It seems that even if there are theories, guidelines and checklists concerning multicultural online teaching; it needs a lot of effort to implement multicultural e-learning environment properly. Main task is to get learners participate and engage to a course that learning can happen. There are several things to consider in implementation e.g. learning cultures, language and ICT which in online learning play the important role.
ICT has already a big role in young people´s lives, and virtual interaction is natural for them. Children adopt easily functions from computer games. The challenge is for teachers and course planners to utilize children´s competence and construct online work methods for group-based collaboration. In many schools, also ICT resources might be limited for the use of the entire class.
In multicultural e-learning experiences, also English skills were raised as one obstacle. In multicultural environment some analysis of English skills could be useful at the beginning of a course. To lower language barriers, a use of diversified activities could help and also giving the opportunities to improve English proficiency to students. Visual communication instead of just text reading can help international students in learning.
Addition to language skills and ICT, online teachers
need to have cultural sensitivity. The need of cross-cultural training for
online teachers has been addressed since cross cultural competencies are
specially needed in online learning environment. Teachers should be able to
provide extra support to the international students to help their learning
experience. Also students could need some culture and way of working
orientation in the beginning of a course. In general multicultural online courses should be planned to be flexible and variable that they could meet the diversified needs of multicultural learners. In order to understand this, online teacher could conduct pre analysis in order to get an understanding of the learners´ expectations and cultural backgrounds. That could help the teacher to adjust the diversity of the course.
With all these aspects, I think that a multicultural learning environment needs a new planning since certain things like cultural understanding, language barriers and ICT need extra attention and new competencies for a teacher. Also teacher´s role for supporting learners needs attention.
Despite the demanding implementation, the attitude towards multicultural courses has been positive. This is the direction where learning is going and it´s worthwhile to learn to do effective multicultural online learning courses. I see that it´s a challenging work for the teacher at the beginning, new shoes are needed! Shoes should support flexibility and variability, or maybe it´s enough to take away the old shoes and continue with bare feet. They might fit best for this purpose!
Referencies
Liu, X., Liu, S.,
Lee, S.-H., & Magjuka, R. J. (2010). Cultural
Differences in Online Learning: International Student Perceptions. Educational
Technology & Society 13 (3), 177–188. Retrieved 18.7.2013 from http://www.ifets.info/journals/13_3/16.pdf
English-Korean Experiences of environmental education.
Educational & Technology Society Journal 15 (2), 244-256. http://www.ifets.info/journals/15_2/21.pdf
Hi Tuire,
VastaaPoistaI feel the same way about teachers' competencies needed for creating successful learning environments. I think many teachers are not yet comfortable with working online without face-to-face communication with their students and colleague teachers, so training is needed. I like your idea of collecting students' expectations beforehand and using those for course planning.
Regards, Laura.