CULTURAL INCLUSIVITY IN THE ONLINE CLASSROOM
Activity 4
The United Nations also has a worldwide campaign called “Do One Thing for Diversity and Inclusion.” This could be organized as a class activity as everyone suggests or performs one action, big or small, to promote appreciation of cultural diversity. The United Nations campaign website suggests some simple things (the list from the website is shared below with a few modifications) that can be done to appreciate diversity. Since most of the learning in an online environment takes place through the sharing of resources and materials, the teacher of a culturally inclusive classroom could also suggest that participants of the online course undertake the following or similar activities on their own and then share their knowledge, experience, observations and changes in attitude in the online forums.
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Visit an art exhibit or a museum dedicated to other cultures.
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Learn about another religion. Pay a visit to a place of worship different from your own and participate in the celebration.
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Learn about traditional and religious celebrations from other cultures, for example, learn more about Eid, Ramadan, Hanukkah, Diwali, Vesakhi or the celebrations of New Year’s Eve in Spain or Qingming festival in China or the Shandur Polo Festival in Northern Pakistan.
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Read about the great thinkers from cultures other than yours (e.g. Confucius, Socrates, Avicenna, Ibn Khaldun, Aristotle, Ganesh, Rumi).
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Plan an international movie night or rent a movie, or read a book from another country. Share views about their entertainment icons and discuss your own icons.
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Listen to a musical tradition from a different culture. Learn about the musical instruments used in other cultures e.g. a Sitar, Tabla or Alghoza
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Play a sport related to a different culture (Karate, Cricket, Polo, Pétanque).
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Invite a friend over to cook traditional food from a different culture, or share your own culture's dishes.
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Learn another language or just the Alphabet or Numbers in that language.
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Invite a family or members of the community from another culture or religion to share a meal and exchange views on life and your customs.
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Volunteer with an organization working for diversity and inclusion.
Activity 3
The United Nations observes May 21 as the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. On that day or any other day, class participants could undertake a discussion on how people can celebrate each other’s cultural, ethnic and spiritual differences as something that brings variety and excitement in our lives. There could also be a discussion on what steps can we take to increase intercultural and interfaith dialogue and cooperation; and what we can we do to avoid stereotyping and polarizing speech in our daily lives.
References:
Google Art Project. <http://www.googleartproject.com/>
Google Earth. <http://www.google.com/earth/index.html>
Google Street View. <www.google.com/streetview>
Google World Wonders Project. <www.google.com/intl/en/culturalinstitute/worldwonders>
United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. Many Cultures. One Humanity.
<http://www.unaoc.org/actions/campaigns/do-one-thing-for-diversity-and-inclusion/>
World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. May 21.
<http://www.un.org/en/events/culturaldiversityday/resources.shtml>
Activity 1
Class participants can be divided into groups and each group would take on the role of representing a country or region. Each group would be responsible for creating a web project to showcase the history, language, food, dress, sports, traditions/customs and global role of that county or region. The web project would be uploaded for feedback and discussion from the class.
Activity 2
Virtual field trips: Class participants can be encouraged to use free online tools like Google Earth, Google Street View, Google World Wonders Project to research what public spaces of different countries of the world look like. Students can share their online discoveries with others in the course.
We would love to hear from you! Click on the Connect button below to go to go to our "Connect" page where you can contribute your thoughts about the activities mentioned above. You can also share your own activities to show how cultural inclusivity plays out in your own teaching or educating. Click on "Start a New Pulse" on the Connect page to start a new topic.
Activity Ideas to Promote Cultural Inclusivity in an Online Learning Environment
For courses that focus on multiculturalism and diversity as a class topic or theme, the following examples can be useful.
