SLS-7b1 Internationalisation - Virtual Global Classroom with University of Maryland

Our collaboration with the University of Maryland started in 2016.  Specifically, it is the Office of Service-Learning and the Department of Computing from the PolyU, and (mainly) the Leadership Studies Program from the University of Maryland working together.  Students at PolyU enrol in a PolyU credit-bearing service-learning course, while Maryland students enrol in a credit-bearing Global Leadership course.  The two courses are jointly taught by professors from PolyU and University of Maryland (UMD) online. Since 2016, the collaboration has evolved in a number of ways and expanded into collaboration with other universities.  

In 2016, the teachers from PolyU are Dr. Grace Ngai of the Department of Computing and Dr. Stephen Chan of the Office of Service-learning, who were the co-teachers of the SL subject Technology Without Borders.  On the Maryland Side it was Dr. Natasha Chapman and PhD student Anne Spears, co-teachers of their Global Leadership in a Virtual Context course.  It was decided that each side will send a team to work together in Rwanda to set up a community learning centre in May 2016.  We will set up a self-contained computer system with a server and a number of client computers based on a bunch of inexpensive micro-computers, the Raspberry Pi.  We will install a lot of electronic resources on the server, to make a “self-contained Internet-in-a-box” without expensive broadband connections to the actual Internet. The whole thing will be powered by a solar panel electrical system.   We are responsible for the setting up of the system, and Maryland is responsible for developing the training classes for the local youths. 

We started running classes via video-conferencing in March 2016.  In the first class, we taught our own students in Hong Kong and the Maryland students in Maryland (remotely, online) to construct a computer using a Raspberry Pi microcomputer, a small touch screen, a keyboard and a mouse.  Then, in the second class, we introduced to them the solar panel charging system that we designed and installed in 2015.  

In two subsequent classes, the Maryland teachers taught the joint class global leadership topics.  Such as the danger of believing in a stereotypical “Single Story” about a foreign culture, such as “All Africans are black, poor, and poorly educated,” “all Americans are outgoing, talkative, and ignorant about other cultures”.   The students went through readings, lectures, exercises. and class discussions to explore the issues, relevant personal experiences, avoiding falling in the trap of single stories, and learning teamwork and leadership skills to collaborate with people across diverse cultures.   

In summer 2016, both teams set off separately to meet in Rwanda, ready to see each other for the first time, and to work together on the challenging project.