The Whalesong Project has become a personal education research project, spanning some thirteen years. At its core, it has an ongoing commitment to understanding the application of online collaborative technologies and how these technologies will assist in equipping individuals and entire communities to understand and effectively participate in a rapidly and profoundly changing world.

What are the challenges of the new millennium? How are we equipping our young people to understand and deal with these challenges? What role do traditional education systems play in meeting these challenges?

In my opinion, one of the most inspiring writers and thinkers of our time, Brazilian, Paulo Friere, spoke of developing a literacy that is not simply “coding and decoding marks on a page” but is a literacy that allows an individual not simply to know something, but to have the ability to act on that knowledge; to become an effective participant in the society of the present and of the future.

This is one of the single greatest challenges for our 'modern' education systems.

In its earliest guise, the Whalesong Project supported a range of educational projects as "The Whalesong Foundation", some formally, some informally. These included,

• The Whalesong Foundation
• The I*EARN Australia Centre 1990 -1996
• U.N.E.S.C.O. and the Associated Schools Project
• The Holocaust-Genocide Project
• The Asia Education Foundation-New Partnerships Project
• The 1st I*EARN Conference in Argentina in 1994
• The 2nd 1995 I*EARN "One World" Conference
• The International Beijing Women's conference
• The Victorian Global Classroom Project 1994-1996
• The 3rd I*EARN Teachers Conference -Hungary 1996
• And many teachers and school communities with grants for their developing work

From early in 1997, when the Whalesong Foundation was dissolved, having achieved its primary goals over a 5 year period, I continued to develop and conduct my educational research independently, now known as the “Whalesong Project”, yet working closely with many of my colleagues who started with me in the late 1980's and early 1990's.In particular, Andrew Hocking, who has been Senior Project Officer of the Victorian "Global Classroom Project". Andrew is currently Project Manager for IBM Australia's "Reinventing Schools" project.

The impact and ongoing work of the I*EARN International Network on my own research activities can also not be understated. Throughout this site I pay tribute to many of the I*EARN pioneers and I wish to mention the work of co-founders Peter Copen and Ed Gragert in this unique and ongoing international education experiment.

Please browse through both the current research centre and the research archive to gain an insight in to many of the early (and ongoing) attempts to take advantage of online learning technologies.

I hope you will find the material, thoughts, references and research in this site of use.

I dedicate this work to the memory of a good friend and colleague, Daniel Reyes and the original goals of the Red Telar network in Argentina. Un abrazo Daniel.

Bill Coppinger 1997

The Whalesong Project©

Site Version: | Whalesong BBS 1988-1989 | Whalesong HTML 1993-1994 | Whalesong Project 1997- |

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Site launched 28th September 1994

Site Last updated: Saturday, May 11, 2002 9:36 PM GMT + 10 (+11 ADST)