Abstract

Increasingly, school teachers are expected to be able to teach about and across cultures, as well as teach in digitally enriched classrooms. Teacher educators are expected to prepare their teaching students for such challenges. One university designed the eTutor online environment to enhance and support the development of pre-service teachers' (PSTs) intercultural capability, as well as enhance their capability to use digital technologies in their own teaching practices. Over 450 PSTs and school students from eight schools across four countries interacted with each other online for a 14-week period. Participants posted blogs, comments, wall posts and shared images and videos centred on cultural exchange. Despite the challenges of access to technology and conflicting calendars, eTutor was seen by participating schools as a potentially useful way to engage their students in intercultural learning. The experience of interacting with children from multiple cultures in an online environment contributed positively to a shift, for the majority of PSTs, from an ethnocentric to a more ethnorelative worldview. However, PSTs found establishing relationships with students in the online environment challenging.

Citation

Carr, N. (2016). Pre-Service Teachers Teaching about and across Cultures Using Digital Environments: The Case of eTutor. Educational Media International, 53(2), 103-117. Retrieved March 23, 2023 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/176065/.

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Keywords

• Access to Computers
• Attitude Change
• computer mediated communication
• Cross Cultural Studies
• cultural awareness
• Electronic Publishing
• Foreign Countries
• Intercultural Communication
• International Educational Exchange
• online courses
• preservice teachers
• Required Courses
• Scheduling
• Teacher Education Programs
• Teacher Student Relationship
• teaching methods
• Technological Literacy
• technology integration
• Video Technology