Social-Virtual Curriculum...Pro or Con?

We often use causal reasoning to find legitimate comparisons involving multiple students and their developmental skills in education. These skills also involve developing youth’s cultural and social skills. It is necessary to evaluate the pros and cons of whether technology and virtual curriculum can enhance a student’s education or harm it. It is necessary to evaluate if virtual curriculum can provide more abilities to produce a more tolerant humankind nationally, no matter the influence of gender, ethnicity, and religion. What is your opinion on such a technological curriculum?

Please chose to observe and read the research paper, “Developing youth’s cultural and social skills through a social-virtual curriculum, written by Nikleia Eteokleous as I did. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the attempt and outcome of social virtual curriculum that is being placed into classrooms nationwide. (Eteokleous, 2011) It is a means of evaluating whether students can develop skills necessary to organize a more peaceful nation by developing a diminishment of social and cultural gaps.

The internet’s role in all our nations societies has been proven important to the accessibility of knowledge and the distribution of that knowledge. Telecommunications tools have been provided in an arrangement of technology with the internet to provide communications, work, collaboration, socialization, friending, and entertainment. As a society, we have been trained to use Google, MSN, Facebook, Blogs, Wikis and various Search Engines on a daily basis. (Eteokleous & Pavlou, 2010) We live in a digital world and we need to use it as an educational device, this means multiculturally in an abundance of ways.

Our society has become so multicultural through technology. Technology allows us the means to receive information that is realistic, visually compelling, interactive and usable in a motivating environment. (Goddard, 2002) Current studies appear to show the impact of various societies within our national school systems through classroom and the internet based activities. By managing a comparison between a pre-internet questionnaire and an after internet questionnaire, the study has shown a more positive impact in the after-internet study. The pre-internet study showed students have a less positive impact on the social-virtual curriculum due to the lack of comfort a student felt by placing themselves openly in and around strangers. The social virtual curriculum helped students learn and appreciate the idea that there are many qualities that are similar and different in people nationally, for many acceptable reasons, but this offered a realization of approval and self-understanding for each of the student’s personal growth. (Eteokleous N., 2011)

Per Eisenchlas and Trevaskers (2007), students that had a chance to experience cultural exchange with youth from other nations, brought them closer to each other. The interaction helps them to realize that they don’t have as many different lifestyles and quirks as they thought. Educationally they shared the same level of IQ’s and learned that they shared many of the same interest. This interaction is bringing nations closer to each other and developing more feelings of appreciation of each other.

Because our multicultural societies practice such different diversities and cultures, we also must express the effect on student ideologies about multicultural religions. The study, although it was efficient in bringing students closer together educationally and socially, the diversity in religion tended to not be as much of a positive effect. Most the statements pertaining to the differences due to religion still existed. The study showed that even though the degree of diverse friendships improved nationwide, religion has minimized its degree of influence, showing important changes in the students’ attitudes and beliefs. (Eteokleous N., 2011)

Multicultural education shares a common philosophy towards the development of every student. It is a fact that technology and the internet influence multicultural education and multiculturalism. Various uses on the internet and the world-wide web opens the promotion of multicultural education. We have learned to bridge the gap between our nations countries and learn more about diversity, race, religion, and politics. Gorski (2004) states the advantage internet has over face-to-face classroom environments is the ability to provide teachers and students the access to cross-cultural learning. (Gorski, 2004)

As my observation comes to a conclusion about Nikleia Eteokleous journal on “Developing youth’s cultural and social skills through a social-virtual curriculum, I noticed that all aspects of studies covered the consequences of diversity, religion, ethnicity, and gender, but when the study approached education, no solid study on grade progression was achieved. To fulfill the satisfaction on how a social-virtual curriculum affects students nationwide, don’t you agree we need to see how the academics of these students are affected too?

 References

Eisenchlas, S., & Trevaskes, S. (2007). "Developing intercultural communication skills through intergroup interaction". Intercultural Education, Vol. 18(No. 5), pp. 69-83.

Eteokleous, N. (2011). Developing youth's cultural and social skills through a social-virtual curriculum. Multicultural Education & Technology Journal, Vol. 5(No. 3), pp. 221-238. doi:10.1108/17504971111166947

Eteokleous, N., & Pavlou, V. (2010). Digital natives and technology literate students: do teachers follow? Cyprus Scientific Association of Information and Communication Technologies in Education, (pp. pp. 113-24).

Goddard, M. (2002). "What do we do with these computers? Reflections on technology in the classroom". Journal of Research on Technology in Education, pp. 19-26.

Gorski, P. (2004). Multicultural Education and the Internet: Intersections and Integrations, 2nd ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.