SEEU students participated in a collaborative learning project with students from George Mason University in Fairfax Virginia, USA

Communication Sciences students who are attending Artan Limani’s English for Communication            Sciences (ESP 1) this semester participated in a collaborative learning project together with students from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, USA.  George Mason University students were taking Professor Kristin Scott’s class NCLC 249 – Internet Literacy. The aim of this project was to give SEEU students the opportunity to improve their English Language proficiency and also to help them learn about other cultures. NCLC 249 was a highly diverse class because the enrolled students came from different countries around the world.

Since Communication as a discipline is multidimensional, it can be studied from various scientific aspects. Hence, the students used this occasion to approach to one important scientific aspect which is the existence and appreciation of diversity as a core for human understanding and success in every sphere of life.

The students used Facebook as an interactive internet medium to communicate for a period of four weeks. The project finished with a live teleconference meeting on Thursday, November 19, 2009. Both groups of students showed high appreciation for the opportunity to learn about other cultures by having technology and cyberspace put in service to reach academic objectives.

After the teleconference Arrian Sulejmani, an ESP student from SEEU said: ”This was a great experience for me personally because I was able to communicate with students from a place I’ve never been, and I also got to try out SEEU’s cool high-tech gear.” Another student, Elena Pavlevska said: “It was a great idea to share information about our university, ourselves, our cultures and ultimately learn how to communicate with other cultures and at the same time improve our English language skills. This was a chance to make more international friends and widen our horizons.”

Artan Limani, instructor of the course, claims that he will continue to engage his students in international projects, since he believes it is a good way to open SEEU students’ international career opportunities.