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A week ago I was on the remote west coast of Ireland taking part in the Intensive Programme experience called Borrowed Identities. This involves students from universities in Germany, Hungary, Lithuania and the UK coming together for 12 days of intense collaborative work in the area of cross-cultural communication. The point about bringing them to this remote end of Europe is to give them an opportunity to engage also with the locals so that there is a real mixing of cultures. Most Intensive Programmes are hosted at the coordinating institution so this one stands out for its location.
I have been associated with it for about six years on and off and for the last two years have been the workshop leader tasked with the job of producing the online record of the experience. This takes the form of a travelogue (still has a few teething problems) which is produced on available computers using available programs and with very limited access to the Internet (hence the lack of external links).
The group I had with me this year were very creative; so creative in fact that they longed to do much more than just produce a website so they ended up trying their hand at producing a brochure promoting tourism in the Achill area and trying out their web usibility skills with a local entrepreneur, Achill Knitwear.
The group were also very good at making other contacts with the local community. So you can see the effects of our chat with local journalist, Anton McNulty of the Mayo News, in the headlines used on the travelogue. They also spoke with a representative from the local tourism office and found out about the status of the Gaelic language by speaking with a teacher of the language at a local adult education centre.
Some of the group were also interested in making audio recordings and these contributed to the latest Absolutely Intercultural show which concentrates on the Borrowed Identities experience. The show will give you an idea of the exuberance and self-discovery which is always part of these very special intensive programmes.
I almost forgot that the trip started off very badly with 3 coordinators falling ill and cancelling their participation and planes being delayed and cancelled on the day of our arrival because of half an inch of snow at Stansted and Dublin