Budding Researchers in the Humanities: An Intercultural Online Project

Introduction

Perhaps one of the most distinguishing aspects of human beings, one which has never changed and has enabled us to survive as a species, is our need to communicate and live in social groups. What has actually changed, however, is the way in which communication has been carried out. As we enter the 21^st century, a new group of human beings, also known as the “Net Generation” (Baron & Maier, 2005), is on the make. These youngsters, born in many parts of the world after 1980s, have grown up with technology, which they have used for communication. Baron & Maier (2005, p. 57) describe them as “digitally literate; connected; social; prefer to working in groups; achievement oriented; require structure and guidelines; crave interactivity; have short attention spans; are experiential, visual, kinaesthetic learners; and prefer working on things that matter”. They also state that the Net Generation is representative of the population in all the universities around the world. Still, they are a large group, who, to some extent, are trying to show us that a new way of learning must find its way into the curriculum. Indeed, if one of the major goals of the university is to produce new knowledge, working online in a research community which goes beyond geographical boundaries is one of the most effective ways to prepare students to become budding researchers and thus effectively participate in the scientific knowledge production. It may be argued that the idea of research communities is not new and hence presents no innovation. However, roughly until the turn of this century, research groups depended on the physical presence of their members and were generally affiliated to a single university or to those within a similar geographical area. Nowadays, technology has opened the access to exchange which hardly knows space or time limitations. The Internet has made some aspects of research quicker, more economic and more accessible to all, especially to students. As Geer (2001) rightly notes, there are still limitations but they may be of a cultural nature. She writes that:

It must be stressed, however, that before the Net Generation was born, scholars were already discussing the implementation of projects aimed at providing researchers in the Humanities with personal computers (Andersen, 1984) so as to facilitate communication among research groups. Fortunately, the world has moved beyond this stage. According to De Smedt (1999), “[t]he fact that students and staff have a computer on their desks instead of a pile of books is one visible change affecting the learning and teaching situation, even if it is a superficial one” (p. 2). Still, the way computers and their distance-learning advantages influence the process of producing and disseminating knowledge could be much different – from simply helping literature searches and storing information to full-scale research collaboration crossing the boundaries of classrooms, laboratories, libraries, universities, and countries.

This chapter aims at presenting a case study showing how to prepare new researchers in the Humanities through online communication. Relying on the Internet for about seven years, it has been possible to create a research group that works simultaneously in four different countries. Additionally, it has allowed the development of cross-cultural studies that would be impossible to carry out if students had to travel to all of the countries involved (Fisher & McGeveran, 2006). The present chapter indicates in a sense that the New Generation may be growing in several different places around the world.

Background

The project to be focused in this chapter is the Research and Development in Empirical Studies¹ (‘REDES’), which was founded on September 10, 2002. At the moment this chapter is being written, the group is active in four different countries, as illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

REDES and its national centers