Application of Cultural Dimensions

UF Faculty: Michael Leslie Department: Department of Media Technology, Production and Management College: College of Journalism and Communications	Partner Faculty: Ariadna Levi Department: Departamento de Formación Humana DFH Partner Institution: ITESO (Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente)

Project details
Title:	Application of the Hofstede Model of Cultural Dimensions in Relationships and in Business
Project Description:	A module was designed to give students direct access to what cultural differences in values and cultural orientation mean for effectiveness in intercultural communication. Normally, these distinctions remain conceptual for students, who are not able to apply them to navigating situations and conflicts they encounter in everyday life, typically in the area of personal relationships and business communication. Tools for information sharing, such as Flipgrid and Padlet, allowed students to share their insights and experience in these domains, linking students studying the same subject matter at the ITESO in Guadalajara, Mexico, and the University of Florida in Gainesville in the United States.
Learning Outcomes:	Students will recognize some concepts of culture and its functions in our lives. Students will reflect on the dimension of their own identity. Students will recognize cultural plurality as a fact in our social world and in our everyday reality. Students will distinguish between pluriculturalism, multiculturalism and interculturalism as a response towards the different ways of thinking behaving and living in diversity. Students will be able to develop critical thinking from the ethical perspective of interculturalism, in order to analyze the present and facilitate future projects. Students will recognize the influence of their own culture on their intercultural interactions. Students will be able to reflexively examine their personal willingness to interact with others, based on the concept of culture in order to develop an open and critical attitude required in multicultural contexts. Students will become more willing, self-reflective, flexible, and open communicators in intercultural interactions. Students will be able to acknowledge and respect different cultural approaches to problem solving. Students will be able to listen to others actively and respond in culturally appropriate ways.
Participating Countries:	Mexico
Number of Participants:	14 UF students and 24 students from the partner institution
Discipline:	Mass Communication
UF Course Code & Name:	MMC5708 - Foundations of Intercultural Communication
Project Duration:	4 weeks
Activity Type(s):	Student-to-Student Dialogue Student-to-Student Project
Time allotted to each activity:	Asynchronous Activities: 2 hours per week Local Group Activities: 1 hour per week Individual Work: 1 hour per week
Technology Tools:	Canvas WhatsApp Zoom Padlet
Sequence of Activities:	Icebreaker: Intro videos for each of the students. Choose two classmates' videos and make a comment on them. Jamboard application for posting an intro video and pictures with cultural significance. Engagement Activity: Share a picture from your culture and explain what it means to you. This will be a synchronous activity, in dyads, via Zoom. Collaboration Activity: Collaboration to build a learning module based on the Hofstede model, to contrast and compare cultures. Activities to be determined. Reflection Activity: Using the ICE reflection framework, before, during and after the VE experience.