On-line Education and Cross –Cultural Problems (下)

i also use the internet to prepare students for my seminar’s trips to the us. i often take my seminar students to the united states to study various cultural aspects. i have taken them to places like the navajo nation, chicago, new york and san diego among other areas. to prepare for these trips the students lists things they are interested in doing or seeing. then i have had groups work separately on the net to gather information on things like the blues, jazz and the holocaust. the groups had to report to the rest of the class on their discoveries. for example, last february one group of students reported on the blues and made a list of blues clubs they wanted to visit when we reached chicago, another group reported on the holocaust museum in washington dc, and still another group reported on broadway. in this way, the internet was extremely valuable in preparing my students for their cultural experience in the united states making the whole experience much more valuable for them. granted, this is not really distance eductions through the phone link. granted, the visual was not of a high quality and the visual window was small, but our students were able to see the excitement and interest of the angeles university students. this experiment also seems to disprove criticism that computers can not build patience in students. of course, this was only a short test series of lectures and discussions, but the results were encouraging for distance education i believe.

although bunkyo is not involved in an ongoing on-line education program itself, other universities report great success in the field. the open university of the united kingdom, the university of wisconsin, and the university of nebraska, among others report excellent results from their programs. at the conference on distance teaching and learning, hosted by the university of wisconsin, madison, i was able to talk with other participants who had been successful with their own on-line distance education programs. i was very impressed with several of the presentations, like the dr. robert bill’s report about purdue university’s successful conversion of a traditional clinical veterinarian medical program to a web based program. dr. bill informs us that one of the main problems that faces such a conversion is the accreditation of the program by the american veterinary medical association. essentially the web based course had to meet the same high standard as the campus based program. a teaching engine was designed that posed questions to the students that could only be answered by knowing the textbook material thoroughly. in one section, the students were asked to explain the expected reaction of each of several drugs like vomiting or slowing of the heart rate and why it would happen. evidently, this was found to be very similar to classroom situations. a harder problem to bridge was how the various physical skills need by a veterinarian like giving injections, administering medicine in a variety of ways and properly applying pressure in order to stop bleeding among other motor skills were to be taught and tested at a distance. the solution was to use a clinical mentorship where each student would find his or her own approved mentor and perform all of the skills prescribed in the curriculum. this is of course mixing on-line with an on sight mentor, but it does offer an adequate program for accreditation and offers hope for other difficult subjects like other medical and dental courses or engineering courses. it also persuasively deflects the criticism of on-line education as a viable alternative to campus based education. (distance learning & teaching, 2000, p.51)

the overwhelming consensus of the distance educators is that all this new technology can be useful for educational programs. the main concern of educators seems to be that steps must be taken to insure that the technology plays a subservient role to content. this means that we educators must be clear in our objectives and design courses that meet all of the requirements and the high standards of the campus based courses. the purdue’s veterinary course developed a model where the content was decided on by the staff and the technology that was to be utilized for teaching it was tightly screened for effectiveness of delivering the desired knowledge or skill. finally, purdue decided to use onsite testing conducted by selected proctors, as the most secure way in which to evaluate the students along with the mentor’s evaluation.

learning styles and cross-cultural awareness
it is in the area of course design that i see the need for caution. once you have decided on the content of the course, one must be careful of the design of your delivery machine. we all know that students are different and each of them has his own or her own style of learning. these differences are hard enough to handle in a live classroom, but in a web based program educators and course designers must be very concerned with satisfying the needs of every learner by including a large variety of effective teaching tools in the course. nancy anderson, of scing distance learning network, opinions that, “imaginative students need to feel empowered and involved; analytic students prefer traditional methods and sequential presentation of facts; common sense learners prefer to have precise plans and time tables to follow; dynamic learners need challenges and new ideas to stay involved.” (distance teaching a& learning 1999 p.4) it is imperative that course designers meet the needs of these various learning styles as well as others. it is a formidable task for sure, but one which has to be met. ms anderson offers the software inspiration as an effective tool because of its mindmapping capabilities and visual diagramming features, but one can use other programs that meet the needs of a particular course. also, many distance educators would agree with ms anderson’s idea that participation or interaction between the students should be implemented at an early stage of any distance learning course design. after all, this is the way i, as well as many other teachers, start our traditional classes and it stands to reason that on-line courses provide this same element. this can be done through interactive chat rooms, group assignments with the professor and/or assistants, or live, synchronous, video or audio conferencing among other choices. likewise, courseware must include feedback sections throughout, so that the students will feel close to the professor as well as fellow participants.

in addition to learning styles, i believe that on-line educators must be aware of the possibility of cross-cultural educational problems that might arise. granted, many educators are aware of cross-cultural problems that occur in our regular classes and have become effective cross-cultural teachers. however, if one’s programs are to be broadcast over international or cultural boundaries, i think one has to be very careful inthinking about the design of the courseware. simple things like the color combinations may be distracting from the content of the course for students of some cultures. we all know of red-green color blindness, but what cultural significance does blue, black or white have for certain cultures which may make them less effective in conveying a given idea to students of various cultures? in the united states these are considered neutral colors, but is that true of all cultures? i know that color is very cultural sensitive from tests of people from various cultures arranging colors that they think would make a good combination for a dress or shirt. the results showed a great variance in what people consider clashing colors and those that are harmonious. i think that course designers should be careful in the color that they use in their courseware and perhaps more research is needed in this area. likewise, course designers should be careful about animals that they may use in their graphics as people of a culture like the united states, where dogs and horses are considered almost human, may be offended by depictions of them being eaten or maimed. other cultures may be offended by scenes of cows or pigs being treated in ways inconsistent with their culture.

cross-cultural problems may also arise from teaching styles. professors involved in inter-cultural teaching should also be aware of habits that may be distracting for on-line students of various cultures. for example, i have the habit of wearing lot of navajo jewelry, silver bolo ties, bracelets and rings to class. i find that these items often encourage students to ask questions about the designs and what they mean. they have been effective tools for the small classroom, but i doubt if they would be effective tools on the net. the designs would have to be presented by photos on the web page or in a video presentation and backed up in a reference section for the students to review at their leisure. also, even one's attire may cause students to be distracted from the content of a video presentation. i have several sport coats that have leather patches on the elbows, a typical style for american colleges and society in general. however, japanese students often joke that they associate the patches only with poverty. perhaps other students from other culture feel the same way. in the real life classroom, i can use all of these ideas as ways to discuss culture or cultural values, but in a web based course the ideas must be presented to the students in a different style. perhaps through pictures, videos and written explanations about how and/or why elbow patches are considered a traditional style in america. now, whether or not these sport coats are acceptable for teachers to wear when teaching on-line, is up to the individual. however, the teachers should be made aware that clothing style might be culturally sensitive. some people do not wish to listen to a man dressed in what they consider to be rags.

personal mannerisms may also have to be modified. american teachers usually are quite frank about not knowing an answer to a question and tell the students they don’t know the answer, but will look it up for the next lesson. in other societies this frankness may cause the student discomfort that they are paying money for a teacher whom can’t answer their questions. i know from personal experience that japanese teachers do not like to admit mistakes or their lack of knowledge for fear of losing the respect of the students. students from other cultures may also be similarly effected. so basically one has to be aware of his target audience and the wider the audience, the more culturally neutral the teacher and the course design should be.

finally, i think that course designers should include various evaluations systems in their course engines so that they can accommodate various learning styles and cultural variants. during the last twenty or thirty years in the united states standardized tests like the sat have had to be redesigned to make them more cultural neutral, i think that distance educators and designers involved with intercultural education must also be careful to keep tests culturally neutral. for example, i know that japanese students can be confused by essay questions. japanese education is more use to true and false and multiple-choice tests. even slight changes to the cultural norm may cause problems. i received a lot of resistance from my japanese colleagues when i tried to introduce multiple-choice test that included the choices of “all of the above” or “none of the above.” it seems that japanese prefer to have the students pick one correct or one wrong answer in multiple-choice tests. the addition of “all right” or “all wrong” was consider to be too difficult or at least too different than what the students were use to. in the united states, the addition of these choices is considered only more challenging for the students. possible cultural differences should be considered in test designs to insure an even playing field. granted, the students should also adapt to various teaching and testing styles, but one should realize that there might be cross-cultural interference in evaluation and testing. of course, the faculty and designers should always be evaluating the process and making sure that the knowledge conveyance tools employed in the courseware are effectively conveying the content of the course. only through this constant vigilance will they know that the course is effective.

conclusion
in conclusion, i see the internet as a great asset for distance education and education in general. recent reports of the success of internet ii based educational courses have been very exciting. according to a recent television report, one school found that the sound quality of internet ii to be good enough to teach violin and other music courses. this will allow the internet to be used for a whole new range of web based cultural exchanges or courses. imagine a course originating in china explaining chinese opera to the world. the same could be done with thai dancing, japanese kabuki, or any number of other subjects. these courses would take students to places they could not normally afford to go to and give them exposure to various cultural experiences that would cost a lot more money and time if they had to travel to the various locations and physically experience them. web based cultural programs could really internationalize theater, art and geography classes by providing digital pictures or video examples of famous works in a variety of countries. of course, a well developed, interactive explanatory course would have to accompany the visual elements in order to make the entire experience greatly rewarding. the internet also could be use as bate or a tool for international exchanges providing an introduction to a variety of cultures which might create in some students a strong desire to travel to the home of kabuki, or chinese opera. i believe that the web can prepare students far better than any other older form of technology like slides, records or tapes. technology can work as either an end in itself, or as one step in a physical exchange of students. the web gives us a great new tool for education. it is up to us to make it serve education in a beneficial way and not as a frankenstein monster.

thank you

sources

anderson, nancy, bridging distances and differences, unpublished paper presented at

the distance teaching and learning conference, august 4-6, 1999. madison, wisconsin.

bill, robert, conversion of an intensive clinical-based on-campus program to a web-

based distance learning format: the veterinary technology distance learning program, unpublished paper presented at distance teaching and learning conference august 2-4, 2000. madison wisconsin.

conference proceedings, distance teaching & learning conference 2000, august 2-4,

university of wisconsin. madison,

conference proceeding, distance teaching & learning conference 1999, august 4-6

university of wisconsin, madison.

howeles, les, visual communication for effective teaching and learning, unpublished

paper presented at the distance teaching & learning conference 2000. madison,wisconsin.

stoll, clifford. high tech heretic. new york: doubleday, 1999.