Creative Cross-Cultural Connections: Facebook as a Third Space for International Collaborations

Abstract

As industries are increasingly globalized, our students’ future workplaces require facility with cross-cultural collaboration, yet curricula often remain situated within the home culture. This chapter presents a qualitative case study on a collaborative project between students in London, Hong Kong, and Singapore. An overview of the process is given drawing on the experiences of the teachers and students involved, informing a discussion around the issues inherent in the internationalization of the curriculum. Tutors created a shared private Facebook group to connect London College of Fashion students with students at City University Hong Kong and LASALLE College of the Arts Singapore. Students worked on separate but aligned briefs that mirror contemporary working patterns and allowed co-creation of educational experiences beyond the geographic and time constraints of working internationally, specifically addressing issues around global and local communications. The Facebook platform was used separately and collaboratively to support students’ learning and the digitally mediated collaboration allowed for flexibility in when and how education took place, providing a third space for co-creation of learning: a global classroom.

Citation

Radclyffe-Thomas, N., Peirson-Smith, A., Roncha, A. and Huang, A. (2016), "Creative Cross-Cultural Connections: Facebook as a Third Space for International Collaborations", University Partnerships for Academic Programs and Professional Development (Innovations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning, Vol. 7), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 243-266. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2055-364120160000007023