{"id":5055,"date":"2016-09-23T18:31:58","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T22:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/faculty-engagement\/?p=5055"},"modified":"2019-02-17T12:34:21","modified_gmt":"2019-02-17T17:34:21","slug":"fostering-cross-cultural-experience-through-virtual-exchanges-gifts-volume-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/brown-center\/2016\/09\/5055\/","title":{"rendered":"G.I.F.T. ~ Fostering Cross-Cultural Experience through Virtual Exchanges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Great Ideas for Teaching (G.I.F.T.)\u00a0<\/i>is an occasional series featuring\u00a0Stetson faculty. To submit your G.I.F.T., contact the center staff<\/a>.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

by Patrick Guibaud<\/span><\/p>\n

Thinking about an innovative way to foster <\/i>greater cross-cultural experience in your <\/i>classroom? Please allow me to suggest an\u00a0<\/i>International Virtual Student Exchange.<\/i><\/p>\n

Picture the following scenario. Three students are intensely engaged in a group chat session on the new immigration Executive Order (EO) recently announced by President Obama on November 20.\u00a0 The group chat session is part of the students\u2019 homework assignment. The students are to work together outside of class and prepare a joint presentation on the immigration on the EO decision in two weeks. As the students are living miles apart and in three different time zones, they found it very convenient to communicate with each other via Skype chat to work on the assignment.<\/p>\n

During the chat session, Joe Ellis, a political science junior from a small Liberal Arts college in Florida, offers that the presentation should touch on the Constitutional aspects of the EO decision.\u00a0 He said that based on discussions with friends at his school, the Constitutionality of the EO decision by President Obama should be explored further. Boateng Anderson, an Economics junior at a Polytechnic University in Ghana says that although he agrees with Joe,\u00a0 however, the most salient aspect of the President\u2019s action for him is the impact that the EO will have on remittances that are sent back home by Ghanaians. Boateng added that he heard similar reactions from friends in Ghana who are citizens of other African countries.\u00a0 Jennifer Mulay, an International Studies senior at a private university in Kenya says that the presentation should definitely highlight the Amnesty point of EO. She says that given the fact that the current President of the US is the son of a Kenyan immigrant, her friends see that it is ironic there is still strong resistance in many parts of the US to fully welcome new immigrants.<\/p>\n

\"global-learning-sized\"<\/p>\n

As their 45-minute chat session nears its end, Boateng has the task to summarize the main points of the discussion thread in a word document and forward it to the rest of the team. Following receipt of the summary document, Jennifer is to complete a draft of the presentation while Joe will conduct more research on the constitutional point that was raised during the chat session.<\/p>\n

The scenario that I have just described represents the current thinking regarding International Virtual Exchanges <\/i>(IVE). In the past, the focus of IVE was more often placed on bringing students from a US and an international institution in Africa, South America, Europe or Asia, together via videoconference for a joint group discussion on a topic. In such\u00a0 an IVE set-up, a few students would pose questions during\u00a0the class. However, because of class size and the technical challenges it would be very difficult for the students in the joint class session to engage each other directly in any meaningful way.\u00a0 As a result, the professors would serve as facilitators and at times translators for the joint session of the class.<\/p>\n

The current and newer approach to doing IVE puts greater emphasis on student-student collaborations. Given the widespread availability and common use of Social Networking chat tools such as Skype, Google Plus and Facebook, group work can be done fairly easily by students who live miles away and far apart from each other.\u00a0 In the EO scenario that I presented, the students were placed in a triad by their professors and asked to work together and develop a collaborative presentation on a US policy decision with global implications.\u00a0 The trio chose the recent immigration EO decision by Obama as their presentation topic. While they have learned from each other, the students will have an additional opportunity to hear more and varied perspectives on the President\u2019s EO decision when the team makes their presentation at the upcoming joint session of their class.<\/p>\n

Here at Stetson University, we have quite a few faculty members experimenting with IVE.\u00a0 Given that all students will not travel overseas during tenure here, an IVE can be leveraged to provide a fairly relevant cross-cultural experience as part of normal classroom learning activities. The effective use of technology along with sound pedagogy can make an International Virtual Exchange very rewarding for students.<\/p>\n

To learn more about IVE or technology-enhanced learning, contact oolet@stetson.edu.<\/em><\/p>\n

About the Author<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"patrick-guilbaud\"Patrick Guilbaud\u00a0served as\u00a0the Brown Teacher-Scholar Fellow in Learning Technologies<\/a> at Stetson University 2014-2015. \u00a0During his fellowship year,\u00a0Guilbuad completed a comprehensive institution-wide online learning-hybrid model self-study to assess and create a model for online and hybrid learning. \u00a0This study culminated in the 2016\u00a0launch\u00a0of Stetson\u2019s Office of Online Learning and Educational Technology.<\/p>\n

Guilbaud’s\u00a0scholarship of teaching and learning\u00a0 research focuses on the integration of technology in support of online education and self-directed learning. \u00a0Dr. Guilbaud served as Sr. Research Faculty and Program Director in Information Technology and International Education at Virginia Tech where he secured and led grant-funded global education and international projects including a $28M USAID-funded project in Senegal.<\/p>\n

Dr. Guilbaud is currently\u00a0 director of Adult Programs and associate professor\u00a0at Winthrop University. \u00a0He earned his\u00a0Ph.D. in Instructional Technology, Masters in Systems Engineering and MBA all from the University of Virginia and a bachelor\u2019s degree in Business Administration from the University of Florida. \u00a0He enjoys reading, cooking, traveling and playing tennis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Great Ideas for Teaching (G.I.F.T.)\u00a0is an occasional series featuring\u00a0Stetson faculty. To submit your G.I.F.T., contact the center staff.\u00a0 by Patrick Guibaud Thinking about an innovative way to foster greater cross-cultural experience in your classroom? Please allow me to suggest an\u00a0International Virtual Student Exchange. Picture the following scenario. Three students are intensely engaged in a group […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[199,230,146],"class_list":["post-5055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faculty-excellence","tag-great-ideas-for-teaching-g-i-f-t","tag-learning-teaching","tag-stetson-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/brown-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/brown-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/brown-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/brown-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/brown-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5055"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/brown-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9515,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/brown-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5055\/revisions\/9515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/brown-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/brown-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.stetson.edu\/brown-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}