PROJECT
3: E-Learning Across Cultures
Anja
Krüger
13
November 2003
In
E-Learning initiatives new multimedia technologies and the internet
are used to improve the quality of learning and to help make
learning independent from time and place.
Multimedia
technologies allow the use of movie, audio and text resources
to enrich the learning contents and telecommunication tools
such as chat, forum or videoconference support the communication
process over the internet.
At
the same time the international workplace has changed. More
people are required to work online in intercultural settings.
Besides being aware of cultural differences in 'normal' communication
situations, employees need to deal with the new aspects of communication
over the internet. It is apparent that communicating over the
internet brings another level of complexity to intercultural
communication.
Thus,
participants of intercultural training courses should have the
opportunity to practice online communication in the safe training
environment. This could be done by integrating
online elements into the intercultural training design.
In
this project we want to examine how some of the methods of intercultural
training can be redesigned to be delivered online.
My
background: I work as a consultant at the competence center
for E-Learning at the University of Osnabrück. We help
teachers to introduce new learning technologies into their classes:
use of learning platforms, design and creation of audio and
video files, use of video conferencing, use of communication
technologies such as forum and chat, etc.
I
would like to work on this project with a group of subject matter
experts (ie. Intercultural trainers).
I have set up a WikiWikiWeb as a collaboration tool for this
group at
http://mainland.virtuos.uos.de/wiki_intercul/ (please use the
link get started to get to the main page)
If
you are interested in joining or if you have any questions concerning
this project please contact me by email.
12
June 2003
At
the SIETAR project finding session a couple of people interested
in bringing E-Learning into Intercultural training met up with
a couple of people discussing the topic of 'Effective Communication'.
In
our discussion we came up with the following points:
1.
Effective Communication in a Cross Cultural Context
- To
find out what effective communication is we need to establish
criteria for evaluating competency levels of effective communication.
2.
Communicating over the internet brings another level of complexity
to intercultural communication. To support the introduction
of communication technologies in intercultural teams one could:
- Combine
face-to-face and E-Learning elements in intercultural training
to introduce people to the new technologies in the (save)
training environment
- Make
sure that people meet at least once face-to-face if they have
to work in intercultural virtual teams
- Develop
technical and pragmatic guidelines for the use of communication
technologies
- Coach
the process of virtual communication
At
SIETAR we looked at Email as one example of communication over
the internet.
Suggested
project
Collect
experiences in intercultural Email communication.
Based on the findings develop an Email training module (How
do I communicate effectively using email in an intercultural
context) that is designed as a blended learning arrangement
(combination of f2f and online learning).
My
background: I work as a consultant at the competence center
for E-Learning at the University of Osnabrück. We help
teachers to introduce new learning technologies into their classes:
use of learning platforms, design and creation of audio and
video files, use of video conferencing, use of communication
technologies such as forum and chat, etc.
I
would like to work on this project with a group of subject matter
experts (ie. Intercultural trainers).
At the moment I'm setting up a WikiWikiWeb as a collaboration
tool for this group at http://mainland.virtuos.uos.de/wiki_intercul
(please use the link get started to get to the main page)
If
you are interested in joining or if you have any questions concerning
this project please contact Anja
Krüger.
