The world is here for you. You are here for the world.
As a Developmental Reading and Study Skills instructor at a community college, I am interested in sharing information with my students about global awareness, connections, and opportunities.
I searched for websites that have a lot of possible points of interaction - possible volunteer and job opportunities, information about events and getting involved with different groups of people, and interesting points of contact with the world.
I found 3 amazing sites that exceeded my expectations. It’s a big world – and these sites, I hope, will encourage my students to participate in dialogue, programs, communities, and opportunities with people all around the world.
There are so many exciting and creative ways for students to get involved – there are endless possibilities for exploration and connection! And while students are engaged and active in these connections, they are learning, thinking, maturing, and creating a better world for themselves and others.
I hope to introduce my students to these websites on 3 separate evenings, one workshop for each website. I’ll ask students to explore and discover different aspects of the sites that they might find interesting and then to share their findings with the whole class. In subsequent semesters, I hope to build on this and perhaps ask students to develop their own blogs.
And perhaps students will even consider interacting through these websites as they continue their learning journeys long into the future.
Mission
The Abroad View Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that provides college students and recent graduates with opportunities for discourse and initiatives that encourage intercultural and global citizenship development. Its key activities are running the Abroad View Foundation website and producing Abroad View magazine.
All Foundation activities aspire to:
• Promote education abroad, global awareness, and cross-cultural understanding.
• Foster open-minded exploration and inform, challenge, and expand students’ views of the cultures, environments, and conditions of the world.
The Abroad View Foundation is a community of college and university study abroad offices and international centers that work in partnership to guide students in their journeys abroad and provide them with the tools and space they need to reflect on, analyze, and communicate their international and intercultural experiences in the company of their peers who have shared similar experiences. Our hope is that by encouraging students to discuss international experiences as a turning-point in their lives and by providing them with opportunities to generate new meanings from them, we are facilitating the integration of their time abroad with their academic, professional, and lifelong pursuits. While we teach and support students, we also learn from them. Each individual brings home a unique and valuable perspective, and so we listen as they tell us about the lessons they've learned and the stories they've gathered through experience in the world.
The Abroad View Foundation clearly uses a constructivist approach to education and learning. It is really exciting to see this in action on the website. The philosophy and mission of the organization is to “encourage intercultural and global citizenship development.” And it is their “hope that by encouraging students to discuss international experiences as a turning-point in their lives and by providing new meanings from them, we are facilitating the integration of their time abroad with their academic, professional, and lifelong pursuits.” According to Oakes and Lipton, “cognitive theorists see children as active agents of learning – making sense, understanding, and creating knowledge” (p. 68). On this website, learners are active participants in their own learning process by reflecting, writing, and sharing and reading about their experiences abroad.
Abroad View so values this type of learning experience, that they recognize “they not only teach and support students, they learn from them.” Through interacting with this website, students are able to realize their own natural motivation and curiosity to learn and make connections and meaning with what they see and do. Indeed, like Piaget suggested, children are like “little scientists” and here students can research, write, hypothesize and explore all on their own (p.69).
Furthermore, in my opinion, studying abroad is one of the best ways to learn experientially. Dewey and Piaget laid the groundwork for the constructivist “revolution” in learning that took place in the 1960s which created an understanding in teachers that learning happens in stages and that learners are at their best when they are active participants in creating knowledge.
I also love that this website creates a space for students to reflect and to continue their learning, long after the actual study abroad component is over. As Oakes and Lipton mention, “Constructivists suggest that, like most of real life, thinking is complex and disorderly. Sometimes we take years to make sense of ideas and experiences; sometimes making sense happens overnight” (p. 74.) For an experience as long and involved as study abroad, the “making sense” piece can continue for years as the participant continues to grow and mature.
As students participate in international experiences, spending some time in a different part of the world, they “acquire diverse subsets of cultural knowledge” (Erickson, p. 303.) They become, essentially, “multicultural” and develop a bigger capacity for conducting “diverse cultural/linguistic practices” (Erickson, p. 303.) In short, study abroad participants become global citizens with an ability to communicate and connect in a wide variety of arenas.
Through Abroad View, students can prepare for their upcoming travels by reading about “Global Citizenship” which includes topics like “Cultural Training, Language Learning, Your Global Footprint, and Getting Involved.” They can read about other students’ experiences in “Real Stories and Experiences” which includes a multilitercies approach. Students can participate through writing stories, taking photos, creating blogs and videos, art projects, poetry, and more.
When students return, they can reflect and share their experiences which continues the learning process. Students can also search for jobs, internships, volunteer opportunies, and fellowships on the site. They can continue their global awareness on the “World News” page.
I found Vygotsky’s notion of learning helpful in thinking about study abroad programs and how students might grow and mature and think after, and as result of, their experiences. Vygotsky “proposed that learning occurs “out there” as much as inside the head.” And it is “the internalization of the social interaction that becomes the cognitive process” (Oakes and Lipton, p. 81.) So, while students meet people, and talk and laugh and interact, they begin this process of learning. Then, when they reflect and write about their experiences – the learning becomes internalized.
Interestingly, students who have studied abroad, could potentially have the experience of being both “para-phrasers and cultural retainers” as described in the Orellana and Bowman article. I have not really thought about study abroad in this context, but it struck me as fascinating that these roles could broaden and connect students with people, especially those from minority groups, who regularly take on these roles!
Our Vision
We would like to live in a world where:
All people can lead free and dignified lives.
Every person who wants to help another has the ability to do so.
No opportunities for action or collaboration are missed or wasted.
Our Mission
Action Without Borders connects people, organizations, and resources to help build a world where all people can live free and dignified lives.
AWB is independent of any government, political ideology, or religious creed. Our work is guided by the common desire of our members and supporters to find practical solutions to social and environmental problems, in a spirit of generosity and mutual respect.
Idealist.org, like AbroadView, is a comprehensive website, with many points of potential contact for students. Students can join groups, learn about events and speakers, get involved with campaigns, search for graduate programs, internships, and look for careers, and more. This website is a great resource for learners of all ages. I regularly check this site for what’s new and interesting. They maintain an update and active job search site. Idealist.org has a young and energetic feel to it – great for a traditional age college student or a young adult. But, there are also points of interests for older adults, in my opinion.
Idealist.org also approaches learning and education from a constructivist method. The users of this website are active participants with the ability to co-create any effort or program. Idealists can be “problem-solvers” in the finest way Dewey intended. Idealist.org users can engage in “their own experiments, building equipment, and cooperating with others in planning and doing projects” (Oakes and Lipton, p. 69.)
Both Idealist.org and Abroadview.org seem naturally to incorporate the very idea that “society and culture are indistinguishable from learning or thinking” (Oakes and Lipton, p. 77.) People learn based on what culture they are in and different cultures “stress different kinds of knowledge, values, social organization or work” (p.76.) So, students who engage in international learning experiences see first-hand how different cultures approach learning and they also can begin to analyze their own cultures and their own ways of knowing.
Idealist.org creates a space for students and lifelong learners to be connected and become a part of a community. They can become, for example, members of “caring and concerned citizens” or “Students for a Free Tibet.” They can join groups and find out more about the world through this site. The participation on Idealist.org is participatory and collaborative.
These same students also have the potential to understand the contrast between the notion of “cultural deprivation” and “cultural difference” (Cole and Bruner.) If students spend real time with people from different backgrounds, especially those from marginalized groups, then it is quite possible that these students will see that people are not “deprived” intellectually or culturally. They may see that there are simply cultural differences – different ways of knowing and doing.
3.LaGuardia Community College – The World’s Community College.
I chose this website because I heard the president of the college, Dr. Gail Mellow, speak at our faculty meeting last August. In fact, she spoke on the very same day of our first Orientation night (for Cohort 4.)
At that time, I was really struggling with whether or not I should begin the GSE program. I was worried about affording tuition, balancing PT teaching with taking graduate classes – all while giving my FT attention to my then 1 year-old son. I was leaning towards not beginning the program – to playing it safe and just focusing on being a good teacher and new mom. All of that changed when I heard what Dr. Mellow had to say. (And also, when I heard Linda Smith Tabb speak later that night.) As Dr. Mellow spoke, I could feel my heart pounding and I knew that I had to learn more about globalization and education.
Dr. Mellow spoke about her college, the World’s Community College. Her passion, energy and enthusiasm for LaGuardia Community College spread through the auditorium. She was leading a college - in a most progressive, imaginative and effective way – that is perhaps the most diverse campus anywhere in the world. They have embraced their global identity and they are running with it. The LGCC campus hums with excitement and integrity. It seems like a special place to be a student.
Here are some interesting facts Dr. Mellow shared with us:
1. LGCC is located in Queens, NY where 50% of the population was born outside of the US. (That’s 1 million people in Queens alone who were born in another country.)
2. To put that in perspective, only about 10 million people in the world live outside the country where they were born.
3. At LGCC, almost 2/3 of their students were born outside of the US.
So, how do you educate, prepare, and energize a generation on “New Americans” as Dr. Mellow called her students? How do you navigate the potential barriers of a student population who come from 159 different countries and speak 110 different languages – many of them still learning English?
Dr. Mellow recognized “that education is the open door to that American Dream for students and that students are hungry to learn and participate in the world” (Mellow, speech.)
Her talk was titled “The Challenge of the World’s Community College – Innovation in the Service of Learning.” She described several programs that help to create this energized and dynamic campus. For the purposes of this assignment, I will focus on only one of them: ePortfolios (although all of them are interesting and effective and exciting!)
The ePortfolio offers students:
- A place to collect and save your coursework
- A chance to showcase your accomplishments and your best school work to family and friends.
- A tool for creating digital resumes to send to employers.
- An opportunity to use creativity to represent yourself and your education.
- A portal th at helps you connect your educational goals with your personal experiences.
- An electronic resource you can use to apply for transfer and financial aid at a 4 year school.
- A chance to reflect on your education, to make connections between where you are and where you want to be.
ePortfolios have been a key part of LaGuardia’s reputation as a leading community college. Some students have created first-rate portfolios that have made a huge difference in their learning, academic performance, and career choices. Dr. Mellow said that ePortfolios create a space for students, a place that “holds their learning” and provides “intellectual scaffolding.” Students ePortfolios change and take shape as they continue working on them.
EPortfolios clearly uses a constructivist approach to learning. Students are the architects of their own learning, building a website that they can see for their rest of their lives. According to Oakes and Lipton, “cognitive theorists see children as active agents of their own learning – making sense, understanding, and creating knowledge” (p. 68.) By using the ePortfolios websites, their tutorials, and attending workshops, students are active participants in their own learning!
Furthermore, as Michaels suggest in “The Dismantling of Narrative” “teachers need tools for thinking deeply about the type of speakers and writers they want their students to become, the types of literacy (literacies) required in different social settings, and the type of language appropriate for different communicative demands” (p. 348.) ePortfolios allow for a broad range of multiliteracies – from written text, to art and photography, videos, and more. While students can follow a specific format and organizational pattern – there is also considerable room for creative expression of their identities and learning experiences.
I think one of the most exciting things about ePortfolios at LaGuardia is that the ePortfolio format is designed to meet each student where he or she is now. Oakes and Lipton state “teachers do not need to look at students’ potential or their theoretical ability to reach the school’s idea of what it means to be smart. They are smart now” (p.44.) Dr. Mellow described 3 phases of an ePortfolio that one student went through as her portfolio evolved:
1st her ePortfolio reflected her experiences as an “immigrant” from Colombia, then she developed her portfolio into that of a “college student” and finally, her portfolio became a formal academic and professional representation of her academic learning and career interests.
With this in mind, meeting students where they are now, I reflect on the Faulstich and Bowman article where Faulstich says:
“Our point is that ethnic group cultures do matter, but they must be located in relation to particular sets of experiences, grounded in practice, and situated in relationships within a complex social world. Culture, race, ethnicity, and social class are important shaping forces for such relationships and practices, and experiences (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995), but ultimately engagement in those relationships, practices, and experiences matters for learning and development, rather than membership in a category in and of itself” (p.28.)
Through ePortfolios students connect with others and share ideas – they engage in practices and relationships that increase their learning and development. It’s very exciting stuff! Dr. Mellow described another student who said, “Before my ePortfolio I thought of all the things I didn’t have: money, a legacy for my young son, etc. But then I realized that the legacy for my son is that I will be an educated person.”
And finally, students who create ePortfolios participate in a “community of practice” where they learn more about themselves, others, and the multiliteracies required to use these portfolios. Erickson says, “As persons engage as more or less peripheral participants in social groups – local ‘communities of practice’ – they acquire diverse subsets of cultural knowledge.” I love this! Erickson further describes normal socialization as “involving the development of capacities for the conduct of diverse cultural/linguistic practices through a succession of apprenticeships across the entire lifecourse as individuals join in a variety of local and discrete communities of practice” (Erickson, p 303.)
The college noticed 3 important things after ePortfolios were implemented and had been used for a few years. Their retention numbers increased, their pass rate increased, and their score on the Engagement and Critical Thinking Assessment went up.
Works Cited
Erickson, Frederick, “Culture and Human Development.” Human Development 2002;45:299-306
Greenfield, Patricia Marks, and Jerome S. Bruner, eds. Culture and Cognitive Growth.
Gutierrez, Kris, and Barbara Ragoff. "Cultural Ways of Learning: Individual Traits Or Repertoires of Pracitice." Educational Researcher 32.5: 19-25.
Michaels, Sarah, “The Dismantling of Narrative.”
Oakes, Jeannie, and Martin Lipton. "Contemporary Learning Theories: Problem Solving and Understanding." Teaching to Change the World. Third ed.McGraw-Hill Companies, 2006. 66-67-94.
Orellana, Marjorie Faulstich, and Phillip Bauman. "Cultural Diversity Research on Learning and Development; Conceptual, Methodological, and Strategic Considerations." Educational Researcher 32.5 (2003): 26-32.
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