Using technology in global education

Erin Richards, Danielle Powell, Yuko Ito and

Stephanie Delaney

Cascadia Community College

International Interactive Teleconference Fall 2008: Learning Community – “Road

to the White House” with 3 universities in Indonesia

Fall 2009: Group of female students with students from Women’s colleges in United Arab Emirates and Japan

Outcomes of Indonesia conference Differences in American and Indonesian

Electoral Systems

Our culture and role in a global society

Cross cultural and computer-mediated communication

Students’ Perspectives: Learning Something New

“Before this video conference, I knew nothing about the Indonesian election system. I learned that elections in Indonesia are less complicated than our American elections.”

“It [the video conference] made me realize how many people worldwide are familiar with American government, and made me want

to learn more about international

governments.”

Students’ Perspectives: Seeing things Differently

“The teleconference allowed me to really see a glimpse of how the world sees the U.S. It provided an opportunity to think about how we have such an America centric world view with very little knowledge of what is going on in the world.”

“Ultimately it [the video conference] contributes to the creation of a universal and global culture as we bridge the gaps of ignorance and inexperience that separate us. I can’t wait for the next one!”

LANGUAGE EXCHANGE CORRESPONDENCE (LEC): ENGLISH AND JAPANESE

Yuko Ito

Language Exchange Correspondence (LEC): English and Japanese

Background: Searching for ways to Use the language outside the class Connect what students learned to real

life situation Communicate and interact with native

speakers to practice language and learn about the Japanese culture

Overview 14 groups: each group consists of 1 second-

year Japanese student from Cascadia and 2-3 Japanese students from Kanda University of International Studies

Weekly Assignments: Ex. Introduction, Seattle, Japanese universities and college life

Posting and Responding both in English and Japanese on Moodle

http://kalls-moodle.kuis.ac.jp/login/index.php Grading: Task Completion and active

participation (part of homework grade) Course Project: Group Oral Presentation

Survey Question #1

What kind of things did you learn through thelanguage exchange?

New vocabulary, Regional dialect What college life is like in Japan and what

kind of things college students like to do How Japanese teenagers actually type/write

(informal language) How much they know about American culture Improvement on my grammar as my group

members corrected me regularly

Survey Question #2

What did you like the most about the LEC? Why?

Communicating with a Japanese student (our age) and how they really write/converse rather than just learning textbook styles

Discussing cultural differences and sharing many of the same interests

Having more Japanese influence in my life outside of class and keeping me to think about Japanese more often

Being able to help Japanese students with English and vise versa

Survey Question #3

What are some difficulties you had during this exchange?

Translating unknown Kanji (Chinese Characters)

Nervous about not writing Japanese correctly

Writing one comment in Japanese took a very long time

Lack of responses from Japanese students

Survey Question #4

Would you be interested in participating in this type of correspondence again in the future? If yes, please provide any suggestions/ideas to make this exchange a better learning tool.

Yes (12) Direct and instant communication (ie. Skype,

IM) Working on the same activity/project and

sharing at the end It should be more engaging on their sides.

No (1)

Survey Question #5Please write any comments you have about the LEC.

It was fun and I hope to get a chance to participate more often.

I am very happy about this program, and very grateful that one of my partners always responded to my concerns. It was a good experience!

Exchange with native speakers while learning a language is always good.

It was fun and good exercise through I wish for more active conversation.

Adding Japanese influence is helpful as we only have class two times a week and it can be difficult to think in Japanese often with that schedule.

Where Are We Now?

one-on-one language exchange by private e-mail address (submitting writing on ANGEL drop box)

Planning for Skype session (16 hours time difference)

Meeting own partner? (short study abroad program)

OTHER TECHNOLOGIES

Stephanie Delaney

Elluminate

For synchronous communication

Free and easy to use for anyone with an internet connection (headphones helpful)

Free training online at elluminate.com

VoiceThread

For asynchronous communication

Can use text or voice

Easy and free to use

www.voicethread.com

Thank You!

Erin Richards – erichards@cascadia.edu Danielle Powell – dpowell@cascadia.edu Yuko Ito – yito@cascadia.edu Stephanie delaney –

sdelaney@cascadia.edu