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Calendar for tulanepadova: Fall 2006
Week 1: Introduction to the project
- 16/10/06
- Introduction to the wiki and the exchange. Fill out initial questionnaire (Word Associations). For your introductions you will prepare an audio file, choose an image (yourself or a representative picture) and maybe a brief text with hyperlinks to your favourite websites or websites you visit often.
Homework: Make your introduction on our Who's part of the tulanepadova wiki and play around in your sandbox!
Week 2: What is culture?
- 23/10/06
- Introduction to notion of culture in class. Together in class students discuss and analyze the responses to the questionnaire. Start formulating questions you would like to ask your counterparts for clarification/debate on the responses. You have a week to “(a) share (your)observations and hypotheses; (b) send queries for more details, clarification, and more in-depth understanding of the differences (you) observed; and (c) respond to whatever question was posed to (you)"(Furstenberg & Levet, Language Learning & Technology, Vol. 5, No. 1, January 2001, pp. 55-102).
Homework: Start exchanging information, ideas, opinions, questions, etc. on your partner pages (see bottom of Partner Classes page). Feel free to go see what other partners are doing and saying. Start creating new pages and editing wiki page(s) that already exist (e.g. Culture or All about wiki).
Week 3: Choosing your topic(s)
- 30/10/06 (only online)
Homework: Create wiki pages on the topics you would like to develop as an encyclopedia entry in our intercultural wiki. Topics that regard American culture (e.g. Halloween) should be in English, topics that regard Italian culture in Italian (e.g. Dante), pages that compare the two cultures (e.g. partying in respective countries) can be in both langauges or 1 chosen by the students contributing to the page (you can use the "comment" space to discuss this). Read what other pages that have been created and add/edit/comment.
I've added a resource to the Culture page that I think you might find VERY interesting and a comment (please read it!).
Obviously, keep on writing with your peers :-) Tip: Since Tuesday is Halloween and you might not really know that much about it, why not ask your peers about what they do and what it means for them?
Keep up the good work!
| Group Name | Topics |
Week 4: Working on our wiki
- 6/11/06
- In class students discuss how the first week of communication went, what kinds of reactions students had to their comments, what they commented on, etc. Students choose a topic of interest to them and start searching the web for sites/info to back up what they are discussing; place these hyperlinks on the web for their counterparts to access as resources.
Homework: If you've already created a page, revise it based on the wiki rules we discussed in class (see All about wiki). If you haven't created one, please do so. Complete this part by Thursday 9 November. Add to, edit, modify, etc. at least two other wiki pages. Complete this part by our next lesson, 13 November. If you've got time work on answering the faqs on All about wiki and you could fix up the Culture page. Asynchronous discussion continues.
Remember, there are 3 possible sources of information for your wiki pages:
1 - your own knowledge and experience;
2 - online sources (always at least 2) to be included in a references section at the bottom;
3 - your American partners - you can always write and ask them for information, that's what a real primary source is!
Week 5: Fixing up our wiki
- 13/11/06
- In class we discuss any problems, difficulties, complaints, questions, etc. Then we analyze the structure of a typical page in wikipedia (see our All about wiki page) and discuss similarities/differences with our wiki. Then we explore the potential of [www.flickr.com|Flickr] as a source for putting images on our wiki. (You have to do a right click on an image, click on "copia indirizzo immagine", then put this indirizzo between square brackets on the edit wiki page. Remember to always cite your sources!)
- Start planning Skype interviews. Find out when students think they could access a computer. Students write their availability on a wiki page. Students sign up for a time when they could Skype.
1 - Clean up your wiki pages (e.g. put in tables, summarize passages that have been copied from other sources, divide into sections, etc.)
2 - Take a look at the resources in College Drinking, listen, read, ask your partners for info, and then, if you want, start developing the page.
3 - On Friday, I will indicate the mistakes on your wiki pages in English. So, during the weekend and on Monday morning, check the wiki pages and see if you can correct some of the mistakes.
4 - Remember, keep an eye on the forum. Check it every few days or so and please contribute.
5 - go to the Skype page and write your availability. Ask your partner in your partner pages when he/she thinks they may be available to Skype.
Week 6: Correcting our pages and odeo
- 20/11/06
- Focus on form. Together students take a look at mistakes made in the wiki pages and how to correct them.
- Set up Skype names for those who don't have one.
- Set up Odeo accounts for those who don't have one and start recording.
Homework
- You've all created pages that were of interest to you or that you thought might be of interest to your American partners. Now I would like you to consider if and how your opinions/impressions of some aspect of the American culture have changed. At the end of the course you will have to write a paper comparing an aspect of Italian-American culture so start considering which aspect interests you most. Start developing (in your sandbox) a list of questions you might want to ask your partner about during the Skype exchange (if it works!) and start gathering online resources (record the urls) to find information about the topic that interests you (descriptions, statistics, newspaper articles, wikipedia articles, etc.)
- Keep on planning your Skype interviews. Find out when you think you could access a computer. Write your availability on a wiki page. Prepare questions for your Skype interview.
- Keep on editing the wiki (I will keep on adding corrections) - not only your page but other pages too! Remember 25% of your final grade is a collective grade of the wiki as a whole - it's a class project/grade, not an individual one.
Week 7: Collaborative writing
- 27/11/06
- Continue working on focus on form in class. Discuss Skype interviews if any have taken place.
- Disuss cultural differences that interest students and possible topics for final papers.
Week 8: Skype debriefing and intercultural competence
- 4/12/06
- Debriefing of Skype interviews. Students add last touches to their essay pages. Students make audio recording in L2 of impressions of experience.
- Declare student topics for final essays.
| Name | Topic |
| Alessandra Peron | College drinking |
| Alessandra Teso | Christmas: religious celebrations and alternative holidays to Christmas |
| Alexandra | Fast Food: comparing Italy and the U.S.A. |
| Alida | How do you perceive the Other? Italian vs American stereotypes |
| Daniela | Education: homeschooling |
| Daniele | Italian and American political parties |
| Elena Birolo | Admission to university |
| Erica Bergamin | Euthanasia |
| Erica Buzzacarin | Christmas dinner |
| Francesca | Eating Habits |
| Ilaria | Christmas |
| Martina | College drinking |
| Tania | Civil Unions |
| Valentina | Funeral |
| Viola | School system;università vs college |
- The audio aspect of our wiki. Students listen to the four pages that already have audio and discuss the quality. (IL CARNEVALE DI VENEZIA, LA FESTA DI SAN MARTINO A VENEZIA, Danza, Musica, Machiavelli). Students choose a page they have never edited, or not edited very much, take notes on the contents and record an introductory summary of the page in English.
| Page Name | Student name for audio summary |
| Christmas | Erica Buzzacarin |
| Halloween: history, traditions and customs (in the USA and in Italy) | Viola |
| via Anelli | Valentina |
| Mantegna | Francesca |
| The beat generation | Alessandra Peron |
| New Orleans | Alessandra Teso |
| Fast food | Elena Birolo |
| Travelling | Daniela |
| PADOVA | Alida |
| College Drinking | Daniele |
| Inquinamento globale | Erica Bergamin |
| Latin dances | Martina |
| World Trade Center- the movie | Ilaria, Alexandra |
| Culture | Tania |
Homework
This week's homework is two-fold.
1 - Read the following resources and reflect on the concept of Intercultural Competence. At the end of the third resource you will find a questionnaire for self-evaluation of intercultural competence. Please complete it, take notes and join the forum discussion on intercultural competence. Padova wiki-forum
| Center of Intercultural Competence |
| Intercultural Competence according to wikipedia |
| Developing Intercultural Competence |
2 - The Culture page remains at it's initial state, i.e. many personal contributions from all of you. Please start editing this page as we have done with the others, i.e. structure + content. This is a very important page in our wiki as the aim of this course is cross-cultural exchange. You are welcome to add sections on intercultural competence, American culture, Italian culture, etc. Each person is expected to make at least one significant edit to the page.
Week 9: Discussion of Intercultural Competence and the Tulane Padova Xchange
- 11/12/06
- Discuss any Skype interviews that have taken place.
- Discuss impressions / reactions to intercultural competence.
- Take a look at resources for improving your writing in an academic context and, in particular, for referencing electronic resources.
Homework
Prepare the first draft of your final essay, create a wiki page and put the first draft in the wiki page.
Writing Resources
| Building Sentences - a website made by me for PhD students in Engineering |
| APA Writing Guidelines - from the OWL website at Purdue University |
Week 10: Peer review of final essays
- 18/12/06
Homework
1. Prepare the final draft of your essay. It should be sent to me as a .doc by January 17th.
2. Final wiki edit. During the week (hopefully by Wednesday afternoon), I will give feedback to all of the wiki pages found on the FrontPage. Please choose a wiki page you wish to edit, one which you did not personally create or work on to a large extent. Since some of the pages are longer than others, e.g. Culture, two people can perform the final edit for those pages. Please place your names in the table below.
The idea of the final edit is to create a coherent page in contents, structure and form. At this point do not worry about making changes that you feel are necessary without consulting the original author. If necessary make the change and add a comment, or write to the forum if there is a significant problem.
Remember, part of your final grade is a collective grade on the entire wiki!
Final Edit
| Page Name | Student name(s) for final edit |
| Christmas | Viola |
| Halloween: history, traditions and customs (in the USA and in Italy) | Francesca |
| via Anelli | Tania Callari |
| Mantegna | Elena Birolo |
| The beat generation | Ilaria |
| New Orleans | Erica Buzzacarin |
| Fast food | Alessandra Peron |
| Travelling | Alexandra |
| PADOVA | Valentina Callegaro |
| College Drinking | Daniele |
| Inquinamento globale | Erica Bergamin |
| Latin dances | Alida Rozzarin |
| World Trade Center- the movie | Alessandra Teso |
| Culture | |
| LA FESTA DI SAN MARTINO A VENEZIA | Martina |
| IL CARNEVALE DI VENEZIA | |
| Machiavelli | |
| Danza, Musica | Daniela Pesce |
The deadline for the final wiki edit is the same as the paper, i.e. January 17th.
Please send me an email with the subject "Feedback please" during the second half of January and I will send you your grade for the course and detailed feedback.
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