PhD (Philology) Vvedenska T.Y.

National Mining University , Dniepropetrovsk , Ukraine

VIDEO-CONFERENCE AS A WAY TO FACILITATE INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAL PARTNERSHIP

In 2005-2007 Dnipropetrovsk National University has been engaged in a unique videoconferencing project connecting four countries – Ukraine , the USA , Italy and Lebanon .

The International World Cultures Project was initiated in spring 2004 by the U.S. Department of State as a model of international and intercultural education. It was aimed at creating a shared virtual classroom with students and faculty around the world and providing a direct personal experience through real time video, chat and daily emails.

In this pilot project, instructors and students were creating a world cultures course, tentatively called “Academy for International Understanding”, through which students and faculty worldwide met and dialogued in a shared virtual classroom. In this course, a direct personal experience of different cultures and traditions was developed through real time video conferencing and instant messaging during class sessions, and through daily emails among domestic and international students both in and out of the classroom setting. In addition, each student was paired with a partner student in a foreign school. This pairing allowed for a partnership in which students were required to work together to complete papers and projects required by their professors as well as engage in a more in-depth discussion of the topic of the day. The topics were preliminarily agreed upon by the participants from all the institutions involved and comprised General Culture Overview, Family Patterns, Customs and Traditions and Meaning of Life.

Through a series of classroom discussions and paired personal exchanges, students:

· became exposed to information on each partner country’s cultural background and traditions,

· explored selected discussion topics such as family, work and views on the meaning of life in an international context,

· gained a better understanding of their own culture through contact with others,

· learned to work with people of diverse cultures through completing collaborative projects with their foreign partner students,

· enjoyed an “international studies” experience at a fraction of the cost of an overseas experience.

The main goal of the project was to expand the students’ global knowledge, understanding of other nations and cultures, and their ability to be responsible and ethical members of the increasingly interconnected society.

“Academy for International Understanding” enables to increase intercultural exchanges, so that students who might not have the opportunity to interact directly with those from other countries and cultures are provided with this educational, enriching and productive opportunity. This course offers students from partner institutions benefits that relate to higher education and public diplomacy. It allows them to have an interactive experience with their international contemporaries in a virtual classroom environment. This helps build personal relationships that bring better understanding and open communication through awareness of each other’s diverse cultures and values as well as their own.

The potentials of this form of distance learning and communication are hard to overestimate. Once the course is established it can be self-sustained with little financial support, as well as becoming an adaptable model for university faculty from many departments or programs; such as Foreign Language, distance learning, honors program, etc. Once Internet capabilities are established for this class, they can be accessed for other purposes: developing other shared courses, recruitment of foreign students, inviting prominent scholars to conduct virtual lectures or give consultation on-line and to aid joint research. The students become absolutely comfortable with multiple forms of distance learning: chat, on-line discussion, web-videoconference, joint email projects and others.

The format of videoconference allows to exchange not only information but also acquires material “tangible” form when the students can actually see details of national costume and other artefacts typical of national cultures and perform folk songs. The students acquire a new experience of communicating professionally in real time with the other part of the world. The impact of such kind of communicative and technologically enhanced intercultural learning on the students’ personality development is immense: they become more responsible, mature, acceptable, tolerant, culturally sensitive people, possessing strong teamwork skills and personal accountability for the work jointly done.

The outcomes of such work are incalculable: joint projects on the topics of discussions prepared by the partners testify to productivity of teamwork, the value of the information extracted from many sources and through different means: the internet browsing, reading, communicating via live discussions on the video and in the chat rooms. Participating students gain experiential knowledge that will aid them in their future pursuits in education as well as the work force, locally or internationally.

Projects like Academy for International Understanding promote mutual understanding and cater for insatiable students’ interest in other cultures. Due to them distances seem to be contracted, differences - understood and put up with, interest – ignited and the candle of knowledge brightly burning.