China+Odyssey

The **China Odyssey** is a web-basedcurricular activity that engages middle school and high school students in exploring an interesting corner of our world. Students follow the progress of a trip through the journals of a traveler (or travelers), which are posted twice weekly. These journals constitute the basis for online discussions that are facilitated by the students in this class, university students we refer to as "mentors."

Such trips have, in the past, taken students to Central and Eastern Europe and across Asia, Central America, and North Africa. In Fall 2009, student participants will be taken along on an exploration of life in China. Our Odyssey travelers, UM School of Education graduates Sarah and Matthew Baughman, based their Odyssey on their experiences teaching in an international school in Shanghai. In the China Odyssey, online and classroom discussions focus on the social, cultural and religious issues they encountered, and build off their observations about the people they came to know, and their reflections on the interplay between people and their social environment.


 * Curricular Commitment:**

Teachers have participated in the Odyssey in many different ways. Most of our participants come to the Odyssey from the Social Studies or the Language Arts, although we've had participants join us from the Environmental Science classes & various "technology" courses. For some, the Odyssey project is a central feature of their curriculum and their kids are online every day. For most, however, this kind of curricular "space" isn't available. You can tailor your participation to suit your situation, whether it be a special Friday activity in which you read and discuss only selected postings, or something more frequent. Students can have their own accounts to access our password-protected site, so the possibility of your students participating outside of class meeting times exists at your discretion.


 * Structure and Support:**

The Odyssey lasts approximately 10 weeks and there will be three travel reports posted for discussion each week. There is also a two-week introductory period in late September/early October for you to get acquainted with the site. We will have a teacher's guide and support materials that will be available through the project web site.


 * Mentoring:**

Like all of the ICS projects, a key feature of Earth Odysseys is the mentoring offered by university students. Graduate and undergraduate students take seminars with us, in which their coursework is based around reading and responding to your students' ideas, and trying to engage them in conversation, and in reflective thinking. Our hope is to honor the writing and thinking done by your students, and to use their engagement with the Odyssey reports to help them take a closer look at their world. Mentoring will also be provided by students at our partner university, **National Central University in Taipei, Taiwan**.


 * What you need:**

First and foremost, you need to have enough interest in this project to make some room in your curriculum, which we know isn't a simple matter. Discussion topics will include gender roles, the place of religion in society, how we calculate and think about wealth, and how America is seen abroad. We also spend time talking about how people engage with other cultures and people...how do we think about travel? Many of the students who've taken part in the Odyssey have found the experience to be engaging and educational--if you want to talk directly to teachers who've done the Odysseys project, we'll be happy to make those connections for you.

As a functional matter, the only technological requirement is some kind of web access for your students. Being able to take you kids to a lab so they can all be online is a luxury that some will have and others won't, but you do need some kind of regular web access for your kids.

Both Middle School and High School students are welcome to participate.


 * Time:**

Teachers structure their participation in different ways...combinations of whole class and small group discussions of the reports and students working individually or in pairs on the computer, looking over the reports and writing responses to the traveler, or writing to peers who've posted responses, or to mentors who've posed questions. The structure is flexible enough to allow you to involve your students according to the time you have available, the interest of your students, etc.


 * We are readying a new interface for Fall 2009, but in case you're interested in seeing what Odyssey looks like, the 2007 China Odyssey Website is available to you [|HERE]**

Your ID is:

LOGIN: **guest**

PASSWORD: **guest**

INTRODUCTIONS When you log on you are put first into MAIN--kind of our "grand central station." The kids each have their own blog in the MAIN space, which is where they should post their personal introduction. They need to go into your school's space (there'll be a link on the Main page) in order to access their blog (there's a link labeled "create personal blog entry"). They can also append photos to the introductions if they care to do so.

FINDING THE REPORTS

Almost all of your time online will be spent in the RED or the GREEN activity conference--everyone will be automatically assigned to one group or the other. You automatically see the current report when you go into RED or GREEN. Read the report to the bottom and you'll see links to either ADD A COMMENT at the end, or continue past the end of the report to view the comments that already have been made. Each response has a REPLY link at the end, and by clicking on that you can target your response directly to that student's posting.

Note that when you go into RED or GREEN, you’ll only see the current report (we post new reports, and enable discussion about them, every 2-3 days). If you want to go back and see earlier reports, just click on REPORTS along the left. You’ll be able to see previously-posted reports and upcoming reports as well.

TALKING WITH OTHERS

You'll want to be in the habit of checking to see what other people say about the reports--talking with your peers is a really important part of this experience. There are university student mentors from the University of Michigan who will be taking part in the conversations and helping to facilitate.

REPLIES TO YOUR RESPONSE

If you want to see if anyone has responded to your posting, just go into MY WORKSPACE. There you’ll see links to any postings that you’ve made and you’ll also see if anyone has responded to you (there’ll be a number in the far right column). Just click on the title of your post and you’ll be taken to see your posting, in context, with any responses easily viewable.

In the report excerpted below, Sarah writes about some of her impressions (and questions) about how saving face looked to her. One of our student participants, of Yemeni heritage, shares some of her cultural experiences, and she is responded to both by a university student mentor, and by Sarah. The concept of  saving face  is one to which i believe most cultures can, in some sense, relate.  saving face  means, in short, preserving one  s personal dignity, therein fulfilling a perfectly natural human desire for respect. However, the actions constituting this  saving face  vary so much between cultures that this familiar concept can seem entirely foreign in a different country.  saving face  is considered a vitally important aspect of asian culture, and in china i think it manifests itself through calmness and  rightness.  the chinese appear to avoid being caught in a situation which might expose an obvious conflict or mistake. Coming from a culture that values honesty, bluntness, and even admission of weakness when appropriate, i  ve found the face-saving techniques of some of my chinese colleagues frustrating. I must emphasize that were i chinese, i would find them perfectly normal and would find western habits frustrating. No method is better or worse; they  re just different . I understand your philosophies on  saving faces  because that is what many people in my family, who are mostly from yemen, respond in these situations. Yes sometimes mean no and no sometimes means yes. An example for you is if you were in yemen, and you were a guest, you would be welcomed and offered a drink, without question, because that is in the tradition. Often if someone asks you if you want a drink it would be more appropriate to say no, even if you are thirsty. That is why they do not ask. If someone from yemen came to the usa and was asked do you want a drink, they would not want to be rude so they say no. They even might consider the asking rude, because they expect you to give them something to drink. What would be more rude is if you said, <span style="font-family: 新細明體;"> help yourself, <span style="font-family: 新細明體;"> because no one would get up and start going through your fridge, they would think it rude. If you have any questions on my culture or any more comments on the chinese culture, please let me know <span style="font-family: 新細明體;">. Hi anese! I just read your post and i am sad i didn <span style="font-family: 新細明體;"> t see it sooner. I think it is great that you can connect to this post by using your own culture. And, it was, like sarah said, very interesting to read. I think you are definitely correct in saying that yes sometimes means no and vice versa. Why do you think this is? In other words, what might you imagine the reasoning to be behind <span style="font-family: 新細明體;"> saving face? <span style="font-family: 新細明體;"> you can use examples from your culture too! Anese, this is so interesting to read. It just goes to show that if you <span style="font-family: 新細明體;"> re part of a culture, you understand its subtleties and know what the appropriate response is. If you are outside the culture and don <span style="font-family: 新細明體;"> t understand, the customs can seem strange. I just responded to someone on this forum who said the chinese custom of saving face seemed like <span style="font-family: 新細明體;"> inefficient communication <span style="font-family: 新細明體;">. I pointed out that for chinese people who know exactly what to expect, the communication is perfectly efficient, and the typical american response would be considered rude! Thanks for your sharing too <span style="font-family: 新細明體;">.
 * Sample Discussion **
 * Saving face (Sarah Baughman)**
 * That was true (Anese <span style="font-family: 新細明體;"> ** **HS Student)**
 * Reply to Anese (Jordyn <span style="font-family: 新細明體;"> ** **UM Mentor)**
 * Anese (Sarah Baughman)**