Hands on Assignment #5

Introduction

I came into this course believing that I was hyperaware of the role culture plays in my life
from my interactions with colleagues, students, family and the environment around me. My
reason for taking this course included a need to better understand the students that I teach and a
way to better navigate conflict resolution. I teach business education courses at a public
secondary school and am a relatively new teacher to the field. My aspirations include wanting to
facilitate a more blended learning environment with my students and to eventually become an
online educator.

My experience with this course has made me reflect on my own behavior and actions
with my students and a new critical eye towards the structure and content of virtual learning
environments. In creating online learning spaces, I have been ignoring fundamental challenges
students encounter in navigating these spaces and misdirecting my frustrations which were really
challenges in intercultural communication. This course has taught me to me more cognizant of
my own cultural lens and I hope to utilize this in my future practice.

Course Content Materials

One of the most important discussion points learned in this course included the need to
identify the existing challenges in online learning structures. Speece (2012) noted that online
education was structured for English speakers and toward low-context cultures with less social
interaction, presenting unique challenges to users around the world. As the majority of internet
users are not in the west (Ess & Sudweeks, 2012), this rings true to my own practice as many
students in my classroom are from different parts of the world. It has made me reflect on what
programs I select and how I am using them in the class affects student learning. As I incorporate
collaborative work within online portfolios, I never acknowledged the existing power
relationships that present themselves with what is being said or not (Ess & Sudweeks, 2012).
Although I believe I have been sensitive to cultural identities, I did not extend this to facilitating
mediated intercultural communication between these students in my own classroom. Cheong,
Martin and Macfadyen (2012) noted that cultural identity of minority online users experienced
tensions based on social class, cultural stereotypes and trying to adapt to expectations set by the
majority. I have not done enough to address these in my own practice.

During the second online seminar where we were asked to reflect on a critical incident, I
found the experiences shared by everyone and the framework introduced by Neuliep (2012)
allowed me to revisit some of my past interactions with students. Reviewing critical incidents in
your everyday life is a useful and humbling experience. Learning from fellow classmates
difficulties was impactful. In using technology in the classroom, I found at times I would get
frustrated with the challenges some students experienced and the frustration stemmed from my
perception that they were simply not paying attention. My assumptions that each student would
have some technological fluency and could extrapolate those experiences to other technological
applications is error prone. Both the online seminar and the discussion logs have taught and
reminded me of the important role reflection occupies.

Significance, Impact and/or Implications

In practice, I will want to structure areas for reflection when students utilize programs for
the first time or navigate the spaces in groups. It is important for me to understand the unique
challenges and experiences each individual encounters and it is helpful for them to better
understand each other to work more effectively and positively in cooperative learning. It has
become apparent from my observations of other student posts and my own reflections and
discussion logs that students can participate in many different ways and may prefer to do so in
other methods. Failure to participate is not an indication of engagement or lack of understanding
of material. This is something that I will need to contend with in my own observance of students.

Areas that need further research include the ways virtual learning environments are
structured to fit a western audiences understanding. Educational globalism and the migration of
students has a tremendous impact on student learning in classrooms and this has continued with
advance of virtual learning spaces (Maringe & Sing, 2014). I am curious about how assessment
practices should be reviewed to account for these differences in these shared spaces? Rather than
a text based and individualistic approach, which has proven to be challenging for various cultural
groups, further research should be dedicated towards equitable educational models. It is not
necessarily about equality but establishing equity within education as this course has highlighted.

Incorporating these ideas is an area I would like to see further research on. How does one
establish an equitable classroom and what are the challenges associated in creating that
environment? How is this further complicated by nature of virtual learning environments where
your interactions and observations of students is solely within an online space? An important
area in this course has been establishing that the design of these environments facilitates the
power relationships and cultural dynamics so it is up to the instructor to be cognizant of how
these are interrelated and manifest themselves in classrooms. What I will take away is, not only
does the content need to be scrutinized but the technology itself. With this realization, I need to
re-evaluate my approach to addressing critical incidents and how I facilitate classroom learning.

References

Cheong, P. H., Martin, J. N. & Macfadyen, L. P. (2012). Introduction: Mediated Intercultural

Communication Matters: Understanding New Media, Dialectics and Social Change.
In New Media and Intercultural Communication. Identity, Community and Politics, Eds.,
P. H. Cheong, J. N. Martin & L.P. Macfadyen, (pp. 2-16). New York: Peter Lang.

Ess, C. & Sudweeks, F. (2012). Foreword. In New Media and Intercultural Communication.
Identity, Community and Politics, Eds., P. H. Cheong, J. N. Martin & L.P. Macfadyen, (pp.
xi xx). New York: Peter Lang.
Maringe, F., & Sing, N. (2014). Teaching Large Classes in an Increasingly Internationalising
Higher Education Environment: Pedagogical, Quality and Equity Issues. Higher
Education: The International Journal Of Higher Education And Educational Planning,
67(6), 761-782

Neuliep, J. W. (2012). Intercultural communication: A contextual approach. Los Angeles:

SAGE.

Speece, M. (2012). Learning Style, Culture and Delivery Mode in Online Distance Education. US-
China Education Review , A 1, pp. 1-
12.http://www.elearningap.com/eLAP2010/Proceedings/04_Full_Mark%20Speece_learni
ng%20style%20culture.pdf