An Activity for AI & Intercultural Learning

Last month, I shared my reflections from a conference I attended where we talked a lot about AI. That conference got me thinking: How might AI support intercultural learning?

I challenged myself to create an activity that would help students both learn to use AI more effectively and develop interculturally. I’m sharing that activity here so any interested educator can use it or perhaps draw inspiration.

Context

I’ve created this activity specifically for a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) experience, but it could be adapted for other types of in-person or virtual exchanges. Ideally, you have students from two or more cultures working together on a group project. This activity is intended to be used toward the beginning of the engagement, as students are just getting to know one another and considering how they’ll approach the project.

Because I think good intercultural teaching begins with educators’ own intercultural learning, I suggest you do this activity yourself first, with your COIL partner from another country/culture/institution. For the purpose of explaining the activity, I’m going to imagine a scenario in which a professor and class from the U.S. are partnering with a professor and class in Brazil.

Learning Objectives

By participating in this activity, participants will:

• Consider how to use AI prompts effectively
• Better understand how communication may be similar and different across cultures, and specifically between the U.S. and Brazil
• Explore how to effectively work together as a team
• Critically assess the usefulness of AI as a tool for supporting intercultural learning

Instructions

Phase I. The first phase of this activity is completed separately in the U.S. and Brazilian classes. Students work with the other members of their project team in their same class (i.e. if project teams are comprised of two students from the U.S. university and two students from the Brazilian university, the two U.S.-based students are working on this together and the two Brazilian students are doing this together). This step is ideally done after the students have met briefly to get to know one another, but before they’ve begun working on their project.

1. Ask students to draft (but don't send) an email to their teammates abroad. The email should include what they think the next steps in the project should be and how they’d approach the project.
2. Next, discuss with students the importance of using good prompts when engaging with AI. You can do this however you prefer. One idea is to ask your class to raise their hand if they feel proficient with AI, then solicit ideas about creating good prompts from those who raise their hands, and write these on the board. You could also open an AI tool, such as ChatGPT, ask it to provide you with advice on creating good AI prompts, and then discuss the suggestions.
3. After students have drafted their email, explain that they are going to utilize AI to make their message more culturally-appropriate for the situation. They should come up with appropriate prompts, ask, and follow up as needed. Encourage them to ask AI to provide reasons for any suggested changes.
4. Ask your students to compare their original email with the “more culturally appropriate” email suggested by AI, and reflect on the following questions:
   • What do you notice about the suggested changes? Are there any themes?
   • Based on this exercise, what communication differences do you anticipate you might experience with your teammates from the other culture?
   • What questions do you have for your teammates from this other culture about communication differences or preferences as a result of this exercise?

Phase II. Once students in both the U.S. and Brazil have completed Phase I, have them meet up in their full groups (i.e. with their teammates abroad) and do the following:

1. They should take turns sharing and comparing the email they originally wrote compared to the AI-generated “culturally appropriate” version. Invite them to discuss in their groups any reflections and questions that came up as they completed Phase I.
2. Once they’ve shared all four versions of their emails within their groups, they should discuss the following debriefing questions as a team:
   • What, if anything, surprised you as you completed this exercise?
   • What, if anything, did you learn about using AI to help you navigate cultural differences?
   • What, if anything, have you learned about communicating across cultures?
   • What are some ideas to help your team communicate effectively as a group throughout this project?

Phase III. Finally, it’s important to debrief the exercise in some way, which also offers you to opportunity to informally assess students’ learning. Depending on the size and format of your classes, you could ask each small group to report out one key take-away, facilitate a full-group discussion, or ask students to share their reflections through an online forum.

If you try this activity, let me know ([email protected]) how you used it, how it went, and what you learned!

 
Photo credit: Artboard Studio, Unsplash