News

Greenlee students take part in international collaboration

By Etse Sikanku

Greenlee School students experienced the evolving sense of a “global village” in an academic but fun-filled session where theory met practice. Dr. Daniela Dimitrova's introduction of a novel international collaboration in her JLMC 476/576 World Communication Systems class has enabled students to break national boundaries while learning and sharing about issues in globalization, internet, intercultural cooperation and cultural identity.

By using the chat room applications from Iowa State's WebCT, students in the class had live online chats with their counterparts from Sofia University in Bulgaria on March 31 and April 1, 2008. The two-day session was put together by Greenlee School’s Daniela Dimitrova and Dr. Minka Zlateva from the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication at Sofia University. The collaboration was made possible after initial Memorandum of Cooperation between the two institutions was signed in Sofia in October 2006.

While the internet has helped promote engagement and forged the sense of a global community, it has been no less influential in creating a sense of Westernization around the world. Liliya Buyukliyska, a student from Bulgaria said: “We know the American culture and way of life because of the television,” thus giving credence to the global impact of media products. Students from both countries agreed that whiles globalization can promote an understanding of different culture, some societies-through the influential power of the media- risk the erosion of their cultural identity.

All in all, if the internet is romantic, it was seduced by a willing group of enthusiastic students and their professors determined to unravel the enigma of globalization in light of its potentials and challenges.

2008-04-03