School of Language, Literature and Communication What is your porn name? Online student interactions in an EU cross-cultural project Vy Rajapillai, Jess Moriarty and Ross Adamson

School of Language, Literature and Communication Aims of the session …… ► to report on our experience of the first year of a three year EU project ► to reflect on some issues regarding the nature of tasks, facilitation and their impact on student interaction ► to consider ways to change the preparatory phase in the 2 nd and 3 rd years of the project

School of Language, Literature and Communication Borrowed Identities - Background ► Aim of the project –  The project aims to create an attractive learning environment for intercultural learning as an extension module for language courses in the curriculum…..The combination of a virtual preparation phase and face-to-face intercultural project work during a real joint excursion makes the learning environment more authentic and motivating for the students. Socrates Programme, Application Form for ERASMUS 2006/2007(March 2006)

School of Language, Literature and Communication Borrowed Identities - Background ► Why did we get involved?  Context  Incorporating the project into a module ► Roles and Responsibilities of participants ► Virtual Learning Environment – The moodle moodle

School of Language, Literature and Communication Preparatory Tasks: Aims ► Explore European student identity through creative tasks – a success?  E.g. photo story photo storyphoto story ► Promote ‘intercultural dialogue’ through discussion around completed tasks – very limited?

School of Language, Literature and Communication ‘Intercultural dialogue’?- Let’s not talk about it…. ‘Intercultural dialogue’?- Let’s not talk about it…. ► Screening for appropriate content –  Questions in forum yield the answers we would like to see and incorporate into the report to the commission  “… be careful with anything that could be sensitive interculturally (e.g. everybody parading their drinking habits or reference to porn stars)”  Screen student postings and replies  “….we must have a clear idea who of us is going to screen the replies very carefully (actually reading every single word of the messages) in order to avoid problems we might not even be aware of.”

School of Language, Literature and Communication ‘Intercultural dialogue’?- Let’s not talk about it…. ‘Intercultural dialogue’?- Let’s not talk about it…. ► Controlling ‘informal’ discussions ► Too much ‘social’ traffic might distract from the work that needs to be done – the tasks (photo story, citizenship test etc)  “…I would prefer if we controlled the dosage of "get-to- know-each-other" a little.”  “I think the dose of ‘social get-to-know-each-other’ communication should be carefully considered because otherwise students are so overwhelmed that they do not read the important texts on the moodle”

School of Language, Literature and Communication ‘Intercultural dialogue’?- Let’s not talk about it…. ‘Intercultural dialogue’?- Let’s not talk about it…. ► Differing expectations (Disciplinary difference?) and competing demands ► Online preparatory course is seen as a marketing tool for some institutions involved in the project ► The VLE (online course) seems to become part of some of the students’ portfolios  “..my students have to be a little careful which parts of the moodle they print out for the dean, for the student parliament, for the internationalisation committee. When you try the same at your end you will face the same difficulties. “ ► Expectations of the funding body  “..This might seem a bit odd to you, but I think we should keep our focus on the products (like the photo story), and not on the informal discussion. The whole project will be judged and evaluated by the EU by the products that we come up with, so I think it is important to keep that in mind.”

School of Language, Literature and Communication Student Involvement- Reflections on preparatory phase (online environment) ► The usefulness of the VLE – moodle  Not useful  Used to upload completed tasks- photo story, citizenship tests  Used as an information point  Would have liked to have had interactions with other students before the face-to- face meetings

School of Language, Literature and Communication Student Involvement -Reflections on preparatory phase (online interaction) ► The VLE in building interactions between the groups of students from different countries  There was no interaction  Need to have had a chat room or messaging facility  Name to faces in photo story was inadequate in ‘getting to know’ someone  Need more interactions

School of Language, Literature and Communication Student Involvement -Reflections on preparatory phase (tasks) ► The preparatory tasks  There was no continuity between the preparatory tasks and the activities in the face-to-face meeting  Preparatory tasks did not have any bearing on the face-to-face meetings that followed  Did not learn any cultural differences  Did not trigger interaction  Tasks that would have involved students from other countries would have triggered interactions and get to know people.  Topical discussion would have helped to build a better understanding of other students

School of Language, Literature and Communication Taking the project forward - Your thoughts? ► Control in the VLE  Can we control? Should we control?  Membership? Ownership? What should be our policy for next year? ► Exploiting the affordances of the VLE  How can we exploit the affordances of the VLE to address some of our and our students’ concerns? ► Reconciling expectations of funding bodies with the messy business of teaching and learning

School of Language, Literature and Communication Thank you for participating!