Durham College students chat with a class in Maharashtra, India via webcam in the college’s first global classroom. The two classes had a joint lecture on the Canadian documentary Manufactured Landscapes.

Durham College made history on April 5 when it hosted its first global classroom, sharing a lecture with a class at the Mahindra United World College in Maharashtra, India.

The two classes watched the award-winning Canadian documentary Manufactured Landscapes then linked up over webcam to speak with photographer Edward Burtynsky and director Jennifer Baichwal, the creators of the film. The lecture took a Q and A format as students took turns commenting on what they had seen.

Despite the connection between four geographically distant locations – India; Burtynsky in Toronto; Baichwal in Alliston, Ontario; and Oshawa – the talk was largely glitch-free as the four locations transmitted video and audio to one another.

Durham College President Don Lovisa spoke before the lecture, stepping in front of the webcam to greet students more than 11,000 kilometres away.

“I welcome the students of Mumbai to Durham College in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, and congratulate Lon on his first global classroom,” said Lovisa. “We have the net generation here so this is normal for them, but for most of us this is new and exciting.”

The session was led by Lon Appleby, a professor in the School of Communication, Language & General Studies and teacher of the Short History of the World elective course. Appleby was pleased with the class and only disappointed the conversation was cut short due to class hours.

“We spent a lot of time testing different systems to make sure we had the right one,” said Appleby. “I had a great technical team behind me solving problems. We launched this, we connected, we had a good discussion that was getting even better and nothing broke down. What can I say?”