From Local Seminars to International Teaching and Learning Exchanges: The Cross-Cultural Collaborations Project

Book chapter, 2011

Increasing attention to globalization and technology in the higher education arena, especially as these topics relate to the international exchange of information and to distance learning, leads to new opportunities for cross-cultural, collaborative teaching and learning. Teacher-scholars as well as students are no longer limited to teaming with peers in their departments, on campus, or in the same geographical vicinity. They are able to use the Internet to share responsibility for planning and implementing or for pursuing interactive, multimodal learning activities for enhanced learning and communication across the globe. The Cross-Cultural Collaborations project—a poetry-focused electronic discussion activity that we have used in our courses for over five years—offers a representative example of an international teaching partnership and an evolving cross-cultural, collaborative, and multimodal learning environment. The assignment involves an exchange where students read, interpret, and analyze poetry collaboratively in cross-cultural groups set up to include students of Magnus Gustafsson at Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden; students of Art Young at Clemson University in South Carolina; and students of Donna Reiss at Tidewater Community College in southeastern Virginia and at Clemson University.