Abstract:

In March 2012, students in New Zealand, England and France teamed-up (virtually) to create globisodes (globally-constructed movies shot on mobile phones). Employing Web 2 platforms to collaborate across both space and time, these international teams (each containing members from all three countries), created work exploring environmental sustainability. The international project was called Entertainment Lab for the Very Small Screen (ELVSS).

This paper explores the outcomes of this ongoing trans-national experiment - focusing on its successes, and on its opportunities for improvement - both practically and pedagogically – with particular emphasis on the students’ experience.

Did the way the module was structured influence what the students got out of it? How were their working relationships affected by differences in cultural mores; in time zones; in communication styles; in the subjects the students were specialising/majoring in during their “regular” school hours? What types of insights did they achieve on this groundbreaking project? How do they imagine the international course should be run differently?

Finally, the paper will synthesise some of the suggestions made by the students for ELVSS-13, and, from those ideas, chart a direction forward.

Keywords:

Mobisode, international, collaboration.