One of the themes of my team’s synthesis is the effect of technology on cross-cultural communication. Our hypothesis is that some of the technologies we have discussed in this class, such as the various social networking tools, can break down the boundaries between cultures and facilitate a mutual exchange of ideas that might not be possible if people of those two cultures had met for the first time face-to-face. Last week Scott challenged us to differentiate between culture and community, which we decided had some elements in common and several unique qualities. In the article I’m reviewing here, which outlines a framework for using technologies to help students learn about different cultures, the authors consider five perspectives on culture: culture as elemental (aspects of culture we’re born into and grow up with); culture as relative (they do this, and we do this); culture as group membership (this touches on its relationship to community); culture as contested (“clash of cultures”, “culture shock” p.109); and culture as individual (variable and multiple)”. These are all summarized on page 112.
The paper outlines a series of studies designed to facilitate communication between students on different continents, and attempts to draw out a pedagogical framework by comparing and contrasting each of these studies. The technologies examined in each study are fairly mundane for this class – email, chat, discussion boards – but they do highlight several qualities of communication, such as synchronous vs. asynchronous, that had a direct effect on how students interacted. In one of the studies, students from Australia and Brazil talked about their cultures via email, which allowed students on each side time to construct their thoughts, and also to consider the cultural norms that governed how their counterparts responded. For instance, it was much more natural for Australians to reveal personal details about themselves (age, gender, family background, etc.) than the Brazilians. You can read the full paper if you want, but essentially it looks at details of how this interaction changed between the aforementioned technologies.
In terms of our group synthesis, I think there’s some important lessons here that transfer to our understanding of community, identity, and design. There’s quite a bit of information about things like resistance caused by cultural differences, the rules governing cultures that need to be respected by those that wish to have access to that culture, the risks to students when they are able to communicate so easily with people very different than them. I think these will factor into how we apply tools like social networking to issues of community and identity.