2 Education leaders in the United Kingdom have wished to advance a more global perspective throughout schools and universities since at least the early 1990's (Junor, 1998). International education is no longer available only to a few who can travel abroad for study. Web technology has opened new possibilities to design cross-cultural encounters and active, project-based learning. Educators at tertiary, secondary and elementary levels can use the web to go beyond the traditional boundaries of the local classroom to link students internationally in collaborative learning activities.

3 The first section of this paper describes two projects undertaken between classes at the University of Durham and universities in the United States this spring. One linked post-graduates in comparative education in bi-national collaborative research teams at the University of Durham and at the University of North Dakota. The other used the web to teach writing in English by linking undergraduates at the University of Durham and the University of California.

4 The objectives in both course experiments were: (1) to promote student skills at using IT as learning tools, and (2) to cultivate collaboration among students across cultures to advance learning in a specific subject field. In the first case, the field was research in semantics; in the second, it was English fiction writing supported by peer review.

5 The second section of the paper will explore the potential for international web-based collaborative learning activities involving schools at secondary and primary level in the United Kingdom and overseas.