International Exchange of Ideas in Student-Interactive Videoconferences – Sustainable Communication for Developing Intercultural Understanding with Student Teachers

Abstract

International communication with different digital tools is now established both at universities and in other contexts worldwide. It is therefore relevant to describe how one of these tools is used in higher education. In the present study the focus is on seminars carried out in student-interactive video-conferences on didactic and pedagogical issues with student teachers. The participants were international and Swedish student teachers at the Department of Education at a Swedish university and at two different campuses. The results are based on analyses of the studentsí written reports completed after the seminars and show that the interactive video-conference is useful to establish contacts between students in different places and to develop intercultural understanding of school-related matters. The video-conference is thus a way to work with internationalization in a sustainable way in teacher education, giving opportunities for the exchange of ideas and experiences both at personal and professional levels without mobility.