Hi again,

I would like to share a pleasant story about a Worldbridges webcast meeting several US class room students and their teachers, including an unexpected guest. I was invited earlier this week to be a virtual guest with a grade 8 class. When I called on the Skypecast I was happily greeted by two different classes in two locations, one in New Hampshire and another class not far from Washington DC. I could sense their excitement when some of them were stepping forward to ask me some questions for introduction. Then, I told them one of my long boring stories about a very special old rabbit who had been sailing on the seven seas in an old three mast schonner, and this rabbit came to live with us in the countryside where he showed us his independent way of living as he had never been in a cage, and did not tolerate being a prisoner but smashed his cage and ran out in the free, still living nearby and often playing with our dog - but too wise to get caught.

Well, this is a conversation piece, a narrative that I've refined over the years as it happened some 30 year ago, but suuudenly I felt unsure if this teenage audience would find this very exciting at all, or just want ro run away screaming. As I could not see them, I started to feel a little wobbly about next step, hoping for an opportunity to change track.

Suddenly there was a surprise guest interruption: a newcomer in the webcast academy community had been invited by the session leader: mr. Morteza from Iran, an English teacher studying for a masters doing resesarch in oral listening skills in language learning, and using computers and internet for these purposes. I was kindly asked if I minded his presence - and we all welcomed him heartily. Now the students who had probably prepared pretty trivial questions about domestic animals in Denmark, had a live representative of the Iranian nation which is under pressure from the US government, and their improvised questions were pretty much the same as I would have wanted to ask him! Mr. Morteza was very polite and diplomatic, yet more than happy to share with us how he honestly felt about nucelar energy plants and the disgust against nicelar weapons and warfare, and he was also happy to tell us how schools work, girls and boys are separed in primary and secondary schools, but studying together at the university - where 65 % of students are women! We also discussed the problem with the minority of extremist muslims versus more open and liberal interpretations of Islam as a religion. Then, some students started to ask both of us about our countries' favorite sport and about which languages we speak. It was both lively and natural, and at the end, there was almost this campfire feeling of trust and instant presence. Two girls age 14 wanted to continue having a onversation with me after the schoolday was over and they wanted to hear more animal stories! And then again some more informal and improvised talking about serious matters. We runed over the the 9/11 day when they were just 9 years old and recalled the situation very lively - one of then had been visiting the WTC two weeks before, and the other had family members in the fire brigade. They told me they were happy to speak with an Iranian as htey would probably never have had this occasion, and it strikes me how these informal, intercultural encounters may really change the stereotypic views on one another. These Worldbridges webcasts surely are bridging the world

This was an amazing and intense situation with a very clear online precence feeling. This made me feel so priviledged to be part of this community of Webheads in Action - English language teachers with a strong urge to experiment with computerized interaction,some of us more multimedia or social science oriented but with commonly shared references, helping each other as peer learners. Oh, and also often using terms like informal learning environments in our everyday collaboration. Actually I googled this combination: webheads + informal + learning when this Scope seminar started, and a lot of relevant and memorable hits popped up.

Well - that was part of some crossing everyday learning trajectories (an expression from Vygotsky's activity theory coined by Yrjö Engeström (University of California, San Diego and University of Helsinki) I htink this trail may lead to yet another metareflective story!