The Culture of Technology: Differences in the Use of E-Learning Technologies Among

Cultures

Babu P George, PhDAlaska Pacific University

Speaker at Lilly Arctic 2013. Link HERE.

What we Thought Technology would do to Education

THE HYPERLINKED SOCIETY WE LIVE IN

5C’s of E-learning Success

Content

Capability

Culture

Client

Cost

Adapted from Lea, P. (2003). Understanding the culture of e-learning. Industrial and Commercial Training, 35(5), 217-219.

• Content, Cost, Client, and Capability have been relatively well understood

• Culture still a grey area

Understanding the culture of technology assumes new dimensions in virtual global classrooms

© Scientific American

3. Cross-Cultural Comparisons

Copyright (c) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Copyright (c) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

3. Cross-Cultural Comparisons

Methodology

• Multi-stage design: Focus groups followed by survey

• Three focus group interviews– One only with international professors– Two only with international students– Three random sample of members from each

group• No statistical generalization at this stage• Survey yet to be commissioned

Power Distance• Instructor-student participants from high Power Distance

cultures consider ‘democratizing technologies’ to be a threat– Asynchronous interaction preferred– Prefer to replicate traditional classroom culture online, verbatim– Social media based e-learning heavily resented– Peer evaluation proscribed– Prefer controlled environments for instruction

• Power distance correspond positively with the insistence upon hierarchical labeling of e-content (sections and subsections)– Students from high PD cultures were willing to make more

mouse clicks to read the same content.

Individualism-Collectivism• For students from highly individualistic cultures

– Student centered e-learning styles were appreciated– Students loved customizable interfaces and content – Students loved instructor free zones (blogs, journals, wikis, chat

windows, etc.)• Individualism does not always mean seeking privacy; individualists want to

share how unique they are and collectivists want to share how similar they are

– Students prefer to use third part service providers ‘not officially supported’ by their school

– Successful completion of group assignments require much more elaboration and explanation

• Students from highly collective cultures liked to see extensive hyperlinks, interlinking as many ‘knowledge bits’ as possible– They also loved the ‘peer evaluation’ option, as expected.– Far less concerned about the ‘privacy and security’ features.

Uncertainty Avoidance

• Instructors and students from highly uncertainty avoidant cultures prefer to use officially supported and stable versions of instructional technologies

• Students from uncertainty tolerant cultures do not demand detailed and pre-packaged e-content or syllabus at the beginning of the semester; rather, they liked ‘emergent’ content as the course progresses.

• They also show a higher level of interest in action learning and project based curriculum

Masculinity-Femininity

• Instructors and students from highly feminine cultures give significantly more attention to aspects of knowledge interface design – Their masculine counterparts care far more about

the ‘content’ aspects– Femininity is also positively related to the use of

images (diagrams, pictures, videos, etc)• Live classrooms were more important for

feminine cultures– May be due to the opportunity to mix with one

another better

Time Orientation

• Instructors and students from long term oriented cultures want to know the course content in entirely and how that meet the objectives stated in the syllabus– There short term oriented counterparts were more or

less happy about knowing the “assignments next week”.• According to this group, an email or tweet announcing a

change in the course schedule was destabilizing

• However, long term orientation related positively with ‘difficulty to judge’ the quality of e-learning

The Critical Question -

• How to make the ‘universal design’ of e-learning work in multi-cultural classrooms? – Tons of studies suggest that culture and technology

engage with each other in complex ways – Faculty and students from diverse cultural

backgrounds• Almost impossible to design culture neutral technological

systems– Adapt to which culture?

» Of faculty, of the majority of students, …, …, » Or, flexible solutions that accommodate everyone?

Thank you!

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