Student Internationalization through Web 2.0

NextEd: Web2.0 & a sustainable approach to Internationalising students An invitation to “…spend the morning indoors going to Africa and back…” Rose Quilling & Craig Blewett

Internationalisation?
Has always been about
physical mobility
academic cooperation
knowledge transfer

Internationalisation?
And may be about
Mutual understanding
Skill migration
Revenue generation
Capacity building
… about a process & growth

It’s about a journey… Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Mark Twain

A documented journey… One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. Henry Miller We must travel in the direction of our fear. Berryman We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. Steinbeck

Benefits are clear But let’s get real ! UKZN Student Exchange Programme: Semester 1 - 2011 … a good academic record. … subject to selection at both the home and host institution. responsible for their own expenses including travel, subsistence, accommodation, health insurance and any other costs as applicable at the host institution. … … enrol for courses for which credits can be transferred Some financial aid will be available for financially needy students

But let’s get real… UKZN Student Exchange Programme: Semester 1 - 2011 … a good academic record. … subject to selection at both the home and host institution. responsible for their own expenses including travel, subsistence, accommodation, health insurance and any other costs as applicable at the host institution. … … enrol for courses for which credits can be transferred Some financial aid will be available for financially needy students VERY FEW ! VERY FEW !

We’d like to invite you to
“… spend the morning indoors going to Africa and back…”
Our invitation to you

… cross-cultural communication (electronic or otherwise) does not require a total transformation of behavior to suit cultural differences but does demand an ability to work within a culturally diverse framework.
Zakaria, et al. (2004:24)
Less immersive...

Using Web2.0

Using Web2.0
Anywhere – anytime
Engaging ( multimedia)
Collaborate - contribute
Social Computing (Web 2.0)
Social networks
Social bookmarking
Wikis
Blogs
Virtual worlds

………… .. is a global, virtual educational network, built on an ubuntu philosophy of collaboration and a scaffolded model of supportive engagement.

Collaborations since 2008
UKZN
South Africa
Originating institution
BCom IS&T Hons (4 th yr)
2 flexible modules: CMC & Special Topics
10-30 students

US & Africa
UMass
USA
MBA students - Core MIS class (~20)
OR students Ugrad (~70)
Topic link to “Special Topics in IS&T”
Daystar
Kenya
BSc Applied Comp Sc (4 th year)
(10-20)
HCI module
Topic link to “CMC”

Practically…
Share topics – not modules
Specific learning objectives
Hard
Soft
Jointly select platforms
Team
Teaching
Assessment
Timing

Impressions UMass(MBA ) Daystar Faculty The wiki was a great collaboration platform – it’s nice to be able to add work, and edit the work of others, slowly molding and shaping text into a final product. I found my [SA] teammates to be knowledgeable and very willing to help. I was particularly surprised, and am not sure why, that their depth and knowledge of our topic equaled ours. Perhaps it was a stereotype to think their educational system would not be on the same level as ours, but it was quite the opposite … students participated in the group activities very well and ended up learning more than they thought they would… More tasks should be done in collaboration with students from other countries. Activities that require the use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr should be introduced and added to the module.

Impressions Computers must be up to standard … there was not enough collaboration between SA and USA students. Team issues!

Lessons We Learned..
Courses & Students
Requirements & Assessment
Participants

L1: Courses & Students
Courses
Courses with common content?
Compartmentalised into topics?
Aligning timing of topic?
Student academic level
Knowing your own & collaborator’s

L2: Requirements & Assessment
Requirements being made of students
Multidisciplinary teams
Variety of Skills
Notional study hours available for collaboration
Assessment
Modes of assessment: assignments? exams?
Grading norms ~ NB for initiator
Equally difficult for initiator and collaborator to judge?!

L3: Participants
Expectations? Students & Faculty
Success requires motivated participants…So what? …What’s in it for me?
“ Seeing is believing”

Conclusion It’s about vision casting
“ Virtual Internationalisation” is not the same thing as “immersive” internationalisation!
Yet it is
Simple
Can be scaffolded
Scalable
Accessible

conclusion
"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat. Lewis Carroll Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

THANK YOU  [email_address] [email_address]

Student Internationalization through Web 2.0

by Craig Blewett on Oct 06, 2010

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Student Internationalization through Web 2.0 — Presentation Transcript