Week 1: Question 3

[edwige...@gmail.com]

Question 3:
“Global communication with intimate learning communities will create
opportunities for cross-cultural knowledge development.” (Anderson &
Garrisson, p5)
(How) do you think this applies to foreign language instruction? How
can we leverage emerging technologies to foster cross-cultural
knowledge development? Can you think of a few technologies that could
help us do that?

[Skyler]

I can most certainly see how e-learning would facilitate the
acquisition of a visual knowledge of a culture. This makes me think
about the horrendously outdated foreign language textbook pictures of
foreign youths in acid-washed jeans and jean jackets wearing
florescent fanny packs, listening to walkmans, or posturing with
feathered Charlies' Angels hair. E-learning definitely has the
potential to put students into contact with more modern images, as
well as with news streams, film trailers, music clips, virtual city
tours, and practical daily tasks such as buying train tickets, etc.
There is also the possibility for Skype-pals or inter-university
collaboration between FL classroom in the US or abroad.

[Yoshie]

When I was TAing the 3rd year Japanese, we did a blog exchange with a
university in Japan. I thought it was a great way to foster cross-
cultural understandings. Students were able to talk to the Japanese
students in Japan and learn about their lives, pop-culture, and
understand their own (American) culture better. I think the project
motivated many students to improve their language ability.

[edwige...@gmail.com]

Since you mentioned Skype-pals, one of the things i actually would
like to explore this semester is this: http://www.language-exchanges.org/

[Maggie McCullar]

I'm really excited about the Mixxer site you posted, Edwige. I think
I'll take a closer look, too. This would also be great for the ALTEC
class that I teach! Thanks.

[Maggie McCullar]

Skyler, I loved what you wrote about your outdated foreign language
textbook! I laughed out loud because I still have a couple of those
books splashed with fanny packs and 80's bangs. It is almost
embarrassing when you have to ask students to take those texts
seriously. I love the advantages that e-learning offers because we can
better engage our students in the target language(s) and culture(s) by
providing them with up-to-date (and even up-to-the-minute) glimpses
and exchanges that our text books cannot.

On Jan 16, 1:59 pm, Skyler <skylerar...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Yoshie]

Maggie and Skyler, it is so true that even the newest version of
foreign language textbooks have really outdated popular cultural
information / pictures. They can be easily provided via the Internet
nowadays. Edwige, the Mixxer site seems interesting. Some students
would love that.