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This paper describes an exploratory study in which an online learning system was used to provide an intercultural experience for pre-service education students from New Jersey and Namibia. Pre-service education students from New Jersey and Namibia were enrolled in an online course in the fall of 2004. The following semester, spring 2005, only students from New Jersey were enrolled in the course. Online discussion postings were analyzed for both course cohorts and compared. A pre/post questionnaire of students' understanding of cross-cultural differences in general, and in teaching in particular, was also administered to both course cohorts. This paper focuses on the growth of New Jersey students' understanding of what teaching in Namibia is like and also looks to see if this led to a greater understanding of their own practice. While there was an indication that the former was achieved and a number of New Jersey students did show a deeper understanding of teaching in Namibia, this did not appear to then lead to a deeper understanding of their own teaching practice. This was an exploratory pilot study, conducted principally to see if the technology supported this type of experience for students in both developed and developing nations. While this experience will never substitute for a real, in-person, exchange program or study abroad, the technology did support a limited virtual exchange program. The study indicated that an online course is a very feasible option for providing an intercultural experience for students from developed and developing nations. In order to help students reach deeper levels of understanding of both their intercultural peers and of their own practice, students may need to be exposed to a more explicit model of inter- and intra- cultural reflection. This paper gives teacher educators and others a way of providing a virtual intercultural exchange to their students. This is particularly important for students from both developing and developed nations who do not have the financial means to participate in an actual (in-person) exchange program.

Introduction

How do we prepare children for a world which every day grows increasingly "flatter" as new technologies connect people from around the world into virtual networks that define social, political, and economic organizations ([2] Friedman, 2005)? How will they learn to interact productively and positively with peers and colleagues they may never meet in person? How do they form friendships and find shared values and/or interests with people whose cultural, linguistic, and social backgrounds are different from their own? For teacher educators, these questions take on additional importance, as it is our students who, as future teachers, will be responsible for ensuring schools support the development of these important aspects of a flatter world.

At William Paterson University in New Jersey, one approach to helping pre-service teachers gain an understanding of another culture was through the use of online distance learning technologies. As Niki [1] Davis (1999), Merry [4] Merryfield (2000), and others ([6] Schwartz et al. , 2003; [8] Zong, 2002; [5] Schoorman, 2002) point out, the use of such technologies to help promote intercultural understanding can also give future teachers a broader framework from which to examine their own educational ideas and beliefs. The cross-cultural exchanges and collaborative learning afforded by technology can lead to discoveries of similarities and differences as well as a deeper understanding of the role of education in society in general. As Davis highlights, "... teacher educators are able to deploy ICT to provide rich cases and contexts for reflection across pedagogies, disciplines, and cultures" ([1] Davis, 1999, p. 9).

Ubuntu and reflection

Based on the work of Niki Davis, where her research suggests that "a global dimension in teacher education does have the potential to enhance quality" ([1] Davis, 1999, p. 9), our study attempted to gauge the influence of cross-cultural interaction on student teachers' critical reflection. As Davis posits, "(o)pportunities for critical reflection are improved when students and staff are engaged directly in comparison and contrast of approaches and cultures" ([1] Davis, 1999, p. 9).

Reflection can take a variety of forms. At the most basic level, reflection involves knowledge of difference, whether social, political, economic, or cultural. At its most advanced, reflection results in a greater understanding of oneself through a greater understanding of others ([3] Hall, 1998). The more basic level is a step towards the more advanced.

To take another look at the importance of reflection, we can take the African concept of ubuntu. Ubuntu is a variation of a more advanced level of reflection, and is derived from the Zulu umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu , which literally means people are people through other people. The concept is often invoked to show that we are all part of a universal humanity and should thus share universal concern for one another [1] . And thus, we propose, that if we must share universal concern for one another, we should thus develop a greater understanding of one another and, in so doing, greater understanding of ourselves.

Background

William Paterson University (WPUNJ) is a mid-sized, publicly-funded institute of higher education in New Jersey. The College of Education at WPUNJ is responsible for the training and preparation of pre-service teachers for careers in primary and secondary schools. Most of the students in these programs will go on to teach in primary schools in the northern New Jersey region. This region has a very diverse socio-economic status (SES) population, with schools in disadvantaged urban areas with large numbers of minority and recently immigrated English language learners from developing nations in Central and South America, Africa, the Middle East, Far East, and Eastern Europe. For this reason alone, the education students need to be prepared to work with students and families who are coming from cultural, linguistic, and racial backgrounds which may be significantly different from their own. At the same time, a majority of the students do not have the financial means to participate in an actual (in-person) foreign exchange or study abroad program and most are also either working (often fulltime jobs) and/or raising families while taking courses.

It should be noted that while this particular paper reports on the impact of the intercultural experience on New Jersey students, the Namibian students also had a similar intercultural experience. In other words, the Namibian students were not simply used as international models but were equally involved in their own reciprocal intercultural exposure.

Connections between William Paterson University and Namibia were made in 2001, when the second author spent two months teaching ICT concepts in primary and secondary schools in Namibia. In 2003, she returned to Namibia and presented workshops on educational technology to teacher-educators in the Faculty of Education at the University of Namibia. Through these visits and subsequent e-mails, she connected with staff members at the National Institute for Educational Development in Namibia, and it was this group that coordinated the current project.

The National Institute of Educational Development (NIED) is a directorate of the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Namibia. NIED works with the four Colleges of Education (located in Windhoek, Rundu, Ongwediva, and Katima Mulilo) to develop curricula and resources for the Namibian educational system, including the teacher education programs. The Colleges of Education are responsible for training undergraduate, pre-service teachers to teach in primary and junior secondary schools as part of a three-year Basic Education Teaching Diploma (BETD) program. The first author was, at the time, Chief of Party of the USAID-funded dot-EDU "Initiative for Namibian Education Technology" (iNET) project, which was based at NIED.

In 2004, the MOE, with support from iNET, committed to creating networked ICT infrastructure to the Windhoek College of Education and more importantly, to the three Colleges of Education located in the rural, remote parts in the north of the country (Rundu, Ongwediva, and Katima Mulilo). Under Apartheid (before independence from South Africa in 1990) these regions were underserved and marginalized, even though the large majority of Namibians lived there. The Namibian government has been aggressively trying to raise the level of educational expectations for students and teachers in these areas, and many hope that e-learning technologies can help accomplish this ([7] Shalyefu and Nakakuwa, 2005)[2] .

It was at this point, that the two authors began to enquire about the possible role of technology in developing reflective practice through intercultural exchange. We agreed to conduct a small, exploratory study. Our first question was whether we could effectively utilize technology for an online course involving two nations, one developed, and one developing. The second question was, if the technology would support an intercultural exchange, and if so, to what extent would students achieve ubuntu .

In the spring of 2004, the authors decided that the work being done by the MOE and iNET could also support the inclusion of students from the Namibian colleges in an online course taught by the second author at WPUNJ to undergraduate pre-service teachers in the primary (elementary) education program. The course, "Technology Across the Curriculum" (TAC), was not about international education per se, but rather a course which familiarizes students with appropriate uses of technology in primary and secondary schools. The design, development, and delivery were all done directly on the Blackboard course management system over the summer of 2004, with the course materials and assessments being vetted by the NIED team to assure the needs of students from both countries be met. All collaboration between WPUNJ and NIED was done via e-mail.

Methodology

The online course, Technology Across the Curriculum, was offered via WPUNJ's Blackboard system to students at WPUNJ in both the Fall 2004 and Spring 2005 semesters. There were 21 WPUNJ students in the Fall 2004 cohort and 20 in the Spring 2005 cohort. In addition to comparing cross-cultural understanding data between the two cohorts, we also collected pre- and post-survey data at the beginning and end of the course, respectively, as explained below.

The Fall 2004 course also included students from Namibia. Shortly before September 2004 (beginning of the fall semester for WPUNJ students, and the beginning of the third term for Namibia students), the NIED team identified one student from the BETD pre-service program from each College of Education along with one teacher-mentor from those colleges. These eight participants spent a week at the NIED facility in Okahandja, Namibia becoming familiar with the Blackboard system and the course expectations. WPUNJ students were not aware of the Namibian students in the Fall 2004 course when they first registered for it.

Once the course started, WPUNJ students were able to communicate with the Namibian students via online discussion forums and assignment sharing. Each week all students were expected to go through that session's material and respond to a related discussion question. Discussion questions were formulated as open-ended with the hope of soliciting an informed opinion from the students rather than a "right" answer. It was also hoped that these discussion questions would be the basis for the intercultural sharing of ideas between WPUNJ and Namibian students. There were no explicit assignments which required collaboration between any of the students (either WPUNJ-Namibia or WPUNJ-WPUNJ) but all students were very strongly encouraged to reply to others' discussion board postings.

The same course was offered at WPUNJ in the spring of 2005. This cohort included only students from New Jersey. Aside from the participants, the courses utilized the same instructional content and resources. For the purpose of this study, the cohorts are referred to as "Fall 2004" and "Spring 2005", respectively. The cohorts' responses to the cross cultural survey are presented in the next section.

Cross-cultural survey

In addition to the discussion threads for the TAC course, an online cross-cultural survey was developed and each of the WPUNJ students was asked to complete the survey at the beginning and at the end of the course. Completion of the survey was voluntary and it was administered online using the Blackboard survey tool. The survey included fourteen open-ended questions about New Jersey and Namibia. Questions ranged from simple geographical questions to analytical education-related questions about the two countries. For instance, students were asked "Where is New Jersey?" and "Where is Namibia?" as well as "What are some challenges that face teachers in New Jersey?" and "What are some challenges that face teachers in Namibia?"

The survey was intended to measure the New Jersey student teachers understanding of Namibia at the social as well as educational level. By asking a range of questions, students were probed for their ability to answer the questions either on their existing knowledge or their interest in seeking out additional information to answer the questions for which they did not already have information. For example, some students referenced information found online to answer some of the survey questions regarding Namibia.

To measure New Jersey student teachers understanding of Namibian education, the results from three of the questions were utilized for this study. The three open-ended questions dealt specifically with education in Namibia. The questions asked student teachers the following:

What do teachers in Namibia need to know?

What are some challenges that face teachers in Namibia?

What are some rewards for teachers in Namibia?

These three questions were chosen since the responses would provide insight into the New Jersey student teachers' cross-cultural understanding of another educational environment.

Results from survey comparing Fall 2004 and Spring 2005 classes

The survey responses from New Jersey students represent a wide range of responses. The pre- and post-course cross cultural survey responses were compared to determine whether changes emerged in regards to responses concerning the Namibian educational environment. At the beginning of the course, 11 New Jersey student teachers from the Fall 2004 cohort felt that Namibian teachers faced quite different educational concerns than New Jersey teachers. By the end of this course, seven of the New Jersey students felt that Namibian teachers faced very similar educational concerns as New Jersey teachers. For example, below are examples of such changes on the pre/post answers for two students in the Fall 2004 cohort.

Illustrative pre/post answers to the question: What do teachers in Namibia need to know?

Pre: I dont know what the teachers need to know.

Post: Teachers in Namibia need to know about [what] the new technology is and how they can get it.

Illustrative pre/post answers to the question: What are some challenges that face teachers in Namibia?

Pre: No idea... hopefully, they have no challenges!!

Post: Not always having the cooperation that is needed at home for a home/school partnership. This is a crucial part of the learning process, especially [sic] in younger grades, and teachers need help from home.

The results for the Spring 2005 cohort, which did not include any Namibians, are quite different. At the beginning of the Spring 2005 course, seven New Jersey students felt that Namibian teachers faced quite different educational concerns than New Jersey teachers. Not surprisingly, all but one student felt the same way at the end of the course.

More interesting, however, were the changes in answers given by the few students in the Fall 2004 cohort who, in the pre-course survey, "guessed" that their Namibian peers would have the same challenges and rewards as they would. By the end of the semester, in their post-course survey, these students' answers were more explicit, giving more specific examples and thus showing a deeper understanding of what teaching was about. For example, below are examples of such changes on the pre/post answers for three students in the Fall 2004 cohort.

Illustrative pre/post answers to the question: What do teachers in Namibia need to know?

Pre: I assume they must need to know the same things teachers in New Jersey [sic] need to know beside the U.S. history. Although I'm sure they learn some.

Post: Teachers in Namibia also need to be proficient in the subject matter. Most teachers in Namibia have attended college.

Illustrative pre/post answers to the question: What are some challenges that face teachers in Namibia?

Pre: I'm not sure...possibly the same ones that teachers in New Jersey face.

Post: Teachers in Namibia face the same challenges. Some don't have all the resources that they need to teach children. Some schools lack books and technology. And many teachers are also faced with finding different ways to get the material across to the children.

Illustrative pre/post answers to the question: What expectations do you have for teaching in Namibia?

Pre: The same as above. [answer to the preceding question What expectations do you have for teaching in New Jersey ]

Post: I think that teachers in Namibia also expect to reach all their students and have a positive [sic] impact on their lives. At times, the odds may be against them, but a good teacher tries to get through to as many children as she can.

Discussion and conclusions

The Fall 2004 cohort responses did not suggest any great depth of understanding about Namibia but many of the students began to recognize similarities between teachers working in New Jersey and Namibia. A number of New Jersey students showed greater understanding of what it means to be a Namibian teacher and when compared to the Spring 2005 cohort, these students represent an important example about what is possible with this educational format. However, while the New Jersey students' responses are suggestive of a deeper understanding of a culture different from their own, we did not find that this deeper understanding of another culture consistently led to a deeper understanding of what it means to be a teacher in New Jersey.

A deeper understanding of another culture is the first step towards a deeper understanding of oneself, or, in the case of educators, one's own practice. This in itself does not automatically result in greater understanding of one's own practice, or ubuntu , as described above. The New Jersey students' increased understanding of their Namibian counterparts represents greater knowledge and understanding of other cultures, which in turn represents a move towards a more complex reflective practice.

From this exploratory study, we found that technology can lead to a greater understanding of another culture and since technology can assist in achieving this fundamental step towards reflection, we feel that technology can in turn assist in achieving reflective practice. One possibility is to explicitly build in a model of reflection where intercultural exchange is introduced and explain to the student teachers that one of the goals is to increase understanding of others, to identify similarities and differences, and then use this new knowledge and understanding to reflect on and improve one's own teaching practice. Of course, a virtual "exchange program" will never substitute for the real thing, but we hope that technology-facilitated ubuntu will help us improve teacher education around the world.