May/June 2003
International Power
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Collaborative Tools for the Global Village
Debbie Abilock, Editor
In times of fear, epidemics, and war, it seems natural to stay close to home, to describe ourselves as hunkering down, and to focus inward, cautious of the "other." Nonetheless, nearly 47 million Americans—about 18 percent—speak a language other than English, and mass media broadcasts and daily e-communication with our global counterparts continually present us with glimpses into other cultures and countries.1 We live in a global village in which even a small change in one part of our world can have huge effects.2
In this milieu, how might we further develop both cultural literacy or competence and collaborative information literacy skills at the same time?3
Tools for Intercultural Competence
One tool, the Behavioral Assessment Scale for Intercultural Competence (BASIC), identifies certain skills valuable in intercultural communication.4 They include the following competencies:
- Display of respect: Acting respectfully, although specific words and body language differ from culture to culture.
- Orientation to knowledge: Understanding that our knowledge of others is framed by our cultural experiences; our personal attitudes and opinions are not universal facts. Statements that allows for no qualifiers, such as "This entire class . . ." or "All Muslims are . . . ," are examples of cultural bias.
- Empathy: Communicating our awareness of the feelings and thoughts of others.
- Interaction management: Taking turns and regulating conversations.
- Task role behaviors: Welcoming ideas in group problem-solving activities.
- Relational role behavior: Building relationships with group members by encouraging participation and mediating conflicts.
- Tolerance for ambiguity: Responding to new situations with comfort, without defensiveness or judgment.
- Interactive posture: Responding in nonevaluative ways about others’ attitudes, beliefs and values.
Not surprisingly, these attributes are the same skills that are useful in both teacher-librarian collaboration and student group work. As interpersonal skills, they are deeply grounded in social and emotional learning. Expanding the participation of all group members and developing an awareness of the feelings and attitudes that drive others’ behavior are essential for school librarians working with teachers to build satisfying and rich curriculum projects.
These BASIC skills are also related to cognitive attributes that are particularly suited to such processes as inquiry and information literacy. For example, students who are able to see multiple perspectives, tolerate ambiguity, and resist simplistic judgments during their research are more likely to create products or reach conclusions that reflect complex thinking. When school librarians explicitly draw these connections, they teach students and teachers to value both the cognitive and affective traits that simultaneously build collaborative and cultural competence.
This issue of Knowledge Quest has a global focus, examining practices in school libraries around the world. The authors share a common vision of information literacy, framing both their pedagogy and philosophy through focused efforts. Central to each example is strategic planning and reflective practice. Curricular goals and timelines are matched with teaching methodology and teacher receptivity, as well as knowledge of the school’s culture, the diverse cultures of the students, and the culture of the country in which each school exists.
What might be added? Not much—these are outstanding examples of best practices. Software tools—even with videoconferencing or webcams—can facilitate collaboration but cannot replace complex and sensitive face-to-face interactions. However, there are some useful software environments of assembled tools and resources that could further support the collaborative Web projects, simulations and complex learning experiences available within these schools.
Tools for Group Collaboration
While e-mail and instant messaging have become ubiquitous communication tools among students, they fail to maintain a sense of the flow of information or frame the collaborative development of ideas during groupwork. Threaded discussions structure contributions by different writers so that ideas and themes are not lost, while continuing to retain the informality and speed of messaging.5 Knowledge Quest, the print publication of the American Association of School Librarians, is experimenting with a threaded discussion at <www.noodletools.com/kq> to help its editors and board develop ideas for each issue and follow the publication process.
In this issue, Terry Young reports on blog software, which is just beginning to be exploited in schools. One teacher has created B-villeblog at <http://manila.cet.middlebury.edu/bvilleblog>, which includes individual students' learning journal weblogs, <http://manila.cet.middlebury.edu/bvilleblog/stories/storyReader$150>, and another teacher has created a blog at <http://weblogs.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/journ1> with links to news for his journalism class.
Moving to a more highly developed online workplace of integrated tools, Tapped-In, <www.tappedin.org>, exemplifies an international community of educators engaged in professional development and informal collaborative activities. Other software environments being developed by the open source movement can facilitate teacher-to-teacher, student-to-teacher, and student-to-student collaborative learning. Free groupware like MimerDesk, <www.mimerdesk.org>, can support the collective development of projects and communities online with tools like calendar, tasks, forums, links, chat, reviews, voting, files, instant messages, and profiles. Virtual classrooms such as The Manhattan Virtual Classroom at <http://manhattan.sourceforge.net> can host discussion groups, e-mail, and live chat; provide an area for the teacher to post the syllabus, online assignments, and other handouts and notices; and even report grades. Best practices and lessons learned from the scholarly research on online learning should guide your thinking and course development.6
Tools for Collaborative Inquiry
Librarians and teachers looking for other inquiry experiences can begin by having students participate in well-established worldwide science projects such as GLOBE, <www.globe.gov/fsl/welcome.html>. It structures collaboration with scientists and other students by showing an educator how to teach students to take scientific measurements of atmosphere, hydrology, soils, and land cover at their school site. Students report their data through the Internet and analyze worldwide data sets online, while participating in authentic scientific research projects. WISE projects, <http://wise.berkeley.edu/welcome.php>, are designed to support students as they explore current science controversies and design solutions to scientific problems, such as genetically modified foods, earthquake prediction, and the deformed frogs mystery. This Web site includes links to current resources, Java applets for data visualization and modeling, and other features that support student inquiry, including writing reflection notes and participating in online discussions with classmates.
If you are unable to attend our AASL preconference session, "How Can a Teacher Librarian Affect Student Learning?" you may still investigate online resources to help you plan with a teacher in your school or in the global village. Such free technology tools can be an impetus for collaborative inquiry, but the real work involves your knowledge of curriculum design, awareness of what works in professional development, an appreciation of the factors affecting curriculum collaboration and the skills of intercultural competence.7
Join us—in Toronto or in the world.
References and Notes
1. U.S. Census Bureau, ACS: Ranking Table: Speaking a Language Other than English, April 10, 2003, <www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/Ranking/SS01/R03T040.htm>. Accessed 11 May 2003.
2. The "Butterfly Effect" is attributed to Edward Lorenz, who postulated in his speech "Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil Set off a Tornado in Texas?" at the AAAS Convention of the Global Atmospheric Research Program at MIT on Dec. 29, 1972, that a tiny distrubance in the atmosphere—such as the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil—could become amplified into a large change thousands of miles away.
3. By cultural literacy I do not mean E. D. Hirsch Jr.’s belief that there is core knowledge for each grade. Rather I am referring to cross-cultural competence that involves reading body language and behavior and understanding the learned beliefs, values, and norms that affect the actions of groups of people.
4. Jolene Koester and Margaret Olebe, "The Behavioral Assessment Scale for Intercultural Communication Effectiveness," International Journal of Intercultural Relations 12 (1998): 233–46.
5. For example, visit phpBB at <www.phpbb.com>.
6. National Center for Online Learning Research, <www.ncolr.org>. Accessed 4 May 2003.
7. Debbie Abilock, Tools for Collaboration, 1 May 2003, <www.noodletools.com/debbie/consult/collab/cctools.html>. Accessed 4 May 2003.
Debbie Abilock, editor of Knowledge Quest, writes, speaks and consults on curriculum, new literacies and school libraries. She is the co-founder of NoodleTools, Inc.
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