GU Collaborative Project Pilot—Student Instructions
Being able to collaborate with people from other cultures to achieve a shared goal is an important skill in today’s world. This project is designed to have partner students communicate beyond class to achieve a deeper understanding of a particular cultural topic. Students will be unable to complete these projects without collaborating with their partners.
Student Objectives:
· Develop skills necessary to achieve common goals when working with individuals from diverse cultures.
· Develop a deeper understanding of how your own culture impacts your expectations of others and how you work.
Procedure:
· Once a topic is set for the interaction, partner students (same partners as in class) will work together outside of class using whatever technology they prefer (e-mail, facebook, skype, other). For full credit students must document these interactions by either printing out chat logs or e-mails or providing notes from Skype conversations, etc. All documented interactions must have a time and date and the method of communication.
· For each linking day, students will be expected to discuss the appropriate subquestions associated with their main topic. Students do not have to address each of the subquestions directly, rather those subquestions are a guide for the types of things students should discuss on any given day. Minimally, for each linking day students should:
1. Provide a thoughtful, in-depth response to the sub-topic for the day.
2. Comment on and/or ask further questions based on their partner’s response.
3. Respond to their partner’s reaction /question.
· If you do not have six linking days with your partner, your teacher will let you know which set of subquestions to eliminate.
· As a final product, individual students (not in collaboration) should produce a maximum single spaced one page summation/reaction to the discussion and turn in their interaction logs. The one page summation should include the following:
1. A summary of the basic information provided by their partner.
2. The student’s reaction to the information they learned addressing some of the following types of questions:
· How do you feel about your partner’s responses?
· Were you surprised by anything your partner reported or asked you?
· Would your partner’s choices/responses be appropriate in your culture?
3. A discussion of how what the student learned in this interaction relates to other things they have learned about their partner country throughout the links with that country.
Evaluation:
o The goal of this project has as much to do with the collaboration as with the product. Hence:
o 50% of the grade will be based on how well and actively you participated in the process as evidenced by the interaction logs.
o 50% of the grade will be based on the final product focusing on how well you synthesized and reflected upon the information learned through this process.
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