Maximizing Multicultural Online Learning Experiences with the Social Presence Model, Course Examples, and Specific Strategies

This chapter presents Whiteside’s (2007) Social Presence Model, course examples, and specific strategies and explains how such factors help facilitators maximize interactions in multicultural, online learning environments. The model provides a framework rooted in socio-cultural learning, linguistic nuances, learning communities, prior experiences, and instructor investment. The chapter also illustrates how the Social Presence Model, coupled with examples from a Human Rights Education case study and research-based strategies, can make significant differences in online interactions.

New Era, New Media, and New Strategies for Cross-Cultural Collaborative Learning

The purpose of this chapter is to share a cross-cultural project between Taiwan and the United States for educational practitioners. Taking advantage of Web 2.0 applications as facilitators, the project served as action research to discover better strategies for conducting online cross-cultural collaboration. Specifically, the authors describe the evolution of the instructional design of the project and the difficulties encountered during the cross-cultural collaboration.

Using the Cultural Challenges of Virtual Team Projects to Prepare Students for Global Citizenship

Global citizens are those individuals who understand the complex and interdependent nature of the world and who take action to address global issues at a local level. Many faculty members recognize the need to prepare students for the demands of global work and citizenship. In this chapter, the author demonstrates how virtual team projects are an ideal means to help students develop global competency and offers suggestions for faculty seeking to structure projects geared to civic engagement.

The Emerging Hispanic Use of Online Health Information in the United States

As health-information websites become more popular, healthcare corporations have worked quickly to create Spanish-language sites to reach the Spanish-speaking population. However, changes have to be made in order to effectively adapt to the Spanish-speaking audience. In order to be successful, site designers must create a sense of community by having interactive elements and by advertising these sites through radio or television with well-known celebrities or known figures in the healthcare realm. Further, care must be taken to ensure that the information in these sites is culturally appropriate for this audience. The successful health information website can be a strong tool for educating both Spanish and English speakers alike about preventative care, as well as treatment options, which in turn can improve health outcomes.

Linguistic Minorities on the Internet

This chapter presents the results of an empirical study (done using online ethnography and discourse analysis) of how the Kurds use the Internet. In examining this situation, the author provides suggestions related to the fact that, as much as we need to be concerned with the dominance of a few major languages on the Internet, we also need to map the online presence of linguistic minorities. Such mapping is essential in order to understand the paradoxical nature of a medium that simultaneously homogenizes and fragments linguistic communities and identities.

Discursive Manipulation Strategies in Virtual Scams in Global Contexts

This chapter examines how online fraudsters explore the experiential, interpersonal, and textual language metafunctions in the crafting of their emails for global audiences. A critical study of international virtual scam emails over a period of time shows that these scammers tend to improve on how they construct their messages as they rely on experiential knowledge of what they believe will appeal to their audience. Recent scam emails use fewer pressure tactics, and writers present their identity as that of a non-confident, naïve, vulnerable, and ignorant persons, thereby increasing the discursive power of their addressees in the interaction. Scammers also use different forms of politeness strategies to bait their victims.

Culture, Online Technology and Computer-Mediated Technical Documentation

The global diffusion of technology is increasingly accompanied by both computer-mediated and online communication. Several empirical examples for the influence of culture on the usage of online technology and computer-mediated technical documentation are illustrated with relevant theories from the field of intercultural communication (e.g., Edward T. Hall’s model of low-/high-context in particular). Recent developments and national differences in the global diffusion of mobile phones and the Internet are discussed as examples for culture-specific online communication preferences. Similar cultural influences on computer-mediated technical documentation and operational instructions are demonstrated by online manuals from Southeast Asia and by an aviation control system. Beyond the understanding of cultural communication preferences, consequences for construction and design of such technologies are also discussed.

Filtering Online Content in China

This chapter focuses on the Internet filtering mechanism the Chinese government adopted in order to prevent individual users from accessing foreign online content. Based on the case of Internet filtering in China, the author argues that when citizens are regulated by code rather than by the law, they will experience and perceive such code-based controls as natural. From the Chinese case, it should also be noted that the Internet’s effects on politics varies depending upon how its architecture is designed.

Social Information Processing Theory (SIPT)

The Social Information Processing Theory (SIPT) proposes that given time and opportunity to interact, relationships between individuals can form in online environments. Although not an overt assumption of the SIPT, it is essential to understand how cultural factors are important components of any CMC interaction. The power of the SIPT lies within its ability to foster communication between individuals through communicative behavior that is valued by the other’s culture. Therefore, Social Information Processing has the potential to aid the development of trust between virtual team members, establishing group cohesion, and accentuating cross-communication within international work groups.

Language Abilities and Culture Clashes in Cyberspace

An increasing number of ESL/EFL students are expected to enroll in hybrid (i.e., mixed on-site and online) mainstream courses populated by a majority of native-English-speaking students. However, due to varying language abilities and cultural clashes, the TESOL community has not yet explored the potential online communication problems for ESL/EFL students. This chapter examines issues of differences in language proficiency and cultural norms, identity, community, and muting that can affect computer-based education. The chapter also provides readers with teaching strategies that can be applied in hybrid mainstream courses that include ESL/EFL students.