The challenges and rewards of an international undergraduate student learning interaction in geography

Abstract

In the spring of 2007, approximately 50 undergraduate introductory geography students in Papua New Guinea and the United States participated in a four-week international collaboration using the nationalism module available from the Association of American Geographers' Center for Global Geography Education. This paper reports on the challenges and rewards of students’ interactions and uses a core-periphery model to question the underlying assumptions of internationalization efforts in undergraduate geography education. Prior to the interaction, it was necessary to overcome technological obstacles related to the “digital divide”. For instance, edits to the nationalism learning module allowed for student communication via fax and airmail, rather than the usual online discussion boards used for international interaction among core countries, where Internet-based technology is widely available. The most important challenges included time delays in student material exchanges and language barriers. The rewards of the project included content knowledge gains, students’ enthusiasm for international cooperation, the exchange of collaborative learning materials and broadened student perspectives as measured by pre- and post-tests.