AsiaTEFL 2016 Creating Intercultural Collaboration using Online Tools

Editor's Notes

• #2: Thank you for participating in this presentation. This presentation will discuss what I have learned from four years of conducting an Internet-based collaboration between students of English at Hirosaki Gakuin University and students of Japanese at the University of Wisconsin in America. First, I will explain the details of the collaboration we have conducted with an analysis of the types of communications among participants. Next, I will provide a review of the lessons learned through this collaboration and what steps you can take to ensure the success of your own online collaboration with suggestions of where to find partners for online interactions. Finally, we will discuss your experiences with online exchanges and answer questions you may have.
• #4: The Internet collaboration conducted between the two universities were conducted among Freshmen English majors at Hirosaki Gakuin University and Freshmen and Sophomore students studying Japanese at the University of Wisconsin at River Falls and La Crosse. In this collaboration, each student was tasked to create a page on the wiki site, pbwiki.com. The first year, the pages were to be about an item of culture connected to the students’ area or region. The subsequent 3 years, the students created pages about themselves and their interests. The Japanese students were to create their pages in English; and the Americans, in Japanese. Comments made on each others page were to be in the language of the original language of the page. The comments made were left up to the students, but it was suggested that they comment on the content of the information provided by the author of the page or to ask questions about the author and their culture.
• #5: This slide shows the front wiki page of the collaboration site at aomoriurwf.pbworks.com. The front page tells a little about each university and their location. The collaboration groups are listed to the right side with a Recent Activity block to show what’s been updated.
• #6: The initial assignment in 2011 was to create pages about oneself with pictures or videos as appropriate. The personal page assignments had students tell about themselves, family, hobbies, work, dreams, etc. Here are two examples of the student introduction pages (personal information and pictures have been modified to protect the students’ privacy).
• #7: Here are the types of comments seen on the Japanese students’ page from the previous slide. You can see that the comments deal with personal questions about likes and hobbies, as well as comments on culture—what K-Pop (Korean pop music) groups are popular. This slide shows the typical format of comments on other pages.
• #8: This page shows the comments in Japanese of the American student page from the previous slide. The comments show the same discussions about Anime and the student’s dreams for future employment.
• #9: In looking at the comments on the English language pages over the course of the collaboration, we found the following data. A total of 37 wiki pages were created in English by Japanese students (the Japanese professor will analyze the Japanese pages at a later date). The pages consist of 13 pages about cultural items and 24 personal pages. The total number of comments posted by the collaborators were 152: 118 comments by others (including 34 comments by the teachers, or 29%), and 34 responses to posts by the page authors. The types of comments include 83 about personal interests or questions about the students themselves. 86 comments regarded cultural discussions and inquiries. In all 152 comments, only 1 (by a teacher) were corrections of language errors. For clarification, posts which included comments on both personal and cultural matters were included in the counts for each area. In reviewing the data as a whole, there seemed to be slightly more comments on the pages regarding cultural information about the students’ local areas (32%) than on the personal information pages (28% and 22% respectively).
• #10: In looking at the comments on the Japanese language pages over the course of the first three years of collaboration, we found the following data. A total of 24 wiki pages were created in Japanese by American students. The pages consist of 7 pages about cultural items and 17 personal pages. The total number of comments posted by the collaborators were 85: comments by others (including 30 comments by the teachers, or 35%), and 40 responses to posts by the page authors. The types of comments include 49 about personal interests or questions about the students themselves. 60 comments regarded cultural discussions and inquiries. In all 109comments, there were no comments dealing with language errors in the Japanese. For clarification, posts which included comments on both personal and cultural matters were included in the counts for each area. In reviewing the data as a whole, there seemed to be many more comments on the pages regarding cultural information about the students’ local areas (71%) than on the personal information pages.
• #11: The challenges to conducting the collaboration were minor. The biggest problem we found was the low-level of technical proficiency of the Japanese students. They were often not able to create their pages even with specific, detailed instructions. A better alternative would be to have the students create their pages during class in a computer lab. There did not seem to be similar problems with the American students—they seemed to be more independent in technical aspects of wiki use. The Japanese students did not have any experience with online interaction so they were unsure of how to proceed. Once they began their interactions, they seemed to become more active in the discussions. Also, the students needed to be assigned to groups so that they knew with whom to communicate. Allowing for open discussions left the students reluctant to take the first step. Communications would begin more efficiently if students are paired or grouped. The conversations can proceed naturally but the teacher may have to suggest ways to begin their discussions, such as to ask about hobbies mentioned or likes / dislikes. Knowing about the issues we have encountered and how we were able to deal with them will enable you to begin online collaborations with your students more successfully. The next slide will explain how you can find collaboration partners.
• #13: There are many options for finding online collaboration partners, but I will discuss 3 of them. First, you can look to sister schools who may offer Japanese language classes. Contacting the Japanese professor and working together is a way to bring the relationship even closer. This is how we began our interactions. Another source for finding collaboration partners is The Mixxer—an online collaboration website which allows teachers to establish collaborations. Finally, the ePals website was created specifically to help teachers establish online interactions with other classes around the world. There are hundreds of listing of classes of various sizes and with a variety of foci looking for online collaboration. The example circled above is of a Japanese teacher looking for a collaboration with students in Japan at the high school level. The best way to find a collaboration partner is to grow your professional network and find another teacher interested in beginning a partnership. There is nothing more powerful than a personal connection among colleagues to ensure the success of a collaboration. Once you find a partner, you need to decide which platform to use for your interactions. The next slide discusses potential options for collaboration.
• #14: The Lunchbox Project (http://lunchboxproject.wikispaces.com) was an intercultural exchange program based on wikis which was begun in 2008 and has had participants from around the world. The participants create introduction pages about their schools, tell about common greetings and phrases in their native languages, and then tell about traditional and common lunch items in their culture. The planning guide at this link provides a great framework upon which you can build your own intercultural exchange. It’s worth checking out!
• #16: We reviewed several options for our interaction prior to beginning and settled on using wiki pages for collaboration because they allow for greater freedom of expression. Two great platforms for student wiki pages are pbwiki and wikispaces. They are both very user friendly and supporting of educational use. Other options include having students write blogs using Blogger or a similar blogging site, or interact on social networking sites such as Tumblr, Facebook, and even Google+. Each of these options has their own pros and cons, but for our purposes, we chose wiki pages for collaboration.
• #17: Today we’ve seen how online tools can enable students to interact with their counterparts in foreign countries easily and often in order to gain better understanding of their target language’s culture and people. Asynchronous interactions can lead to synchronous communications after a relationship is established. The collaboration between the author’s Japanese students of English and American students of Japanese resulted in many great discussions about the students’ personal lives and their own cultures. The participants got to use their language in authentic interactions and reported a very positive experience from this collaboration. There are several opportunities for you to find partners with whom you can create an online intercultural collaboration. Of course, colleagues you meet here at AsiaTEFL are an excellent option. Also, creating online exchanges with sister schools builds the relationships between schools, and new relationships can be found through online sites such at ePals and The Mixxer. Often you can find partners rather easily once you begin looking. Once you find partners, you can choose a platform that best meets your needs and technology comfort (wiki pages, blogs, or social media sites), and then decide on your students’ discussion topics. These topics are just a starting point; it’s important to allow the students’ conversations to grow and expand naturally, but the teacher may need to step in to jumpstart stalled interactions. Keeping the topics connected to the students is vital to maintaining interest and encouraging authentic communications.