1. Student Away K.I.T. KEEP IN TOUCH By Alan O’Donnell Alison Malkin Andrew Stuart Bruce Carolan

2. Project Aims The aim of this project is to assist a student to get the most out of his or her placement, internship, apprenticeship or other academic experience outside of the Dublin Institute of Technology, and particularly outside the Republic of Ireland. The project aims to help students apply prior learning to their placement and to develop [further] academic and intercultural competence(s) while in a work placement in another country.

3. ADDIE Model

5. Analysis Phase Macro Level Student Placements / Internships / Apprenticeship Students on placements do not know how to engage optimally with their surroundings Students on placement lose touch with the academic or instructional aspect of their education Students need structure on the assessment elements of their placements

6. Learning Outcomes Macro Level Show Capacity to integrate background knowledge and practical skills into their work placement Demonstrate capacity for independent learning and problem solving Demonstrate reflection on continued learning while in a placement Provide evidence of active engagement with the host culture and work environment

7. Pidoco Rapid Prototyping

8. Platform

9. Reflection By Alan O’Donnell

10. Student Away K.I.T. A Blog for Reflection

11. Student Away K.I.T. One component of the Student Away K.I.T. would be an e-Portfolio As we all know, reflection can be an important part of learning Pedagogy of reflection – Constructivist, Cognitive We chose to use a blog to facilitate reflection on the work placement

12. What is a Blog? A blog is a web log: – An on-line journal (Yang, S.-H. 2009) – A webpage with content organised according to date (Killion, j. & Todnem,g. 1991) – A website where users post informal journals of thought, comments and philosophies (www.sbg.ac.at)

13. Blogs for Reflection A blog was chosen as the tool for students to use for their reflection It relates well in the context of their work placement – Log of their working practice and experience – Students can relate learning to the work placement Situation learning, authentic learning Blogs allows for regular postings by the student – However to encourage student participation some guidance may be required (Roberts, A. 2009, O’Keeffe, M., Arnedillo-Sanchez, I., Flannigan, A. 2006)

14. Guidance on Blogs for Reflection As a blog was to be used as the tool for reflection I thought it would be of value to use a blog to provide the guidance information A link to the blog will be on the Webcourse module

15. Blog Page

16. Link to Blogger

17. Guidance To maintain the focus of reflection – Work placement To support students in their development of reflection practice To help them gain confidence in both the technology and on reflecting Tips on what to reflect on – Gibb’s reflective cycle – Example questions to ask themselves Finally, encouragement to start the process of reflection (and blogging)

18. Student Testimonials: Reflections on Intercultural Competence Bruce Carolan

19. Intercultural Competence By Alvino E. Fantini, Ph.D., School for International Training, Brattleboro, Vermont "Intercultural Competence is: The fundamental acceptance of people who are different to oneself outside one's own culture. The ability to interact with them in a genuinely constructive manner which is free of negative attitude (e.g. prejudice, defensiveness, apathy, aggression etc.) The ability to create a synthesis, something which is neither "mine" nor "yours", but which is genuinely new and would not have been possible had we not combined our different backgrounds and approaches."

20. Reflection on Intercultural Competence Involved and thoughtful reflection of differences among cultures, demonstrating integrative thinking and ethnorelativistic perspectives. Prompts: Compare 2 or 3 aspects of host culture with home culture; how has this influenced the way you see the world? Share a “cultural moment” when you felt clueless as to what was happening in your host culture? How did you react? What did it teach you?

21. Technology http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOGKgUp M3tA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOGKgUp M3tA Video interviews with several DIT students who have studied abroad and ask them to reflect using the prompts provided Will ‘model’ similar reflection for students intending to go abroad