshop series on harnessing the opportunities of online education. In three sessions we will provide step-by-step techniques, practical tips and unique exercises modelling online interactivity and student engagement.

What the Virtual Exchange format introduces, is a continuous connection between the local and the global, online and offline, personal and common, or differences and similarities. The format does not introduce a radical disruption from or for traditional forms of education, but establishes new dimensions and connections to existing, formal education settings. 

Across a range of fields and disciplines, virtual learning and interaction are commonly seen as a ‘plan B,’ i.e. “if we can’t get everyone together, then we’ll begrudgingly adapt accordingly”. What this negative sentiment prevents is the ability to ask the more generative question: What is enabled by ‘going virtual’?