Students from Armenia and the United States met in Yerevan this week to study Internet technologies within the program of the Developing Online Tools for Civic Outreach and Mobilization (DOTCOM)

It is already 18 months that the program is being implemented by DOTCOM, aiming to teach children how to use Internet and the program is being realized both in their home countries and on outgoing joint lessons. (American students first visited Azerbaijan, and this week they arrived in Armenia.)

“Azeris know nothing about Armenia, and Armenians know nothing about Azerbaijan,” says Richard Giragosian, director of the Yerevan-based Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS). “They even have not seen each other because of the conflict, lasting for years, which closed the information flow from one country into the other. However, the situation can be settled by means of breaking the stereotypes and building bridges. The meeting of these children is one of the bridges.”

Armenian children expressed their concerns regarding the poor Internet coverage within all provinces of Armenia, as well as the incomplete education of the sphere at schools.

“In the United States our teachers hold special classes for us to teach how to use Internet. Of course, there are some children who use Internet for chatting only, but it is a source of information to me,” says American student Anna Myers, 16.

After the meeting, the Armenian participants of the program decided that special courses should be organized for their teachers who would later provide their students with necessary knowledge. Besides, they (students) must work with their classmates, if needed, to teach them how to use Internet, how to open their own blogs, and voice the issues they are worried about through Internet.

Davit Avoyan, 15, a student of Secondary School after Pushkin in Yerevan, says that he will try to spread this knowledge among those children who, saying Internet, understand only www.odnoklassniki.ru where they can spend their spare time. (Odnoklassniki is a social network service, similar to Facebook, for classmates and old friends reunion popular in Russia and other former Soviet republics, including Armenia).