Encouraging Intercultural Telecollaboration within Courses on Intercultural Communication
To avoid a scenario in which intercultural communication classes only focus on imparting theoretical knowledge of intercultural competence, without providing students with real opportunities to practice the skills they have learned, Professor Sara Kim (University of Louisiana Monroe, USA) and I have organized an online telecollaboration. Intercultural telecollaboration has become a pivotal concept in today's globalized education system.
A telecollaboration between Tallinn University and the University of Louisiana Monroe has successfully taken place for the third consecutive semester. We express our sincere gratitude to Erasmus+ for supporting the exchange of professors. The live meetings facilitate in-depth discussions on our intercultural pedagogical methods for analyzing telecollaboration in intercultural communication classes. These discussions aim to provide students with practical intercultural communicative experiences. Additionally, we share our reflections on these methods.
This telecollaboration project is fully integrated into the entire semester, constituting approximately half of the course. Its primary goal is to cultivate students' intercultural awareness by fostering research and a critical understanding of self and otherness. The collaboration enables students to develop crucial skills, including empathy, leadership, understanding differences, and reflexivity.
Below, you can read about the perspectives of Tallinn University master's students on telecollaboration as an interculturally informed and student-centered pedagogical tool. The results reveal that, while students perceive the telecollaboration as a positive, successful, and worthwhile experience, it has brought to light several important issues, including awareness, tolerance, and patience.
Inna Alieksieieva Jan Miłosz Augustyniak Noor Ul Huda
To obtain further information, please feel free to reach out to Dr. Anastassia Zabrodskaja. She holds the position of Professor of Intercultural Communication, serves as the Head of the MA program in Communication Management, and is the Executive Director of the European Masters in Intercultural Communication. You can contact her at anastassia.zabrodskaja@tlu.ee.
The cover photo, a symbol draped in metaphorical hues, stands as a portal to the realm of intercultural dialogues offered by Tallinn University to its students.
