Technology for international learning

Striving to increase access to learning about the dynamics of internationalization, the COIL course of Eric Pallant at Alleghany College paired students from his campus and a college in Pakistan.  The course resulted in some surprises when Pakistani students challenged the American students' understanding of foreign policy related to their country.  Pallant commented, "Lest you think this is all negative, what I ended up realizing and saying to my students is, 'You're going to go out there in this globalized world and you need to learn how to negotiate these things' - a different sense of time, accents, technology that doesn't work the way you expect it to, perceptions of Americans overseas."

It's great to see teaching strategies that expand international understanding for American students.  I wonder about the impact on the students in Pakistan or other countries who partner with American universities.  The fact that this was not mentioned in the article is telling and is an example of how internationalization is often conceived in ways that benefit one of the partners while giving little thought to the cost and/or benefit to the other.