Summary/ Analysis:
Having students interact with kids from another culture is really interesting and a great idea. Students not only enhance their technological skills, but they practice their networking at the same time than promoting cultural awareness. Also, they get to learn how to be problem solvers and critical thinkers within a real life experience. I think it is a great project to have in our schools because it is important that our students get to learn about other cultures in an interesting way. By interacting with kids probably of the same age, will make it more interesting rather than reading or learning from a book, or even from a lesson. The connections and they make with each other will help them better understand each other’s issues. Having this project be part of a common core standard is also very interesting to me because it gives me an example of how its going to look like in the future. Students get to practice or learn about global awareness, global citizenship, diversity, and multicultural understanding, and project based-learning; all these components are essential for effective communication. It will also help them be more comprehensive of people from that culture, and their perception overall will change in a positive way. I feel that this is going to enhance their communication in many ways and it will help them familiarize with technology. Also it will allow them to learn about the proper ways to communicate with people from other countries. This program overall is really beneficial because it will help students develop in many ways and it will just better prepare them for this country’s diversity which is growing rapidly.
Q1:What problems can a project like this encounter?
A1:Some of the problems that this project may encounter is the formats, or computers being compatible. Surprisingly, it was found that Chinese students were not too confident with technology as American students. Also, the fact that the two countries had different times, made it difficult for students to communicate at times. Their communication was most of the times based on email.
Q2: What are some ways in which teachers can help foreign students better understand the message from American students?
A2: As we know in English writing there are many writing techniques that might be really different in other countries. For instance if a student from U.S. uses figurative language or slang Chinese students are not going to be able to fully understand what they are trying to say. Chinese students usually translate everything in a literal way.
Anderson, S.
(2012, 11/30/2012 30). Learning without borders.
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