1) The document discusses developing intercultural action competence using social software and individual/collaborative broadcasting tools. 2) It proposes combining social software approaches that foster communication, interaction and collaboration, with developing intercultural action competence as the ability to act appropriately in intercultural situations. 3) As an example, it outlines a program called ASBE that uses podcasting, individual student weblogs, and literature circles to document and reflect on intercultural experiences of students studying business and economics in Asia.

1. Developing Intercultural Action Competence
With Social Software and Individual and
Collaborative Broadcasting Tools
ITHET 2007
8th International Conference on
Information Technology Based Higher Education and Training
KKR Hotel Kumamoto, 3-31 Chibajyo-machi, Kumamoto, Japan
Kumamoto, Japan, 10 – 13 July 2007
Dipl. Hdl. Frederik G. Pferdt
ITHET 07, Japan
Dipl. Hdl. Frederik G. Pferdt 1
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2. Cultural Differences?!
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3. Cultural Differences?!
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4. Cultural Differences?!
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5. Intercultural requirements of our society!?
Competence:
Competence can be seen as the capability of an individual to
act adequately at the required level in a given situation.
Intercultural competence:
It becomes apparent in the capability of understanding,
respecting and effectively using the cultural relativity of
perception and judgment of oneself and other people.
Thomas (2003)
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6. „New Learning“ with New Media?
- New technologies, new media
(Weblogs, Wikis, Podcasts)
- Next generation eLearning
(eLearning 2.0)
Technological innovations
- New learning requirements
- Knowledge society
- Internationalisation
- Globalisation
Changing economical
- Changing student needs
- Changing live concepts
Changing learners
environment
and students
New Learning?
Advances in edcuation
- Changing teaching-/ learning
paradigm
- New learning cultures: Seufert (2007),Tully (2004)
integration of informal and formal learning
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7. ICT and society
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8. What ICT are people using?
Girls Boys
52
63
Instant Messaging 51
48
eMail 29
39
Information research (not for school)
29
Listening music 38
32
Information research (educational purposes) 33
21
News 39
27
Chatting 24
9
eBay 24
13
Music download 20
4
Newsgroups 21
4
Multi-User-Games
25
0
70
Basis: Internetuser, n=1088 JIM, 2006. In Percentage
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9. From consuming to producing..
Blog Share creative work online Any content online
50
48
38
39
25
35
13
0
35 & under
36-50
Content creation, broadband users, by age
50 & over
(December 2005, % in age group who have ever done
activity)
Quelle: Pew Internet & American Life Project.
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10. Combining two approaches
How can intercultural action competence be developed using social software?
Intercultural Action
Social Software
Competence
= Intercultural
=
Action Competence
Social Software fosters the
human communication, The capability and disposition of
interaction and an individual to act in
collaboration. It´s not intercultural situations at a
about the tools, it´s more required level of the domain,
Learning with
about an attitude or a personally elaborated and in a
Social Software
philosophy. social responsible way. That
means, goal-oriented solving of
intercultural problems, based on
Informationmanagement
the own knowledge and
Tools to organise and produce content and information
experience as well as solving them
Identitymanagement
through own ideas, evaluating the
Expression and presentation of yourself via the www
solutions and developing the
Relationshipmanagement
individual capability to act
Tools for sharing knowledge and building communities
Reinmann (2006), Kerres (2006) und
Schmidt (2006)
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11. Intercultural Action Competence
Domain Person Group
Methodical /
learning 1 2 3
competence
Language
and textual 4 5 6
Domain Person Group
competence
Methodical /
Ethical
7 8 9
learning 1 2 3
competence
competence
1. Domain and methodical / learning competence:
Language
Realizing and solving Asian6business and economics problems
and textual 4 5
competence
2. Personal and methodical / learning competence:
9
8
Thinking and reflecting about oneself and one´s own abilites
4 6
5
Ethical
1
3. Group8and methodical /9learning competence:
7
7
1 2
competence 3
Learning and working in Asian teams and analyzing the group processes.
Situation
Application and revision of intercultural communication methods
(ASBE program)
4. Domain and language / textual competence:
Reading and writing of Asian business and economic texts
5. Personal and language / textual competence:
Writing and communicating own intercultural experiences and abilities
6. Group and language / textual competence:
9
8
Knowledge of Asian communication and group processes. Writing and
4 6
5
1
communicating about them.
7
1 2
7. Domain and ethical competence:
3
Situation ethics and ethics of the Asian economic systems
Asian Business
8. Personal and ethical competence:
(ASBE program) readiness to assume risk, independence
Self-responsibility,
9. Group and ethical competence:
Social responsibility, tolerance, solidarity.
Sloane (2003)
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12. ASBE - Asian Studies in Business and Economics
with the focus on ICT...
Podcasting
Phase 1
Own Culture Foreign Culture
Individual Weblogs
1 Modul
Intercultural Action
(10 ECTS) in PB
Competence
Refinement of problems,
ASBE I solutions and methods
Phase 2
2 Module
Interculture (20 ECTS) in Asien
ASBE III und IV
Literature Circle
Phase 3
Sharing / Tagging
Pictures
1 Modul
(10 ECTS) in PB
ASBE II
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13. Literature circle with Weblogs
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14. Individual Weblogs
„In your reflection diary you should document your
intercultural key experiences and reflect these on
the basis of questions and further thoughts.“
• Documentation of Intercultural Situations
• Communication about Intercultural Situations
• Feedback of acting in Intercultural Situations
• Reflection about Intercultural Situations
Questions to think about...
• What is central and new in the situation?
• How can the key situation be described? (when, where, why, who?)
• How do the culture-specific opinions of the involved differ in the situation?
• How did I behave concerning my cultural background in the situation?
• How could another person behave with a different cultural background?
• From which perspectives can I observe the situation?
• How were the impressions before and how afterwards?
• What kind of values do the participants in the situation have?
• Why did an intercultural conflict evolve?
• What are alternatives to behave in the specific situation?
• Which stereotypes existed before?
• Which role did communication problems play?
• What can be marked as „typically “ in the situation?
• ...
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15. Individual Weblogs
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16. Individual and collaborative podcasting
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17. Sharing Impressions
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18. See you on the ITHET dinner event...
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19. Thank you!
Contact:
Dipl. Hdl. Frederik G. Pferdt
Department for Business and Human Resource Education
University of Paderborn, Germany
fgpferdt@gmail.com
www.pferdt.de
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