Collaboration and the successful use of information and communications technologies in teaching and learning geography in higher education

Collaboration may help secure many of the benefits of and overcome many of the obstacles to, the transformation of learning and teaching that is curre ntly in prospect, arising partly from the pervasive effects of information and communications technologies. Benefits accrue fr om interactions and sha ring between students and between staff and in developing teaching resource s, creating learning-resources databases, and delivering courses. Internati onal collaboration has additional dimensions: larger scale and diversity of activity; wider cross-cultural considerations; and international student p rogrammes, Major collaborative innovations face four groups of issues: chal lenges to established institutional structures and practices; re-allocation s of funding; adherence to agreed technical standards; and legal impediment s. These are mole complex at the international level at which the Internati onal Network for Learning and Teaching Geography in Higher Education will o perate.