Home   

Osnabrück, a German town with a population of 165,000, is making exemplary contributions locally and regionally to the UN’s decade of "Education for Sustainable Development." In 2004, administrators of Osnabrück initiated a project directly related to needs for of urban development and school-based environmental education. The goal of this Osnabrück project is to revitalize and achieve the full ecological integration of the Hase River, which flows through Osnabrück. The "Schools for a Vibrant Hase River" project began with the intention of orienting the project to the "Transfer 21 Program," which is a program for educational planning and research promotion (BLK) sponsored by a commission of the German government.

OpenSpace-Online® methodology supports the initial and foundation phase
The initial and foundation phase of the "Schools for a Vibrant Hase River" project had three phases as follows: a 1.5 hour face-to-face town hall meeting, a 3.5 hour OpenSpace-Online® conference, and a face-to-face meeting to establish a new network.

In summer 2005, the mayor of Osnabrück sent an invitation to all schools of the town. He called all pupils, teachers and interested citizens to actively participate in the online conference. The main question of the internet conference was: What are our ideas and topics for developing interdisciplinary learning and mutual development of the Hase River? Interested citizens, pupils, and teachers from approximately 20 schools responded to mayor’s invitation.

The online conference date of November 22, 2005 arrived and registrations for the OpenSpace-Online® Real-Time Conference included interested teachers, pupils, one whole class, initiators of the project, project consultants and three guests from the University of Osnabrück, who were from a Russian Republic of East Siberia. At the mutual start time of the conference, participants logged-on and, during the 3.5 hours of parallel and successive workshops, participants developed ideas, identified issues and described opportunities for developing exciting interdisciplinary learning opportunities with potential for achieving revitalization and full ecological integration of the Hase River. Also during the session breaks, within the virtual café area, the participants initiated lively discussions. These ideas and results were carried on into next workshops.

The information generated during these lively discussions was recorded in the conference documentation, which was immediately available to all participants at the conclusion of the OpenSpace-Online® conference. The organizers and the participants were very satisfied with the results of this virtually-moderated meeting, which then became the basis for the third phase of the "Schools for Hase River" project – establishing a new network for sustainable urban development and environmental education.

German radio interview about the online conference
Christiane Balks, who is one of the initiators of the "Schools for a Vibrant Hase River" project, reported her experiences with OpenSpace-Online® in a radio interview. Descriptions of her experiences as a participant included: "It was a very creative process, many good ideas came together, it produced a lot of courage to start a new network and it led to pleasant anticipation to meet many interested people for the first time in person."

In order to learn about the initial results and plans for further plans for the newly established network, listen to Christiane Balk’s interview by clicking on to the following link:

>> Click here and listen (German language)