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Class Links With Vietnam Students

The potential for learning in a virtual classroom setting took a giant step forward in a fall semester course at Eastern Mennonite University.

Some 20 students in "Culture and History of Vietnam," led by EMU professor Daniel W. Wessner, used computer-based course work to interact with and learn from students at two universities in Vietnam. He terms the approach "IC3" - Inter-Cultural Communicative Competence.

Dr. Wessner, associate professor of international and political studies in the history department, arranged for EMU students to converse by computer with Vietnamese students on a regular basis at An Giang University and Can Tho University, both in the Mekong Delta.

Wessner drew from his earlier experience as a MacArthur Foundation Fellow in Vietnam and his connections with Mennonite Central Committee personnel serving at An Giang University. This collaborative learning was augmented by Mr. Tran Quoc Thang and Ms. Nguyen Hoang Bich Ngoc, two Vietnamese students in EMU's master of arts in education program.

The first day of class, each Vietnamese and American student, none of whom was born during the Vietnam-U.S. War, was asked to write a paragraph of "first impressions" of the other’s country. Students at both ends of this dialogue imagined the reality of a distant and former "enemy" nation. Most confessed that what little they knew of the other had grown out of media presentations and was overshadowed by the past war.

Students on all three campuses used the "Blackboard" system, an on-line communications module, to post and respond to five sustainable development questions that are shared by superpower and developing countries, alike: cultural identity, war and reconciliation, poverty reduction and economics development, art and culture, and gender equity.

Using neither a chat room nor instant messaging approach, students were allowed to post short essays only after a rigorous reading schedule, in-class discussions, and draft work. "Students at each end were encouraged to post only their ‘best answers’ for their overseas coursemates' consideration," Wessner explained.

Cross-cultural Immersion

"You can only go so far with books and even off-campus study abroad programs," Wessner said. "This IC3 approach, I believe, provides an affordable and deep cross-cultural immersion. It's a start in reshaping how we view the dialogue possible in many of our classrooms, let alone how we consider our voice in the larger world."

Semester-end comments from class members seem to support Wessner's claim.

"I've discovered that what I read and believed about the Vietnam War severely limited my knowledge of the actual history of that country," said Philip D. Minnich, a sophomore undeclared major from Boston, Mass.

"Through this different format, with dialogue to promote better understanding being a priority, I've become more aware of my own beliefs and assumptions as I interacted with students in Vietnam about their culture and history," Minnich said. "I desire more deep conversations like these that critique underlying assumptions and outward expressions of how I and others view and relate to the world."

Michael L. Kniss, a junior history major from Chicago, Ill., valued those conversations that revealed differences in historical and cultural realities between the U.S. and Vietnam.

"Through reading thoughts posted by the Vietnamese students, I realized that Ho Chi Minh's legacy is similar to that of George Washington," Kniss said. "Both figures were foundational in the development of their respective nations, carry on legacies of perfection and survive as worshiped ancestors in the heads and minds of their nation's citizens.

How to Better Shape the Future

"While the Vietnamese students looked to the future for new promises of hope, we American students tended to focus on the past to learn how to better shape the future," Kniss noted. "The contrast was striking, and I never would have had the opportunity to struggle with the practical application of each world view without the intercultural communication with the Vietnamese students."

Also during the semester, students at all three universities viewed the same foreign films every other week at approximately the same time. After each screening, they discussed through an on-line forum the inter-cultural themes.

EMU hosted Vo Tong Xuan, president of An Giang University, on Dec. 6. He met with the academic deans, information systems personnel, faculty members in the Conflict Transformation Program, international agriculture and environmental science professors, education department, Intensive English Program (IEP) faculty, and President Loren E. Swartzendruber.

In March, 2005, Dr. Swartzendruber will pay a reciprocal visit to An Giang University to discern the extent to which IC3 serves the educational needs of students at EMU as well as in the Greater Mekong region.

"This class definitely was an experiment that wouldn't have happened without some incredible assistance from Jack Rutt and Mark Zollinhoffer of the Information Systems department," Wessner said. "They provided the instructional technology programs that made this interaction possible."

But the "experiment" won't end with the close of fall semester.

Wessner will lead a second (spring) semester class, "History of Middle/Near East: Iran," which will use the same I3C learning model. This time, his students will first discuss questions that are also broached in two other EMU courses - "Strategic Non-Violence" in the Conflict Transformation Program and "Politics: Conceptions of Common Good" in the Bible and Religion department.

A New Partner

This group of EMU students will post their essays to students at An Giang University and a new partner institution, The Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute in Qom, Iran. This triangular arrangement of EMU students conversing with Iranian and Vietnamese coursemates is expected to stretch their inter-cultural learning across strained political boundaries.

In addition to on-line discussions, students from all three universities will watch and respond to a series of 10 "Sunday Flicks," foreign and American films viewed simultaneously at EMU and in Iran and Vietnam. The EMU Union of Student Organizations has already sent DVD copies of the films to their overseas partners.

The fall course also lays foundations for two events next spring. First, the EMU history department will sponsor its first cross-cultural study trip to Vietnam, Thailand and Hong Kong, May 2 to June 2. Also, EMU faculty will participate in an international human rights conference hosted by its Iranian partner institution in Qom.

"The EMU campus is ideally situated for a deeper exploration of international issues, due to the makeup of its student body, its emphasis on cross-cultural learning, and its commitment to Anabaptist mission and world view," Wessner noted. "I envision students enjoying a deep and expansive community of learning, even among those who live in countries deemed by their respective governments to be enemies."

"This is significant, since too often our governments cannot or refuse to do so," Kniss added. Both Wessner and Kniss agreed that increased empathy and understanding are small but critical steps toward expanding one’s imagination and moral agency in a conflict-riddled world.

— article by: Jim Bishop; posted December 20, 2004