Ever since I worked at an international school in Caracas, Venezuela I have believed that immersion in another culture is an important experience for every human being on the planet. My old Spanish professors would talk about a fish not really knowing what "water" was until they ever found themselves out of water. We have very little understanding of our own culture until we leave it. Several years ago, I agreed to take a doctoral student from Brazil, Tel Amiel. Tel and I worked together to get a grant that would help students participate in an exchange between UGA and a university in Brazil. We wrapped this around the teacher education program, so LDT students did not directly participate in this project (except for Jo McClendon and Tel Amiel). So, after Tel graduated, we applied for another one of these FIPSE/CAPES grants and we were awarded another one. This time, our intent is to send our masters students to Brazil for two months in the summer (each student gets a $5000 package to participate in this exchange). We begin this exchange by receiving Brazilian students next spring and sending our students in the summer of 2010. We are hoping that we can help students form relationships during the spring exchange that will carry over to the summer exchange. All of these exchanges revolve around locally developed educational materials being redesigned for the "other" culture and in the "other" language. Of course, their students need to learn some English and our students will need to learn some Portuguese.
To get prepared for this exchange, I am testing this experience this summer in my EDIT 6600 class called, "Multicultural Perspectives on Technology." The course this summer will pair students from Veracruz, Mexico with UGA students and will focus on the redesign each others learning materials. We will meet this entire class online. We will make use of our audio online classroom (Wimba), our videoconferencing system, and any other technology tools we can think of to help develop relationships between UV students and UGA students. We will rely heavily on their English ability and a little on our Spanish abilities. I have ten of their students signed up and I hope I can match that number with at least 10 or our students.
So, if you are still here at UGA, please agree to participate in this class. If you have graduated, I would love to hear about how you have faced cultural issues in the educational materials you have designed and implemented. I would love to learn what you have already learned.
BTW, I have setup a wiki to manage what has been going on with us here at UGA as we grapple with learning, design, and technology as it relates to cultural dimensions. You are welcome to visit this wiki. It has some of our papers and it has some of the materials from various courses related to culture and education and technology.
http://projects.coe.uga.edu/mikeorey/
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I'd like to talk to you more about this. pattyfl@bellsouth.net, 706-254-2179
ReplyDeleteHaving used my instructional design and technology skills working in developing countries, there are many things to learn about working internationally - the multicultural aspect being just one of them. The instructional design process is very key - needs assessment is incredibly important. Many people still just jump directly into content development (and you will have a hard time convincing SMEs not to do so). It's critically important to get input on examples that are relevant to the population you work with and certainly to consider realities of local technology access and capacity of the audience to work with technology. Formative evaluation should include usability testing (simple observation with a few audience members is fine). Finally, blended learning with alternate forms of training have to be considered based on the needs of the audience and the content and skills being taught. I would say to anyone who is interested in working in international development, health, or other areas where they may work with developing countries that they need to be as commited to instructional design as they are to the "techie" end of instructional technology and be willing to be flexible in execution.
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