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Full-Text Articles in Education
Social And Cultural Diversity In Distance Education, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena, Deborah Lapointe
Social And Cultural Diversity In Distance Education, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena, Deborah Lapointe
University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications
With the expansion of global telecommunication networks and the worldwide demand for higher education, distance education has the potential to reach out internationally to enhance learning for diverse learners and increase intercultural awareness and communication. By definition, distance education is borderless (Latchem, 2005), although differences in sociocultural contexts, values and expectations of diverse educational systems and learners may prove to be its greatest challenge (Hanna, 2000). While distance education programs proclaim an international focus with international content and learners, instructional design and methods frequently carry Eurocentric Western bias. Distance educators need to be sensitive to social, cultural and educational differences, …
E-Mentoring Strategies For Cross-Cultural Learning And Community Building, Deborah Lapointe, Carol Richmond, Jennifer Linder-Vanberschot, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena, Kerrin Barret, Marlie Saligumba Cardiff, Jason Skinner
E-Mentoring Strategies For Cross-Cultural Learning And Community Building, Deborah Lapointe, Carol Richmond, Jennifer Linder-Vanberschot, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena, Kerrin Barret, Marlie Saligumba Cardiff, Jason Skinner
University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications
This paper builds on mentoring practices by describing the strategies and results of cross-cultural group e-mentoring in an inquiry-based online course activity that supported Sri-Lankan faculty as online learners or protégés and higher-education students in their quest for knowledge and community. It focuses on the online e-mentoring experience of eight e-mentors in the United States (master's and doctoral students at the University of New Mexico) who engaged in a three-week-long, cross-cultural problem-solving learning activity using Moodle.