For Students
2023 COLAB Discussions on CANVAS involve:
- Task One
PART A - week 1: Welcome, introductions (personal/professional and cultural information, and experiences of past/present cross-cultural encounters)
PART B - week 2: Sharing childhood memories
- Task Two
PART C - week 3: Reflecting on how children are viewed in your local place, eg. documenting a "day in the life of an early childhood setting in your context"
PART D - week 4: Researching and presentation of social justice issues in local area
PART E: Final reflection
Over the course of 4 weeks students engage in a Collaborative Online Learning Across Borders (COLAB) with preservice early childhood and elementary teachers and teacher educators across the globe. We hope that students will be actively engaged and aim to understand the complexity of doing collaborative cross and inter-cultural work.
COLAB tasks include:
- Reflections on personal/professional experiences
- 4-week unit with weekly tasks
- Course and online threaded discussions.
- Comprehension of materials
- Thoroughness in completing all tasks
- Respectful, considerate, collaborative and culturally sensitive language and intercultural exchanges
"By engaging with preservice teachers from around the world in this ... discussion I realized how important it would be for me to be open to learning new ideas and ways of doing things and I began to see and try to understand the components involved in increasing my intercultural competence."
-COLAB Student