scholarly journals The multi-disciplinary approach to an interdisciplinary virtual exchange

Author(s):  
Paula Fonseca ◽  
Kristi Julian ◽  
Wendi Hulme ◽  
Maria De Lurdes Martins ◽  
Regina Brautlacht

New communication technologies are changing the way we work and communicate with people around the world. Given this reality, students in Higher Education (HE) worldwide need to develop knowledge in their area of study as well as attitudes and values that will enable them to be responsible and ethical global citizens in the workforce they will soon enter, regardless of the degree. Different institutional and country-specific requirements are important factors when developing an international Virtual Exchange (VE) program. Digital learning environments such as ProGlobe – Promoting the Global Exchange of Ideas on Sustainable Goals, Practices, and Cultural Diversity – offer a platform for collaborating with diverse students around the world to share and reflect on ideas on sustainable practices. Students work together virtually on a joint interdisciplinary project that aims to create knowledge and foster cultural diversity. This project was successfully integrated into each country’s course syllabus through a common global theme; sustainability. The focus of this paper is to present multi-disciplinary perspectives on the opportunities and challenges in implementing a VE project in HE. Furthermore, it will present the challenges that country coordinators dealt with when planning and implementing their project. Given the disparity found in each course syllabus, project coordinators uniquely handled the project goal, approach, and assessment for their specific course and program. Not only did the students and faculty gain valuable insight into different aspects of collaboration when working in interdisciplinary HE projects, they also reflected on their own impact on the environment and learned to listen to how people in different countries deal with environmental issues. This approach provided students with meaningful intercultural experiences that helped them link ideas and concepts about a global issue through the lens of their own discipline as well as other disciplines worldwide.

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 433-438
Author(s):  
Vojislav Ilić ◽  
Marija Šikl-Erski ◽  
Tamara Stojanović-Đorđević

Today's students should be ready and able to understand the visual and multimedia messages they are continually offering, they need to understand the meanings of visual arts in different multicultural contexts and mutual relationships. The teaching of visual arts helps students to develop the ability to express themselves in a wide range of visual techniques using both traditional art techniques and information and communication technologies, and has the responsibility to bring students closer to different cultural heritage and cultural diversity because of the world in which today's students live and to create should have more skills and knowledge, should be productive and innovative participants, in the future people will have to be more inventive, more resourceful, and more imaginative. In this paper we give opinions on students' competences in general, as well as on the role and goals of teaching culture, together with domestic standards and competences.


2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Scott Rigby ◽  
Andrew K. Przybylski

Participation in expansive video games called `virtual worlds' has become a mainstream leisure activity for tens of millions of people around the world. The growth of this industry and the strong motivational appeal of these digital worlds invite a closer examination as to how educators can learn from today's virtual worlds in the development of next generation learning environments. Self-determination theory (SDT; Ryan and Deci, 2000) has shown value in explaining both the motivational dynamics of learning (Deci et al., 1994), as well as the strong motivational pull of video games and virtual worlds (Ryan et al., 2006). As such, SDT provides a framework that can bridge the gap between education and consumer virtual worlds and be applied to new research and development in how to best build virtual worlds for learning. The concept of the `learner hero' is introduced as a potentially useful unifying concept in considering how to leverage the high motivational appeal of commercial virtual worlds in building digital learning environments.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 93-100
Author(s):  
Gisa Jähnichen

The Sri Lankan Ministry of National Coexistence, Dialogue, and Official Languages published the work “People of Sri Lanka” in 2017. In this comprehensive publication, 21 invited Sri Lankan scholars introduced 19 different people’s groups to public readers in English, mainly targeted at a growing number of foreign visitors in need of understanding the cultural diversity Sri Lanka has to offer. This paper will observe the presentation of these different groups of people, the role music and allied arts play in this context. Considering the non-scholarly design of the publication, a discussion of the role of music and allied arts has to be supplemented through additional analyses based on sources mentioned by the 21 participating scholars and their fragmented application of available knowledge. In result, this paper might help improve the way facts about groups of people, the way of grouping people, and the way of presenting these groupings are displayed to the world beyond South Asia. This fieldwork and literature guided investigation should also lead to suggestions for ethical principles in teaching and presenting of culturally different music practices within Sri Lanka, thus adding an example for other case studies.


Author(s):  
Maryna Demyanchuk

Information and telecommunication services are currently a full-fledged resource for social development compared to traditional resources. The growth of the level of scientific and technological progress has led to the incredibly fast development paces in the sphere of information and communication technologies, which has a significant impact on the development of the economy. On the basis of a thorough analysis of the sectors of information and communication technologies and components of the ICT development index, the article substantiates the need for accelerated digitization of the majority of enterprises of different spheres of economic activity with the aim of qualitative development of Ukrainian economy in order to increase its competitiveness in the world. This is explained by the fact that information and technology represent the main economic resource in the period of formation of information society and digital economy, and enterprises of the sphere of communication and informatization are a catalyst for social and economic development of the country as a whole. Using a methodological toolkit of the theory of systematic and correlation-regression analysis, an economic-mathematical model of the development of the sphere of communication and informatization in the regions of the world and individual countries of the world is constructed. It is based on the existing pattern of leading development of the communications sector, but takes into account the degree of economy dependence on the ICT development, which in some regions and countries is 100%. This is due to the approaching mass availability of ICT services in some countries in these regions. On the basis of the constructed model, the forecasting of GDP PPP per capita was carried out, which showed faster rates of growth of the country’s economy with the growth of the development level of the sphere of communication and informatization and accessibility of telecommunication services. In turn, the availability of telecommunication services is influenced by the digital skills of society and the level of their prices, which has necessitated determining the dependence of GDP PPP per capita on prices for communication services of countries with varying degrees of socio-economic development. This makes it possible to identify reserves for improving the productivity of individuals while increasing the availability of telecommunications services.


Author(s):  
Matthew A. Shadle

In recent years the economy has become globalized. Globalization is the increased flow of goods, services, capital, people, and culture facilitated by innovations in transportation and communication technologies. This chapter examines the phenomenon of globalization and its impact on Catholic social teaching. It looks, in particular, at Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Caritas in Veritate. Pope Benedict criticizes how the current global economy exploits and excludes vulnerable populations around the world. Caritas in Veritate further develops the communio framework initiated by John Paul II and proposes that the communion of the three Persons of the Trinity provides a model for the shape globalization should take, recognizing unity in the midst of diversity. The chapter also looks at how Catholic social thought itself is globalizing, examining in particular the work of Mary Mee-Yin Yuen from Hong Kong and Stan Chu Ilo from Nigeria.


2020 ◽  
pp. 145507252096501
Author(s):  
Niklas Karlsson ◽  
Torsten Berglund ◽  
Anna Mia Ekström ◽  
Anders Hammarberg ◽  
Tuukka Tammi

Aims: To end the hepatitis and AIDS epidemics in the world by 2030, countries are encouraged to scale-up harm reduction services and target people who inject drugs (PWID). Blood-borne viruses (BBV) among PWID spread via unsterile injection equipment sharing and to combat this, many countries have introduced needle and syringe exchange programmes (NEP), though not without controversy. Sweden’s long, complicated harm reduction policy transition has been deviant compared to the Nordic countries. After launch in 1986, no NEP were started in Sweden for 23 years, the reasons for which are analysed in this study. Methods: Policy documents, grey literature and research mainly published in 2000–2017 were collected and analysed using a hierarchical framework, to understand how continuous build-up of evidence, decisions and key events, over time influenced NEP development. Results: Sweden’s first NEP opened in a repressive-control drug policy era with a drug-free society goal. Despite high prevalence of BBV among PWID with recurring outbreaks, growing research and key-actor support including a NEP law, no NEP were launched. Political disagreements, fluctuating actor-coalitions, questioning of research, and a municipality veto against NEP, played critical roles. With an individual-centred perspective being brought into the drug policy domain, the manifestation of a dual drug and health policy track, a revised NEP law in 2017 and removal of the veto, Sweden would see fast expansion of new NEP. Conclusions: Lessons from the Swedish case could provide valuable insight for countries about to scale-up harm reduction services including how to circumvent costly time- and resource-intensive obstacles and processes involving ideological and individual moral dimensions.


2010 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Byung Sook de Vries ◽  
Anna Meijknecht

AbstractSoutheast Asia is one of the most culturally diverse regions in the world. Nevertheless, unlike minorities and indigenous peoples in Western states, minorities and indigenous peoples in Asia have never received much attention from politicians or legal scholars. The level of minority protection varies from state to state, but can, in general, be called insufficient. At the regional level, for instance, within the context of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), there are no mechanisms devoted specifically to the protection of minorities and indigenous peoples. In December 2008, the ASEAN Charter entered into force. In July 2009 the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the ASEAN Inter-Governmental Commission on Human Rights were adopted. Both the Charter and the ToR refer to human rights and to cultural diversity, but omit to refer explicitly to minorities or indigenous peoples. In this article, the extent to which this reticence with regard to the protection of minorities and indigenous peoples is dictated by the concept of Asian values and ASEAN values is explored. Further, it is analysed how, instead, ASEAN seeks to accommodate the enormous cultural diversity of this region of the world within its system. Finally, the tenability of ASEAN's policy towards minorities and indigenous peoples in the light of, on the one hand, the requirements of international legal instruments concerning the protection of minorities and indigenous peoples and, on the other hand, the policies of the national states that are members of ASEAN is determined.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document