Real-time Student Exchange

Though we were not initially in a position to support student exchange, or to even know what to “do” if we were to have students travel from their home campus to the campus of the other school, we are clearly aware of how this sort of life experience can further enhance cultural exchange and student growth and development. It becomes interesting to investigate what it would mean to have students move from virtual to real-time experience. The point would not be to argue that either virtual or real-time exchange was superior to the other, but to focus on the intersections of the two means of communication, to use the experience of one to enhance the negotiation with the other.

Currently, our plan is to have students from CCC visit NMMU during our J-Session 2007 (a three week January term). We will make great efforts to locate and invite all students who had been enrolled in Introduction to College Writing: Sharing Cultures. However, we will not limit enrollment to these students, as such limiting goes against the philosophy of the course.

Our current vision is to have two or three faculty from CCC accompany 12-20 students to South Africa for two weeks. The first week will be spent visiting Cape Town, Robben Island, and Port Elizabeth, where they will take township tours. During the second week, students will engage in a community-service project, working hand in hand with a township or Port Elizabeth organization. The final week of the class will be spent in Chicago. Following their return from their experience, students will assemble a multi-vocal, multi-genre presentation of their experience. Students at CCC will record their experience in a variety of mediums and then, using a new media form, collectively create a piece that can be used in future Sharing Cultures Projects.

Our hope is that students from NMMU will come to Chicago in June and participate in a program of similar design. Though not a literal exchange (students will still be enrolled and pay tuition and receive credit at their home institutions) this real-life opportunity has the potential to revolutionize a project that has, to date, not yet found three-dimensional form.

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