Rostislav & Julianna   School: Los Angeles County High School for the Arts Location: Los Angeles, California, United States Name: Barrie Becker

Barrie Becker met Tanja Bojic while participating in a teacher exchange program in Montenegro in 2004. Three years later, they are still working together to create multimedia, online collaborative projects with the goal of uniting students in friendship, cultural understanding, and tolerance.

In 2006, students collaborated to write, produce, and perform “Rostislav and Julianna” – a modern-day interpretation of Romeo and Juliet set in Montenegro. This effort, which culminated in a 22 minute DVD and podcast series, required deep cultural understanding and constant communication.

Even though some students were limited by poor hardware and connectivity, it was multimedia technology that made every product possible. In this highly visual culture, students learned to be expressive with images and sound as well as text, developing skills in digital photography, storyboarding, sound recording, video production, and editing. Correspondence, poetry, and screenwriting directly developed language and literacy skills; research and dialogue helped students to learn history and culture, all knowledge that must then be applied in a creative way.

Students designed projects that moved learning beyond isolated factual content to require deep critical thinking and share meaningful thoughts and experiences, which helped them to learn empathy on personal and global levels. Participating in multiple teams at a time led to constantly developing cooperative problem-solving skills to achieve their goals.

Issues of global concern, such as tolerance, poverty, and pollution, are approached through personal experiences. Rostislav and Julianna explores what happens to teenagers born into an intolerant society. Students often commented in their blogs that collaboration is the most meaningful part of their work, but they also gained confidence that they have power to participate in and change their world.

"This project continues to show us that there must be no barriers between young people.
We may not allow different cultures or religions to ever again come between us.
It is becoming obvious that people are finally starting to
understand that we are all part of the same world."
– Bosnian student

"Before this project, I hadn't the slightest idea that there is a country called
Montenegro that just received its independence. There are actually
teenagers there who share the same interests and aspirations."
– US student

See Barrie Becker’s lesson plan in the TIGed Activities Database

Watch the podcasts at http://bbecker.podomatic.com/.

Best Practice:
Visual literacy and digital media provide a window onto intercultural competency

Collaborating with TIGed
Teachers who are looking for partners for an existing project or who want to share an idea for a new project can use TIGed’s Educator Central to connect with other teachers from around the world and find potential collaborators based on subject, grade, country, timeline or specific nature of the project, and contact each other directly through TakingITGlobal, keeping personal contact information private.