Intercultural Challenges in Networked Learning

This paper gives an account of themes that emerged from a preliminary analysis of a large corpus of electronic communications in an online, mediated course for intercultural learners. The goals were to test assumptions that electronic communication is internationally standardized, to identify any problematic aspects of such communications, and to construct a framework for the analysis of electronic communications using constructs from intercultural communications theory. We found that cyberspace itself has a culture(s), and is not culture-free. Cultural gaps can exist between individuals, as well as between individuals and the dominant cyberculture, increasing the chances of miscommunication. The lack of elements inherent in face-to-face communication further problematizes intercultural communications online by limiting opportunities to give and save face, and to intuit meaning from non-verbal cues. We conclude that electronic communication across cultures presents distinctive challenges, as well as opportunities to course planners

Negotiating cultures in cyberspace

In this paper we report findings of a multidisciplinary study of online participation by culturally diverse participants in a distance adult education course offered in Canada and examine in detail three of the study's findings. First, we explore both the historical and cultural origins of "cyberculture values" as manifested in our findings, using the notions of explicit and implicit enforcement of those values and challenging the assumption that cyberspace is a culture free zone. Second, we examine the notion of cultural gaps between participants in the course and the potential consequences for online communication successes and difficulties. Third, the analysis describes variations in participation frequency as a function of broad cultural groupings in our data. We identify the need for additional research, primarily in the form of larger scale comparisons across cultural groups of patterns of participation and interaction, but also in the form of case studies that can be submitted to microanalyses of the form as well as the content of communicator's participation and interaction online

Falling through the (cultural) gaps?

In this paper we report findings of a study of online participation by culturally diverse participants in a distance adult education course offered in Canada, and examine two of the study’s early findings. First, we explore both the historical and cultural origins of “cyberculture values” as manifested in our findings, using the notions of explicit and implicit enforcement of those values. Second, we examine the notion of “cultural gaps” between participants in the course and the potential consequences for online communication successes and difficulties. We also discuss theoretical perspectives from Sociolinguistics, Applied Linguistics, Genre and Literacy Theory and Aboriginal Education that may shed further light on “cultural gaps” in online communications. Finally, we identify the need for additional research, primarily in the form of larger scale comparisons across cultural groups of patterns of participation and interaction, but also in the form of case studies that can be submitted to microanalyses of the form as well as the content of communicator’s participation and interaction online

SOCI430B: Perspectives on Global Citizenship Syllabus 2011-2012

This document details the goals and objectives, curriculum design, structure, and presentation of Perspectives on Global Citizenship – an interdisciplinary and interactive online course.  The course was designed to complement students’ specialized areas of learning, and to challenge students to consider what responsibility they have – within their political, social, cultural and professional contexts – to participate as active global citizens.  It comprises twelve weekly thematic modules, on a Blackboard Vista course management platform, and makes use of Vista communication and collaboration tools.  Themes include:  • Ethics of Global Citizenship  • What is citizenship?  • The Challenge of Global Divisions: Race, Ethnicity, Nation, State  • Challenging Old Conceptions of Citizenship: Diversity and Multiculturalism • The Challenge of Being Informed: Media, Communications and Critical Thinking  • Poverty  • Requirements for a Healthy Society  • Consumerism and Consumer Choices  • Human Impact on the Environment  • Sustainability  • Global Citizenship in Action  Students participate in weekly topical discussions with peers from different disciplines and institutions, and complete four short written assignments over the course of the semester. Assessment is continuous, of both discussion contributions and written work

Teaching towards social and ecological justice online: Introduction to Global Citizenship at UBC

How can we help university students make connections between ‘academic knowledge’, and their roles as members of local and global communities? How do we create a forum for students to engage in issues of social and ecological justice through critical thought, moral commitment and meaningful engagement in their learning and coming to know as global citizens? We are an interdisciplinary group of researchers and instructors who have collaboratively developed, and are now co-teaching an international, interactive, fully online university course: Introduction to Global Citizenship, available to students at five universities around the world. Our course combines academic rigour with personal reflection and group discussion. It provides students with a broad understanding of barriers and bridges to global citizenship, brings greater awareness of key global issues, and encourages individual and collective action and accountability on issues of sustainability and social justice. Pilot delivery of our course in 2005-2006 suggests that it offers students an extremely challenging, thought-provoking, international educational experience, as we learn about and discuss global issues together. In this working session, we hope describe our experiences with this course project, and to facilitate a productive dialogue with colleagues around teaching strategies for transformative learning in higher education. What ‘kinds’ of transformative learning are we seeking and how can we recognize it? Which instructional strategies facilitate deeper critical analysis and personal reflection? What roles might technology and interdisciplinarity play in this undertaking? Which investigative approaches might help us move our institutions beyond lipservice to global education

Constructing ethnicity and identity in the online classroom: Linguistic practices and ritual text acts

In this paper I describe how online learners participate in textually-mediated 'ritual performance' as a means of attesting to their ethnicity and constructing cultural identities in a virtual learning environment. Evidence for this phenomenon emerged from an investigation of cultural identity and learning in a virtual classroom, in which I examined web-based student communications from several iterations of a new international online undergraduate course. I present, here, some of this data, with a focus on ‘ritual text acts’ that participants seem to perform. I draw attention to the ways participants not only ritually perform their affiliations with established national, ethnic or ‘racial’ groups through the use of stylized language, but also how they then ritually challenge these essentialized models of identity. In particular, I explore apparent ritual performances of new hybrid global identities, and moments of ritual resistance to expected learner identities or practices. I argue that that these ritual practices, performed in text, are a significant strategy that virtual learners employ in construction of authentic individual identities - a critical first step in development of a new learning community with a shared learning culture.Arts, Faculty ofScience, Faculty ofUnreviewedResearche

Virtual Ethnicity: The new digitization of place, body, language, and memory

Ethnicity represents a challenging category of selfhood, even for societies sharing a material lived reality. In cyberspace, ethnicity becomes even more confusing. If ethnic affiliation truly depends upon material phenomena such as body or place, what scope, if any, is there for construction of “real ethnicity” in the deterritorialized disembodied virtual spaces of the Internet? In this paper, I present arguments for the recognition of virtual identities as “real,” and I also argue that the material world is, in itself, interwoven with elements of virtuality. I go on to consider the ways in which new virtual communities may attempt establish virtual ethnic identities in cyberspace.Arts, Faculty ofScience, Faculty ofReviewedResearche