Improving cross-cultural awareness and communication through mobile technologies

10.10.08

www.slideshare.com/stevevosloo

Improving cross-cultural awareness and communication through mobile technologies

Adele Botha, Madelein van den Berg (Meraka)

Steve Vosloo, John Kuner (Stanford University)

Agenda

Digital lives of youth

Cross cultural awareness

Research question and methodology

User generated content

Findings

Digital lives (USA)

Pew Internet study (Lenhart et al., 2007)

93% of US teens ages 12-17 use the internet (largely for social interaction)

39% of online teens also share their own artistic creations online, such as artwork, photos, stories or videos

28% have created their own blog

55% have created a profile on a social networking site such as MySpace or Facebook

67% of grade 9-12ers have a mobile phone (Project Tomorrow,2008)

Lenhart, A., Madden, M., Macgill, & A. R., Smith, A. Pew Internet: Teens and Social Media (2007). http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/230/report_display.asp.

Project Tomorrow. Speak Up 2007 National Findings (2008). http://www.tomorrow.org/docs/National%20Findings%20Speak%20Up%202007.pdf.

Digital lives (SA)

Only 17% (15-24 year olds) ever used the Internet

72% own a cell phone

Nearly half SMS almost daily (Kaiser Family Foundation & SABC, 2007)

MXit (MIM): about 6.5m subscribers sending 200m messages per day (Computing SA, 2008)

13-16 year olds dependent on mobile phones for comms and social status

A social revolution (Oelofse, De Jager & Ford, 2006)

Computing SA. Mobile Net usage on the rise (2008). http://www.computingsa.co.za/knowledgecentres/article.aspx?id=690177.

Gilwald, A. Telecommunications Sector Performance Review 2007 (2008). http://www.researchictafrica.net.

International Telecommunication Union. Telecommunication/ICT markets and trends in Africa, 2007. http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/material/af_report07.pdf. Oelofse, C., De Jager, A., & Ford, M. The Digital Profile of a Teenage Cell Phone User. Short paper at the mLearn 2006 conference. October 2006. Banff, Alberta, Canada.

Young South AfricAnS, BroAdcASt MediA, And hiV/AidS AwAreneSS:Results of a NatioNal suRvey by the Kaiser Family Foundation & SABC (MaRch 2007)

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/whiteafrican/2735722117/sizes/m/ (CC)

Participatory culture

Technology is increasingly mediating the way that youth around the world communicate, and consume, create and share content

Technology-enabled youth play a dual producer/consumer role

Participatory culture (Jenkins, 2006)

BUT: Increased collaboration and communication through technological advances does not mean improved negotiation skills

Lots of rubbish on YouTube and MySpace, but also digital media creations for education, social change or artsYouth can critically reflect on personal and societal issues affecting their life experiences (Mitchell et al., 2006)

Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. , 336. New York: NYU Press.

Mitchell, C., Stuart, J., Moletsane, R., & Nkwanyana, C. B. Why we dont go to school on Fridays On youth participation through photo voice in rural KwaZulu-Natal. McGill Journal of Education 41, 3 (2006).

Intercultural competence and sensitivity

Negotiation: ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms (Jenkins et al., 2006)

Important because: culture flows easily from one community to another and people online constantly encounter conflicting values and assumptions.

Intercultural competence and sensitivity (Lovitt and Goswami, 1999): to understand the way in which others located in different global contexts perceive, analyse, and produce situated knowledge (OBrien, Alfanol and Magnusson, 2007)

intercultural communication

Jenkins, H., Clinton, K., Purushotma, R., Robison, A. J., & Weigel, M. (2006). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. Retrieved October 31, 2007, from http://www.digitallearning.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7B7E45C7E0-A3E0-4B89-AC9C-E807E1B0AE4E%7D/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF.Lovitt, C. R., & Goswami, D. Exploring the Rhetoric of International Professional Communication. Baywood, NY (1999).

OBrien, A. J., Alfanol, C., & Magnusson, E. Improving Cross-Cultural Communication Through Collaborative Technologies. In Persuasive Technology. pp. 125-131. Springer Berlin / Heidelberg (2007).

Successful intercultural communication is a matter of highest importance if humankind and society are to survive.

(Samovar, Porter & McDaniel, 2005)

Samovar, L. A., Porter, R. E., & McDaniel, E. R. Intercultural Communication: A Reader. Thomson Wadsworth (2005).

Image: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/00672/south-africa-rioter_672241n.jpg

Image: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/00672/south-africa-fires_672758n.jpg

Image: http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200805/r253520_1045285.jpg

Image: http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/images/2008/02/14/danish_cartoons.jpg

Image: http://www.coxandforkum.com/archives/behead.jpg

Image: http://www.coxandforkum.com/archives/06.02.05.RighttoBlaspheme-X.gif

Research question

Can mobile phones and the web act as mediating technologies in the development of intercultural competencies and communication skills?

Increased sensitivity to and consideration for others (Lovitt & Goswami, 1999)

Not formal research. Qualitative data gathered through ongoing discussions, exit focus groups, digital artifacts

Project

5 teens in South Africa (Cornwall High School)

5 teens in USA (BAVC Summer internship)

Different social, economic and ethnic bkgrounds

Prompts to consider and document culture:

About me

My family and community

An issue in my community

Project

Camera phones and blogs

First: discuss, plan and research

Phones: capture, upload

PC: edit

Web: upload, view, comment, reflect

Focus groups

Both groups learned a great deal about each others' lives and also about their own.

They realized how much they were influenced by the diversity surrounding them be it from traditional family values, the community, peers and simply the times

Proud of their heritage

Phones? Cool, different. Issues? lighting & sound

They were more 'civilized' than I expected. Their interests are European and Westernised.

(US teen)


I think its important to show the many sides of San Francisco to the kids in South Africa because it is a place so full of culture and life.

(US teen)


I learned how our cultures [US and South African] contrast, and also how they're similar. I think that was my favourite part.

(SA teen)


The world is actually very small; I suppose we could all have been friends in another time or place. You know they are just like us.

(SA teen)


Inclusive approach

South Africans explained jargon and Afrikaans terms

Conclusion

Self-reflection

Communication of views and life situations across differing cultural contexts

Because of comments and responses being traded, a level of cross-cultural negotiation

Inclusive discourse: South Africans explained jargon and Afrikaans terms sensitivity to and consideration for others

Digital media technologies: cameras, phones, web can mediate the development of intercultural competencies

Thank you

Steve Vosloo, Cape Town

Email

[email protected]

Blog

innovatingeducation.wordpress.com

Slides

www.slideshare.net/stevevosloo

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