Abstract
This chapter describes the virtual team experience of participants from the United States and the Philippines. The virtual teams designed an online learning experience plan and developed and delivered an online module prototype to K-12 Filipino learners. The chapter discusses the challenges from the beginning to the end of the collaboration experience between the two groups. Finally, it discusses implications to practice for those planning to implement similar collaboration activities at a distance.
TopLiterature Review
Global learning connects students to the world (Kaiser, 2015). However, educational experience includes much more than connecting students to the world around them. Educators must make this connection happen and highlight the benefits of collaboration beyond the familiar because of the importance of developing marketable skills. For example, the U.S. government fills thousands of positions annually, seeking individuals with skills and abilities to work beyond its borders requiring foreign language proficiency (Barker 2000). Further, many businesses created jobs performed remotely and outsourced to applicants from other countries with diverse experiences (Lindsay & Davis, 2013). The current employment scenario demands American students engage in cross-cultural and international affairs as part of their schooling.
Engaging in global education benefits educators by making the world a classroom and its teachers, forming learning reciprocity (Kaiser, 2015). Global learning involves meaningful relationships resulting in mutually beneficial partnerships. For this connection to happen, every one providing such international learning experiences must leverage technology and innovation. Tuzel and Hobbs (2017) came to similar conclusions given their research activities focusing on American and Turkish students using social media, leading to meaningful partnerships and collaborative activities. As part of the study design, they allowed the students to share their culture without constraints or inhibition. This lack of defined structures gave the two student groups real opportunities to identify commonalities and asymmetries among themselves.
Designing global learning experiences involved reading about other people's hardships in textbooks or watching news programs, movies or documentaries. Also, the knowledge-building events require more authenticity than listening from someone speaking about life in a war zone or disaster area from a technology application such as Zoom and Skype. Students must develop cultural understanding and empathy to expand their problem-solving skills and find solutions to peers' situations from other countries.
Global learning is connecting with and learning from others beyond the four walls of the classrooms. The experience allows students to collaborate with people who have different experiences than their own. As a cross-cultural learning experience, global learning aims to broaden one's perspective and challenge stereotypes. Lindsay and Davis (2013) stated that global learning goals focus on increasing knowledge, eliminating barriers, and creating authentic audiences. Lindsay (2016) also wrote that becoming a globally connected learner goes beyond information gathering and requires responding and sharing to expand new knowledge and skills and push it forward. Thus, students must learn about their peers and situations and become skilled in sharing their new knowledge.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Technology: Is a tool or application used to support the completion of various online tasks from communicating at a distance, designing a plan for a learning experience, developing an online module prototype, and delivering instruction online.
Prototype Development: Is the process of creating a web-based structure (e.g., module) to support the teaching and learning activities in a given context (i.e., online).
Virtual Team: Is a group of three to five individuals (e.g., Americans and Filipinos) working together from a distance to complete a task (i.e., designing and developing an online module).
Learners: Are children, and young adults enrolled in classes. In this context, these are the target audience that Filipino teachers would implement the online module prototype.
Online Learning: Is how learners access instructional materials at a distance.
Subject Matter Experts: Are individuals engaged in providing knowledge or expertise on the curriculum studied by target learners. This content also gives information on learners' needs, capacities, and available resources for successful delivery, including technology tools and applications.
Designers: Are individuals engaged in creating a design plan for teaching an identified content or skills to target learners.
Global Learning: Involves participation in a learning experience that connects the individual to the world and beyond the familiar by highlighting the benefits of collaboration, cross-cultural communication, and technology support.
Global Learning Skills: Are learned and developed from participating in a global learning experience. In this context, the skills focus on communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.
Instructional Design: Is a systematic process of creating an instructional experience involving needs analysis (i.e., context, learner, and task).
Developers: Are individuals engaged in creating online module prototypes, focusing on teaching global learning skills for delivery to target learners.