SIETAR Global 2008: How globalization affects cultures & how cultures shape globalization (October 22 to October 25, Granada, Spain)

http://www.sietarglobal2008.org/

Academic Experience Towards Global Citizenship: Positional narratives of Computer-Mediated Intercultural Communication

Presenter(s): Richard Fay, Milena Katsarska, Magdalena De Stefani

In this paper, we present a collaborative, intercultural curriculum development involving educational institutions in the UK, Bulgaria, and Uruguay. As enacted through parallel Computer-Mediated Intercultural Communication (CMIC) courses in each institution, and as contributing towards the academic preparation for technologised aspects of global citizenship, students are invited to develop their awareness of the complexities of CMIC. Central to the course is student participation in and diary-based reflection on the experience of a semester-long, English-medium CMIC project in which they interact online with one or more e-partners in the other institutions. Afterwards, based in part on their diarised reflections and their analysis of their CMIC logs, they individually write an English-medium assignment about what they have learned from their CMIC project experience. These assignments involve a significant narrative element. Although each pair of students take part in the same CMIC project, we have noted that their separately-crafted assignments narratively-construct different versions of that shared experience. With examples of student work, we consider how such differences may, in part, reflect differences in the students’ self- and other-positioning vis-à-vis the challenge of English-medium CMIC, and also provide insights into how they see themselves in relation to the global citizenship agenda.