Building bridges online: Issues of Pedagogy and learning outcomes in Intercultural Education Through Citizenship

This article indicates that there are four key drivers for school-based use of collaborative software; a. The speed at which 'social software' has been taken up by young people outside school which has led some educationists to review the potential of such software in more formal school settings. b. Helping pupils to develop 'knowledge construction skills' which are relevant to a knowledge economy. c. Enabling more pupils to access a wider curriculum. d. The promotion of inter-cultural education through citizenship. In the case of the fourth driver, the article examines in detail the research basis for extending the concept of the 'contact hypothesis' through communication technology. It uses evidence to show that well managed on-line collaboration between school-based students can be a powerful vehicle for intercultural education through citizenship.