Project RITE

This week, we open our group webcam sessions. To model what we want students to do, albeit on a larger scale, over the course of the semester, we lead them through smaller, closed tasks on a particular topic to force them to reflect on the cultural underpinnings of certain events. This time, we chose the NCAA ban on the confederate flag and coupled it with the recent declarations of a French politician that there were too many Black players on the French national soccer team. Not en easy topic. The webcam technology worked wonderfully well. The only problems we had were due to dying headsets (the splitters are here but we will not be receiving the new ones until the end of the week). Apparently, Camtasia is not working homogeneously well across groups. We will have to monitor this more closely.

We had our firs class videoconference this week. Phenomenal success! The technology was flawless (except when I had to zoom on particular students and occasionally lost them off screen ☺) with great sound and clear video. All students had to introduce themselves to the other class, say who they were, what they study, where they are from and why that matters, and explain briefly what they expected from the class. This led to interesting explanations of a wide variety of things ranging from the place of sports and religion on the UT campus to drinking in France and the US, and even an impromptu rendition of “Rocky Top” in front of twenty French students who went from confused to a standing ovation. Any group that can spontaneously sing in class in front of people they have never met deserves and enjoys my utmost consideration. It will decidedly be a good semester.

Good group of students. Most likely more diverse than it looks. It is promising, especially when the subject matter is culture. Headsets with splitters have been ordered and should arrive any day now. Next week is our first meeting with the ENSEIRB students. My colleague in France, Sue Médina, says everybody is excited.

The project started as early as last summer when I arrived at UT. This idea of telecollaboration is something that really interests me and I am anxious to be able to delve deeper into the core of the matter, namely what will happen in those conversations between the French students at ENSEIRB and my students here at UT. We have tested the equipment (videoconferncing, webcam, recording software, and things seem to be functioning well. We will have to purchase new headsets are the ones that are available are on their last leg.

In this telecollaborative project between the University of Tennessee and the ENSEIRB (École Normale Supérieure d’Électronique, Informatique et Radiocommunications de Bordeaux, a prestigious engineering school in France), learners will use Internet 2 technology to engage in weekly conversations with their partners (via webcam and videoconferencing) in groups of four (two American learners and two French learners). Each groups’ semester goal is to choose a cultural event and explore it through various sources (media, films, surveys, questionnaires, websites, a class blog, etc.) to identify differences and similarities in French and American cultures. The point of emphasis will not only be cultural products (books, tools, foods, laws, music, games, educational or political system, etc.) and cultural practices (habits of daily living, patterns of social interactions), but also, and more importantly, cultural perspectives. Cultural perspectives are defined by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages as the meanings, attitudes, values, ideas that members of a culture hold about their own culture. At the end of the semester, all groups will present the results of their investigation to both classes in the form of a website in which they will show the nuances of the topic they chose.

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