1. What are the main thoughts you carry away ...

From the article, I learn a lot of things with regard to cross cultural issues. I understand that cultural differences are important elements that we should take into consideration when we design online learning materails. Points I learn is that what does it mean cultural competency, what factors contribute for cross cultural conflict, difference between the western and other society culturs in learning and suggestions proposed to consider in online learning design to narrow culutral differences.

2. Are there any specific research ideas ...

The quotation by John Dewey and Berger and Luckmann and Bennet are important ideas included in this article to the design of online learning course

3. Can you think of any (ideas, studies, articles, or authors) that might be missing from this article - but which should be included?

I think this is a short article. For a beginner like me, it leaves many questions to understand croos-cultural issues in online learning. For example there are many instructional design models, here mentioned only one model ADDIE.  For example some researchers says learning is a social process and uses a different instructional design models. It may be more appropraite model to include cultural issues in online instruction design

 4.  Do any of the suggestions for future research interest you in particular, and why?

The research ideas suggested are good. But immediately what comes to mind is that we are designing online instruction for people with different cultures. Can it be achievable? I want to quot Dewey's word " ... when a student finds the curriculum relevant to his or her life situation". A student one from US and the other from Ethiopia  can take the same course, thanks to the internet technology. The technology allows but do we think that they have the same goal and target? I think no. Because they come from different socio-economic background, they will not have the same interest and goal. There is another suggestions, online learning should be design with different layers so that it can address different learner groups but with one layer design. I don't think so.

In additon to the suggestion - I also suggest prototyping approach. course materials are designed and distributed to the target learners and then we gather the pros and cons of the first vesion, from that feedback, with internet it is possible to gather feedbacks, we may able to design an online course material that can address different cultural groups.  

hi,

I try to answer some of the questions regrading to the article. The first question is not clear to me but I will try to answer as I understand it. Hofstede developed a cultural model that helps to describe the cultural diversity among nations. I think a nation means the totally of indidividuals. What is true for the nation may apply for the individual group members. His model could taken as a starting point to understand the cross cultural reasearch teams.

Regarding to the second question, prior knowledge and experience is important for our future activities. I personally new to our project, except few readings on culture. I need to read more and practical engagement to decide my own role. Therefore I prefere more pre-determined with someone telling me what I am going to do in this phase of the project.

In my opinion, culture affects the work of distributed team performance. When you are working in a team, if you are from the same culture, you can easily understand with each other. Your previous experience help for quick and smooth flow of ideas. You can easily understand the meaning of the word without too much explanation. But in multicultural teams, there are many gaps to understand with each other. Sometime I may be relectant to express my feeling to some other person. Becuase I don't know how the other person interpretes it. In our society culture, what ever you say, people say you - that is nice, that is good but they will not tell you their real feelings becuase of the fear that thier word my spoil their future relationship.

In addition to culture, there are also other factors that affect the virtual team- what is the environment in which we are operating. That affects the individual team performance. The problem in Ethiopia may not be a problem in Finland. If I raise it as a problem, the others may not even understand how it is a problem because they may not heard it or experienced it before.

Temtim, Ethiopia

Accomplishments I proud of

I am grown up in Ethiopian village where I didn’t hear the sound of car and other modern technologies. Unfortunately there is an elementary school within 5 minutes walking distance from my home. The school was one of the schools built by Swedish government to assist Ethiopian government to promote modern education. I started life from there and now I am a university lecturer. My village has now changed; there is a bus from the Addis Ababa, telephone service. Sometimes being lucky may seem work in our life. I am lucky and I had a chance to see many countries – Germany, Switzerland, Holland (Euraope), China and South Korea.

I am working in Addis Ababa University since 2003. When I joined the university, I employed as a lecturer for IT Education Unit in Business Education Department. I initiated to establish an ICT Education Department and my boss agreed on the idea. I was assigned to coordinate the team to develop the new department curriculum and establish the department. It was a challenge to bring people to work together, I took the initiative and did what I do and lastly, I was successful to establish the new Department. I am currently working the as a Department Head.

What makes successful international cross cultural research team

I think I may share my experience of group work. Originally I don’t like group work for the reason is that most of the teams in the group don’t equally (or what is expected from them) contribute for the achievement of group objective. Later when I read a project management book (I don’t remember its title and author), it says that 80 percent of the project work is done by 20 percent of the project team. Now I changed my attitude towards to group work, I am convinced in the objective, I should contribute what I can do without considering others contributions. Others should also have the same belief. Because we all live in different places, we all have different commitments that reduces our energy but we all have to do what we can do.

The other thing is communication is very important – that clarifies our team objective, our duties (what is expected from each of us), makes every body informed about the project progress and creates a sense of ownership in the project, learn the problem of others and find immediate solutions how we can fill the gap to make our project successful and so on.

Hi Everyone

My response to the question of (1) trust (2) interest (3) Goal

In my oponion, in order one to trust a team or an individual, the first question is do we have a common goal or interest? If the answer is yes, it means that we can trust with each other. of course this is the staring point to establish the trust. In the course of the time, we have to evaluate each other how we contribute to our goal. If we are committed and working for the achievement of our goal, our trust gets more stronger and stronger. If it is in the other way, our trust gradually fades away. Therefore, I trust the team as we are working for the common goal and consequently individual benefit.

Regarding my interest - it is an international team who has diversified experience all of which don't have the chance to have all that experience due to time and distance constraint. I expect that we all learn from the experience of each other. Especially me, who don't have a previous experience to work in an international team, I learn a lot in multicultural education and transfer that knowledge to my university.

Goal: At the end of this research project, I am expecting that I learn a lot in research and that will develop my research career. Besides our research output will be also published on reputable journal and that is another credit I get working in this international research team.

Temtim, Ethiopia