Report OL173 ELNET Open learning for Cross-cultural Education

This report describes the ELNET initiative which set out to develop strategies for fostering cross-cultural learning. The project focused on key issues in the areas of technology, learning and organisation.

ELNET (The European Business and Languages Network) was launched in November 1989. The aims of the two year project were to (a) promote the use of languages in business in the lead up to 1992, (b) foster cross-cultural group learning, and (c) develop the use of computer-mediated communications systems in education. ELNET enabled students in three European countries to share in a learning network that had no national frontiers. It involved the creation of a 'virtual European college', allowing students and lecturers in the UK, France and Germany to communicate with each other electronically. Fifteen post-16 colleges throughout the UK, France and Germany were linked via a pair of conferencing hosts in London and Paris.

Within ELNET there are several 'conferences', designed to represent the structure of a college. Suitable educational establishments were selected and their staff and students trained. Technology and software were developed to make access to the 'virtual college' as user-friendly as possible. The ELNET software had to be simple to use, flexible and powerful enough to handle the demands of international communication.

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This page last updated 24 January 1999.