Intercultural Communication as a By-product of the Globally Networked Learning Process

Intercultural Communication as a By-product of the Globally

Networked Learning Process

Mira Bergelson, HSE, Moscow, Russia

[email protected] Meredith Harrigan,

SUNY, Geneseo, NY, USA Craig Little,

SUNY, Cortland, NY, USA

Intercultural Communication as a By-product of the Globally Networked Learning Process

Our goal in this paper• Rethinking the experience OR a typology of

studying intercultural communication in vivo

• Comparing three approaches with focus on:– the content of the subject field– participation in a real process of peer-to-peer

intercultural communication– joint multi-sided discussions of the topical

issues of social life in various cultures.• Each approach has its potential benefits

and pitfalls

First case: Social Control• Course on social control by Prof. Craig little• SUNY Learning Network

– Asynchronous web-based platform• 1. 2002

– 7 SUNY students; 5 ESL students• 2. 2004

– 10+1 English-native; 7+3 ESL Russian-native students• 3. 2013

– 20+ English-native (US+Australia); 7 ESL Russian-native• Little, Craig. B., Titarenko, Larissa, Bergelson, Mira. Creating a

successful international distance-learning classroom. Teaching Sociology, vol.33, 2005 (October: 355-370).

• Little, Craig B., Titarenko, L., Bergelson, M. The Role of Democratic Dialogue in Collaborative International Distance Education. AUDEM: International Journal of Higher Education and Democracy,  2012, Vol.3.

Course structure• The Modules Included the Following

Assignments and Activities– Mini-Lectures (prepared by the professors)– Reading from the assigned books– Reading Questions to be answered on the

assigned books– Examinations—one for each of the three core

modules– Web-Based Assignments– Student-Led Discussions

• Demonstrated Benefits– Intensive writing– English language enhancement practice– Other ?

The international on-line classroom provides an effective forum for democratic dialogue

• A democratic dialogue: An exchange of information and opinions on public issues in an open forum – potentially either a boring or a threatening

communication event – Boring - if opinions to be exchanged are

more or less similar – Threatening to the social face of the

participants - if they are opposite or adverse – If there is no exchange of opinions, but of

information only – it is unlikely to happen

Advantages of SLD• A cross-cultural dialogue is generally

more revealing in terms of information obtained and more threatening – vast proportion of the opinions is based on

cultural (national) stereotypes • The SLD is an excellent vehicle to

promote a democratic dialogue – more efficient, more educating, less

threatening– allowing to make most out of its cross-

culturally

SLD allows:• a free but still structured format;• an explicit demand for exchange of

information;• students choose what input to respond to;• a postponed, not face-to-face response to

a comment;• competitive attitude based on how many

people respond to a given post and how they evaluate it;

• a multi-linear dialogue (polylogue);• because of the prolonged period for the

SLD (a module is about three weeks) there is a certain time line for developing of each topic.

Some quotes• I think that it was very educationally rewarding. I

learned a lot about social control in different countries. I learned from their questions more about the United States, and I felt comfortable posting mine. It was definitely rewarding learning about their feelings towards social control, and it helped that not everyone was the same age or from the same background because you learned so many different perspectives. (American)

• This course showed that interaction of people from different countries and cultures can not only be interesting but rather profitable for everybody. (Belarusian)

• It was interesting to learn opinions of students from other countries. Some points of view appeared to be really unexpected. (Russian)

Second case: Intercultural Communication in the Global

Classroom“The study of intercultural

communication begins as a journey into another culture and reality and ends as a journey into one’s own culture” ~Peter Adler

The PartnershipSUNY GeneseoDepartment of

Communication

Moscow State UniversityDepartment of Foreign Languages and Literatures

The GoalTo bring intercultural

communication theory to practice and create a

transformational learning experience for students.

The StrategyTo create an eight week team project

in order for students to learn through doing

Specific Project TaskEach team will create a social advertisement

for their partnering culture

The Process• Students complete 5 online modules• Each module required three

activities: 1. Main Project Activity 2. Relationship Building Activity 3. Reflective Activity

Learning Management System: Moodle

Main Project Activities1. Make Key Decisions 2. Collect Data3. Create a Draft Ad4. Seek Feedback5. Finalize the Ad

Goal #1: Practice intercultural communicationGoal #2: Use culture as a lens as they create

ads

Geneseo students product

MSU students product

Relationship-Building Activities

• Creating slide shows using Animoto• Creating metaphorical “backpacks of

culture”• Engaging in the DIVE exercise via

VoiceThread• Engaging in team conferences via Skype

Reflection Exercises • Online discussion posts • Class-to-class videoconferences

Relationship Building Activities

Reflection Activities • Online discussion posts • Class-to-class videoconferences

Retrospective Sense-Making

What We Know Now That We Didn’t Expect Then

Unanticipated Benefits of Planning Decisions

• Evaluate our own students’ work • Teach content through process • Have a primary LMS organizer• Meet prior to each class-to-class

videoconference • Structure each class-to-class

meeting consistently

Unanticipated Glitches: Technological Management

• Collect hyperlinks rather than videos files

• Beware of browser differences• Collect savable pictures rather than links• Consider the impact of system upgrades• Have support staff or user-friendly

technology• Stay aware of the “new” digital divide

Unanticipated Questions:Intercultural Management

• Are our differences culture or personal?

• How do we differ in our time orientation?

• How do we differ in our semantic rules?

• How do we differ in task and relational orientations?

Unanticipated discoveries• Time matters• Geneseo – MSU ≠ US – Russia• Creating a product requires creation of

interculture• Technology divides (?)• When intercultural becomes

interpersonal• Creativity• Motivation

Unanticipated Discoveries: Embracing Teachable Moments

Learning Activities Often Yielded Unanticipated Opportunities for

Learning

DIVE Exercise• Anticipated Goals:

–To make students aware of the powerful role culture plays in our perceptual process.

–To encourage perception-checking.• Unanticipated Outcome:

– Increased intercultural and co-cultural knowledge.

Third Case : Global Understanding courses

• Project started by East Carolina University in 2003

• 42 Universities from 28 countries• FFL MSU students have participated since

2005• Project Leader Prof. Alla Nazarenko• Videoconferences and chat between

students for four weeks• Three partners per semester

Global Understanding Topics• Education• Family and Traditions• Meaning of Life• Stereotypes and Prejudice• English as lingua franca

http://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/globalinitiatives/course.cfm

In Search of Typology• Focus on language skills ~ on subject

field ~ on technology• Methods of interaction between

course participants– One-on-one interactions ~ team work ~

class-to-class interactions• Number of participating parties• Role of SLD or other forums

Course essentials• Groundwork: the conditions for success

– Motivation: for professors, for students– Relationships– Institutional accounting

• Building the course– Selecting the topic– Keeping it simple: chunking, scheduling– Opportunities for online interaction– Coordinating frequent written assignments

with the readings

• “The study of intercultural communication begins as a journey into another culture and reality and ends as a journey into one’s own culture”

• ~ Peter Adler