Modelling Digital Natives' International Collaboration: Finnish-Korean Experiences of Environmental Education

A new generation of young learners often described as digital native school children are attitudinally and technically equipped to employ social media as a social process in learning. However, few international virtual learning projects have been implemented and researched. This article examines a trial which aimed to combine viable technology with future pedagogic solutions for primary students from Korea and Finland and create an international collaboration model in virtual learning for environmental education. The results show various challenges of the operational model and suggest effective implementation strategies. The challenges were organisational, language, technical and collaboration barriers. The operational model illustrates possibilities of implementing cyber space pedagogy, visualization of knowledge using technology, cyber spaces for collaboration, and the motivational impetus provided by the model. This pilot study demonstrates the need to increase greater interactivity between teachers from the partner countries during the planning phase and provide more authentic interaction for inter-learner dialogue.