CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

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CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN THE 21ST
CENTURY

• PEDAGOGICAL ISSUES
• IN DISTANCE EDUCATION
• INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN DELIVERY

M. Haire, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Political
Science Director, TGOW Institute for Strategic
Learning, Research Development Itta Bena,
MS Friday, January 11, 2008 Delaware Community
College
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CULTURAL DIVERSITY PEDAGOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

• Our Goal To examines pedagogical adjustments
  faculty must consider in designing managing
  on-line courses that address the hard realities
  of cultural diversity in the 21st Century.
• Such adjustments must not only account for course
  content themes, such as the infusion of reliable
  data that address the dynamic interplay of race,
  ethnicity, class, and gender relations in America
  and globally.
• Concerns must also center on such critical
  matters as
• Faculty professional development issues
• Global disparity in technological access
• Variances in computer-related skill levels
• Culturally-based learning styles and
• Creative alternative pedagogy that value
  cultural diversity among
  distance learners.

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CULTURAL DIVERSITY PEDAGOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

• Valuing Diversity in the Shift from the
  Traditional Classroom to Distance Ed

• Distance Learning Activities
• Internet Access 24/7
• E-Mail Video Conferencing
• Required Text, CD-ROMs,
• Assignment/Assessment Rooms w/ Supporting
  e-Tutorials
• Bulletin Boards Chat Rooms
• HTML PDF Files
• Electronic Document Reader
• On-line Syllabus Interactive
• Website(s) Faculty/Course
• On-line Texts Materials
• Lecture Hall

• Traditional Classroom Activities
• Required Physical Class Room
• Meeting Space Time
• Required Text(s) Materials
• Formal Lectures Moderated Group
  Discussions
• Assessment Methods
• Quizzes/Tests
• Homework Assignments
• Research Papers
• Projects/Demonstrations
• Assessment Measures
• Oral Written Feedback/Grades
• Office Hours/Advisement

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CULTURAL DIVERSITY PEDAGOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

• Lingering Realities of the Digital Divide

• Typical Distance Learner
• The Non-traditional Adult Learner A Profile
• Average Age 25-35 yrs. old
• Gender 60 Female
• Ethnicity Inconclusive!
• Disability 3 10
• Location 67 live w/in 50 miles of campus
• Life Roles 57 F/T employed 58 75 married
• Socio-economic Increasing enrollment of
  disadvantaged students i.e., Black Hispanic

• Equitable Access A Myth
• Hardware Price Wars
• Toshiba, Dell, Gateway Apple, Sony, HP
• Software
• MS Office 2007 Vista v. Corel Mozilla
• ISP Access
• High-speed, Wireless or Dial-up
• DirectTV ATT Comcast EarthLink HughesNet
• Designware
• WebCT Blackboard.com, Moodle
• Communication/Networks
• Yahoo! MSN Google

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CULTURAL DIVERSITY PEDAGOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Enter Net Generation X

• Noted Personal Traits
• Matured with digital entertainment age
• Access to digital resources outside of schools
• Accepts diversity
• Assertive and self-reliant
• Strongly independent
• Emotionally/intellectually open
• Inclusive
• Freely expressive
• Tendency toward innovation
• Investigative

• Noted Areas of Expertise
• Pac Man
• Sega Game Boy
• Play Station I II
• X-Box 360
• Cell phone Text-messaging
• Web Surfacing
• MySpace.com
• MyFaceBook.com
• Hip Hop/Rap
• Hard Rock
• Acid Jazz
• BET
• VH I

Can teachers compete on-line for their attention
v. mass media world?
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CULTURAL DIVERSITY PEDAGOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY
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CULTURAL DIVERSITY PEDAGOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY
The Diversity of Culturally-based Learning Styles
Intelligences in On-line Classrooms

• Dunn Dunn
• Learning Styles Model
• Environmental
• Emotional
• Sociological
• Physiological
• Psychological

• Gardner, Cook Mills
• Learning Intelligence
• Linguistic
• Logical-Mathematical
• Spatial
• Musical
• Bodily-Kinesthetic
• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal

What affect do teacher styles ideology have on
student learning?
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CULTURAL DIVERSITY PEDAGOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

• Teacher Attitudes Instructional Techniques
• Beyond the Euro-centric Canons Bias

• Teachers Attitudes Toward Students
• Deficiency Orientation
• Prime Assumption - There is a single standard of
  knowledge, a single way of knowing.
• Focus Students deficiencies
• Result Lowered expectations
• Difference Orientation
• Prime Assumption Student differences
  potential strengths.
• Focus Self-examination of teaching style
• Result Adjusts to builds on uniqueness of
  students

• Desired Privileged Cultural Styles Among
  Students
• Communication Style
• Direct expression Serial Exchange Assertive
  Competitive
• Organizational Style
• Individual Achievement Self-motivation Personal
  competence
• Intellectual Style
• Objective Analytical Detail-oriented Cognitive
  v. Affective Trust in written word forms

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CULTURAL DIVERSITY PEDAGOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Valuing Cultural Diversity in the Shift from the
Traditional Classroom to Distance Education

• Professional Development Issues
• Faculty Matters
• Course design development release time
• Stipends other incentives
• Course load reduction v. increase
• Dual-load publishing or perish
• Administrative Systems
• Marketing recruitment
• Admissions/Orientation
• Enrollment management
• Course faculty evaluation
• Student support services

• Academic Capitalism Distance Education
• Final Note The Profit Motive
• Competition w/ Pressure from Corporations
• To offer education/training at advanced levels
• Investing Millions in course design
  penetrating college markets replacing faculty
  in the design phase
• To capturing the digitizing dimension e-text
  development
• Leading in audio/visual course enhancements that
  mirror mass culture.

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CULTURAL DIVERSITY PEDAGOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

• Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community?
• A Few Recommendations, Part I
• Costners Seven Principles for Training
  Culturally Responsive Teachers
• Principle 1 Structure Professional Development
  Activities That Focus on Cultural Responsiveness
• Principle 2 Ensure That All Teachers Respect the
  Culture of Their Students
• Principle 3 Value and Celebrate CulturePromote
  Cultural Sensitivity
• Principle 4 Embrace an Empowerment Culture
• Principle 5 Communicate to the Schools
  Commitment to Cultural Responsiveness
• Principle 6 Take Away Barriers that Impede
  Progress
• Principle 7 Help Teachers Use Effective
  Pedagogical Methods for Teaching (Culturally
  Diverse Students)
• Adapted by Costner from her 2004 co-authored
  "Seven Principles for Developing a Culturally
  Responsive Faculty."

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CULTURAL DIVERSITY PEDAGOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

• Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community?
• A Few Recommendations, Part II
• Costners Five Principles for Culturally
  Responsive On-line Instruction
• Principle 1 Online communication is a culture in
  itself, so watching your written tone is key.
• Principle 2 Do as you would in the classroom
  when you are face to faceshow value and respect.
  Always remember, there is a human being on the
  other end although you cannot physically see the
  person. Promote mutual respect
• Principle 3 Avoid making assumptions based on
  names. We do not, intentionally or
  unintentionally, want to offend our (students).
• Principle 4 No one can tell you more about a
  person than that person! I promote going to the
  source because there may be some aspect(s) of a
  culture that the individual may not identify
  with.
• Principle 5 Always remain open and committed to
  learning new things. Ensure you honestly assess
  your own beliefs about diverse populations.

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CULTURAL DIVERSITY PEDAGOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

• Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community?
• A Few Recommendations, Part III
• On-Line Instructional Techniques for Educators
• Faculty administration professional development
  and training
• Promoting Curriculum Design Best Practices
• Mechanisms that do more than identify the areas
  in which the potential learner needs to improve
  or change.
• Course and interface designs that addresses
  individual learner characteristics to provide a
  more learner-centered experience
• A distance-learning course should provide
  connections among the learners prior experiences
  that relate to course content.
• Viable Release-time and Course Load Reduction
  Formula
• Nurturing International University Partnerships
• Distributive learning collaborative projects by
  discipline
• Program Evaluation Continuous Improvement
• Commitment to On-going self-study of academic
  student support systems w/ annual external
  evaluations

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CULTURAL DIVERSITY PEDAGOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

• A Few Suggested Readings
• James A. Banks, Cultural Diversity Education
  Foundations, Curriculum Teaching, 4th Ed.,
  Boston Allyn and Bacon, 2001.
• Alan Brinkley, et. al., The Chicago Handbook for
  Teachers A Practical Guide to the College
  Classroom. Chicago Univ. of Chicago Press,
  1999.
• David W. Brooks, et. al., Web-Teaching A Guide
  for Designing Interactive Teaching for the World
  Wide Web. NY Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers,
  2001.
• Robert A. Cole, Issues in Web-Based Pedagogy A
  Critical Primer. NY Greenwood Publishing Group,
  2001.
• Paulo Freire, Teachers as Cultural Workers
  Letters to Those Who Dare to Teach. Boulder, CO
  Westview Press, 1998.
• bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress Education as
  the Practice of Freedom. NY Routledge, 1994.
• Jana Noel, Developing Multicultural Educators.
  Long Grove, IL Waveland Press, Inc. 2000.
• Peter Sacks, Generation X Goes to College.
  Chicago Open Court, 1996.
• Betty Collis. Flexible Learning in a Digital
  World Experiences and Expectations . NY
  Routledge Falmer, 2001.
• Wim Jochems, Ed., Integrated E-Learning
  Implications for Pedagogy, Technology and
  Organization. NY Routledge Falmer, 2003.

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CULTURAL DIVERSITY PEDAGOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

• A Few Suggested Web Links
• Gary Rhoades Sheila Slaughter, Academic
  Capitalism in the New Economy Challenges and
  Choices, http//www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american
  _academic/issues/june04/Rhoades.qxp.pdf
• Julia D. Harbeck, Community College Students
  Taking On-Line Courses The Student
  Point-of-View, http//scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/a
  vailable/etd-02052001-164701/unrestricted/finaletd
  .pdf
• Melody Thompson, Distance Learners in Higher
  Education, http//www1.worldbank.org/disted/Teach
  ing/Design/kn-02.html
• K. A. Murrell, Human Computer Interface Design
  In a Multi-cultural Multi-lingual Environment,
  http//www.und.ac.za/users/murrell/classrm/paper1.
  html
• Patricia McGee, Web-based Learning Design
  Planning for Diversity, http//www.usdla.org/html
  /journal/MAR02_Issue/article03.html,
• Annette Valenta, et. al., Identifying Student
  Attitudes and Learning Styles in Distance
  Education, http//www.sloan-c.org/publications/ja
  ln/v5n2/pdf/v5n2_valenta.pdf
• Steven R. Van Hook, Universal Learning at a
  Distance Can We Plug It In?,
  http//www.westga.edu/distance/ojdla/summer82/van
  hook82.htm
• Kelley L. Costner, Seven Principles for Training
  Culturally Responsive Teachers -
  http//www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2007/12
  /04/07principles_web.html?print1
• Ray Barnhardt, Teaching/Learning Across
  Cultures Strategies for Success,
  http//www.ankn.uaf.edu/Curriculum/Articles/RayBar
  nhardt/TLAC.html
• Mary Rose Grant Heather R. Thornton, Best
  Practices in Undergraduate Adult-Centered Online
  Learning Mechanisms for Course Design and
  Delivery, http//jolt.merlot.org/vol3no4/grant.ht
  m
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