Transatlantic Cable

The Transatlantic Cable project was designed to facilitate international cross-cultural communication across the great expanse of the Atlantic Ocean by connecting students from North America with students from (Eastern) Europe.  While the perception of the distance between these places—say San Francisco and St. Petersburg—is much shorter today than ever before, the consideration and/or understanding of the mental (perceptual) maps of the other side across the gulf is still quite far. The Transatlantic Cable takes the idea of an old-school letter writing correspondence between classrooms and, with the help of digital technologies, exchanges views, perceptions and personal goals in real time (almost) with classrooms on both sides of the Ocean, the Pond, or the great expanse. 

Two schools partnered up—one in Austria and one in California.  For us at the American International School in Salzburg, Austria we wanted to further develop and deepen our understanding of the United States of America and US American culture within the context of our ever-increasingly globalised world.  The goal has been to create learning situations where students consider their own perceptions and stereotypes of the United States of America while, at the same time, learn more about the perceptions and stereotypes that US American students have of AISS student home countries.

The 10th Grade US History class was chosen as a great place to discuss US American culture.  Our history class is made up of teenagers from the former USSR and SE/Eastern Europe.  These regions enter into the US American geographical imagination in many ways (news, films, propaganda) with many ideas and perceptions stemming—and still lingering—from the shared Cold War experience.

We worked with Sugar Bowl Academy of Truckee, California,  a small boarding school like our own situated in the mountains in the Tahoe region.  We worked with Mr. Andrew Knox’s World Regional Geography course right as they were about to discuss Russia and Eastern Europe in their class.

 

STEP 1: Mental Maps of the Other place

The first step was to consider our own perceptions about the other region.  Using base maps, with only the outline of political boundaries, students filled in the empty spaces with places they knew, words, ideas and small drawings representing the images that first came to mind when the name of the country/region was mentioned.  Students also answered a series of questions designed to better understand those perceptions.  We scanned and exchanged these mental maps and questionnaires and reviewed them the next day in class.

 Questions included:

What are the first images that come to mind when we say: USA?

What do the typical kids look like? Fashion? Physically as well?

The landscape in California  looks like ___________.

Typical weather is __________.

Who is the president of the USA?

Who are some influential citizens/people?

Top historical figures include: ___________.

What is the capital? Important cities? What are these places known for?

The typical architecture is __________.

What do cities/towns/communities look like?

Common foods?  Traditional meals vs. popular food.  List.

The most popular sports are ______________.

Teenagers here spend their time doing __________.

Teenagers from USA think my country is ____________.  Why?

Teenagers from former USSR/SE & Eastern Europe form their perceptions about the USA  from __________.

 

STEP 2: Response: Home Country Profiles

After reviewing the mental maps that USA students had of Eastern Europe/former USSR (and vice-versa) students were then asked to respond by creating a country profile with information they deemed important for teenagers across the Ocean to know.  We scanned and sent them.

 

STEP 3: “Care Package” of Cultural Artifacts and Landscapes

As a further way of sharing ideas about culture students were then tasked with putting together (digitally) collages of landscapes and artifacts, both from folk and popular culture, for the other side to see.  This included photographs of cultural and natural landscapes as well as examples of what is deemed “cool” by teenagers in terms of folk traditions and current popular trends.

 

STEP 4: Videos—Shared Experience of the World

Students then put a face to their name and shared some of their own personal ideas and goals with their new friends from across the Ocean.  Students needed to make short videos that introduce themselves and their ideas while also highlighting our local geography (school & Salzburg). Students filmed themselves with different backdrops around campus and downtown in order to transmit a ‘sense of place.’  Videos were only 2-3 minutes long but communicated very much about their own person.

 

Students needed to introduce themselves and address different questions:

 

Where do you want to be in 3 years?  University?  What country?

What do you want to study?

What kind of profession do you want to have?

Do you think you will live in your home country when you are 30?

What one thing should people know about your hometown/city?

What concerns you about your own country?

I think adults/leaders around the world should focus/pay more attention to _______.

What do your parents think of USA?  Your grandparents?  Your country’s media?

 

STEP 5: Student Feedback

To round out the experience students wrote feedback comments that were shared in both classrooms.  And lastly, we exchanged a list of “must see” film titles that best capture cultural nuances from each of the participant countries.

 

 

Transatlantic Cable Student Feedback

I really like this project with California. I found out how does the life there look life. I like those people that we had project with and I’m sad that we won’t be able to communicate with them anymore. I learned that they have snow very early. I found out that Americans are cool and nice. I enjoyed this kind of studying very much. Comparing to the normal studying it was more fun and I can imagine things better when I hear it from people who actually live there. I think California is a beautiful country and I like the view in the videos with mountains in background.

Luka, Slovenia

 

This project helped us to understand U.S. Better. I understood that students in America are just the same as we are. I learned that we shouldn’t believe in stereotypes. And I enjoyed listening about U.S. student interests and hobbies. I think that we should do projects like this more often.

Renate, Latvia

 

I liked the experience we’ve made. I like the way we did it. Now I know more about California and teenagers, who live there. More about their style of live. I didn’t know that there are any mountains on California before this experience. I really appreciate your videos. I liked your sense of humor, guys.

Iulia, Ukraine

 

The Transatlantic Cable project which we did with a school from California was very useful for me. It changed my thinking of California. Before this project I thought in California is always sunny and hot, but I saw that actually it is not. This project also changed my view for the American stereotype of teenagers. The project showed me that the other students know some information about the countries outside America. I changed little bit my thinking about Americans, but I still think they are weird (in a good way). I hope they come to Europe not only because universities are cheaper, but also to visit our school someday.

Teodora, Bulgaria

 

I am so happy, that I got the opportunity of doing this project, because I learned a lot about USA and specifically about California and the people there. The project helped me to compare and contrast Europe and America, I found a lot similarities, but also differences. It showed me the daily lives of people my age, what they do, where they go to school and what they want to be in the future or where they want to be. I also think that this is a good way or chance of making new friends and meeting new people. I really enjoyed working on this project and I would like to do something similar in the future.

Stela, Bulgaria

 

What have I learned from the project?

I saw how pretty is that land, and that they are pretty much normal like we are. What I also learned is that not whole Eastern Europe can be represented as former USSR, especially Balkans, because it is really different from Russia, it is like you say Mexico and Canada are the same. Also I saw how Californian nature is beautiful. I should have put more effort in the video maybe, but yeah, that’s it.

Alex, Serbia

 

All cultures are different and all people have different opinions.I learned that the stereotypes are not always correct or right, and that American teenagers are not always fat and blond. I also learned how little the American teenagers know about different counties in Europe and Europe in general, that’s why they have to study word cultures more.

Fiodor, Russia

 

What have I learned new about the American students is that most of them want to study in Europe and some of them want to study in USA. They are athletes so they work a lot. There was a girl who shares common interests with me – astrophysics. Some of them wants to study even in Slovenia. So, there some students who want to study politics, economy, or PE science. But 50% of them do not know what they really want to do in 3 years and that is quiet strange because students must already start thinking about this.

Chris, Moldova

 

“After communicating with students from the former USSR, I was able to understand more about a region of the world that I don’t know much about.  Throughout this project, I was able to get a general idea of how people live and operate in these countries.  It was interesting to see the first stereotypes that other students came up with about America, and compare them to my responses when getting questioned about the Soviet Union.  What was interesting about this first step in the process was seeing that beyond the common stereotypes, I didn’t know what to associate with the Soviet Union.  It seemed as if the students from the former USSR knew more information about the US than we did about their countries in the beginning of the project.  Not only is this regarding stereotypes, but they also referenced big events that occurred in our Country’s history.  On some of the maps, students mentioned events like The Boston Tea Party, and recorded certain traits of each state in the US.  When I was handed the map of the USSR, it seemed completely alien to me.  I also thought that it was interesting to hear their opinions on America, and see what our country represented to them.  A lot of them had a reason that they wanted to visit, come to school, or stay away from our country due certain reputations we uphold.  What I found intriguing was learning the unique aspects of countries I had never known about before this project, such as the beautiful coastline of The Black Sea in Ukraine, the green environment of Latvia, and the wide range of climates/landscapes in Bulgaria.  After participating in this study, I have a broader global understanding and appreciation for other regions.” (Sofia S.)

 

“This was one of the coolest projects I have ever done! Connecting with with kids from across the Atlantic Ocean was awesome because it allowed me to actually see what kids my age from Europe think of America instead of just reading about it in a textbook and assuming it’s real. I found it exciting every time I came in to class because I wanted to see what the kids in Austria had made for us over night. Some of the stereotypes they came up with I understood but others were completely new to me and quite funny. This project helped me learn tons about the former Soviet Union including its geography, weather, and what people do there. I don’t feel like I would have learned as much looking at a text book because I felt a connection to the kids and it made me want to learn more about their countries and cultures. After walking away from this project I feel a little bit sad because I won’t be able to communicate with these kids who I feel I know. On the other hand I have learned many important new things about Eastern Europe and went from not really wanting to visit it to putting it on the top of my “must visit” travel list. I feel this project helped us really envelope ourselves in European culture that may have been foreign to us. I would love to do something like this again of possible.” (Haydn H.)

 

“In the past week, we have broken down many stereotypes about former USSR countries and America (and one Australian.) This has been one of the best school projects that I have participated in so far, and it included a sense of real life learning and teaching. Learning about others’ culture and what it means to them is interesting, and seeing how many countries haven’t had hundreds of years to develop like America. It was very beneficial to have people describe their countries, because it really breaks down a lot of stereotypes and ideas that could potentially be planted into our heads from American accounts. It was also cool to participate with other people during this, although not directly talking could be a bit of a disadvantage. This means that prompts and such are good for making videos, but it would be a lot nicer to speak and interact from the heart. Another concern for this project is that after this, it appears as if we will just fall out of contact with the kids, so it would have been cool to find out a way to keep in touch with them using something like social media such as instagram or snapchat, or even emails or phone numbers to keep in touch. That said, this was a great project and building a transatlantic cable through videos is cool, and it would be a great project for future classes to continue this tradition. It would also be cool if other schools got in on it, and then it could become many communities coming together for this type of project, and it could potentially snowball into something so much better and greater.” (Jack S.)

 

“The students that we were talking to the past week seemed interested in America and they wanted to know more about it. I was surprised that they didn’t know to mush about the US, because most countries around the world know a lot about America, like in Australia, we follow a lot of what the US does, because its a big deal to a lot of Australia. Although we cannot vote for the President of the US, we still have opinions and concerns. I have learnt a lot about these countries, some examples being: Kiev being so cheap, Russia doesn’t drink vodka, and Moldova which makes a lot of wine. I hope we continue to fin this productive as it is a fun way of learning whilst getting to talk with people we’ve never had the opportunity to talk to before.” (Zach Z.)

 

“It was really awesome to be able to communicate with the kids from the former Soviet Union in Austria because they provided us with great, first hand information about the region. This was way better than just reading the information from the textbook because information from a textbook is looking at it from a second hand perspective and the perspective of the author(s). However, the students in Austria have actually lived in the area we are studying and can tell us more in depth from first hand experiences than the textbook could. It was also cool to see the students debunk our stereotypes about their region and tell us how it is actually very pleasant and a neat place to live for a 15-16 year old. I really enjoyed their stereotypical views on our country because I found them very amusing and it will be interesting to see how they will react when we debunk their stereotypes.” (Ethan H.)

 

“I thought that what we did with the students in Austria was quite cool. When we began to make inferences about them and they did the same thing we saw how different we are than what we think. Also when we watched all their videos and saw how different they are than we thought and everything around them doesn’t seem quite like what we thought it was. This project was definitely a lot better than reading out of some boring old textbook. One walk away I thought about was whenever we see things online about other places don’t base everything they do or look like off of it. Overall, I think that the transatlantic cable project was very interesting and in the near future we can add more and more people to it.” (Tyler L.)

 

“During this week long project, I learned a lot. I enjoyed this much more than just looking at a textbook for many reasons. I enjoyed working with real life people around our age who going to a boarding school just like us, however, thousands of miles away. There was so much to take away from this. I learned much more about their landscape, and how amazing it looks. Also, they have much more cultural dances and festivals than we have in America. I also learned that kids over in Europe aren’t much different from us, however I was expecting differently. Lastly, I enjoyed doing interactive activities which involved moving around and thinking in ways we usually don’t. In the end, I enjoyed breaking down stereotypes and learning more about where they live and their culture. I would definitely encourage next years students to do this as well, it was well worth the time.” (Ben E.)

 

“Take aways that I got from these activities where mostly breaking down stereotypes. First I thought that the former USSR was mostly cold and snowing all the time, but after seeing the students responses they said that it was mostly warm with decent weather year round. Anther thing that I learn was that, they don’t just eat meat for breakfast lunch and dinner, but they have decently good looking food that I would like to try for myself one day. This project was definitely way more fun than just reading a taking notes from a textbook. I probably learned a lot more learning about Russia and former USSR countries doing it like we did than just a lecture, because it was more of a hands-on learning experience. I learn more in-depth about these countries than what I would have trough a text book. Like how Moldova has great wines and not that great roads, how Latvia is very green, and what parts of these countries are struggling and what is thriving. Over all this was a great assignment, and I hope we can do something like this more in the future.” (Isaac M.)

 

“Talking to kids from other parts of the world is super cool because it gives you a peek into what other kids think not only about you but also about what they think it is important for us to know about them. For example a lot of the kids said they were from a poor country and that they still had very strong and deep culture and lots of pride about where they from even though most said they would rather live in other parts of the world. Lots of the kids also made it clear that they didn’t want to be know as part of Russia; The actually wanted as little connection as possible with Russia. It was super deep to see what they thought Americans looked like and how little bits were true but the had some perceptions that were not evident in California at least. It was also interesting seeing their knowledge about us and how they all knew about Hollywood and Las Vegas and some of our historical figures and then some random tidbits of information like kfc ect… Being able to talk to kids our age made it very easy to break down stereotypes. The only thing I wish we could have done was talk to them live to ask questions about them and why they were going to school in Austria instead of their home countries.” (Nate C.)