Using Technology to Build Bridges between University Silos and International Partners at a Southeastern University: the VIRSL Project

• In Event: Using digital technologies to foster equity, collaboration, and innovation in education in diverse contexts

Proposal

Technology is indispensable to building bridges between silos consisting of university academic entities, between the global North and South silos, and between silos that separate students, faculty and community (Bheda, 2021; Freiband, et. al., 2022, Mann, et. al. 2024, Taylor, et. al., 2024). Virtual International Reciprocal Service Learning (VIRSL) has been breaking down these silos since 2016 through the integral and necessary use of technologies. This study documents the process, strategies and types of bridges realized through the VIRSL project.
Silos are defined as compartmentalized disciplines, departments, colleges, programs, students, faculty, staff and other entities inside and outside the academy that isolate those entities from each other. Some perceive silos positively as mechanisms that facilitate and protect focused work on specific content (Nielson, Rex P., 2024). Silos are critiqued as barriers to collaboration that disallow cross-fertilization that can result in new ideas, expanded knowledge bases, improved career opportunities, research opportunities and international and community collaborations. Anati views the single discipline perspective promoted by silos as “too narrow and dangerous” (Stanford GSB, 2024). While silos have been critiqued for over two decades (Kolowich, 2010, Stolz, 2021), more recently academics have taken significant actions to work across silos, primarily within institutions (Taylor & Kubasko, 2019; Kirwan et. al. 2022; Freiband, et. al., 2022, Devin et. al. 2024). Most reported bridges connect two disciplines. There are limited examples of bridges that create multidisciplinary collaborations and collaborations between universities in the global North and South. One example of multidisciplinary bridges is Cornell University’s “undisciplinary center” which creates a “porous” structure for faculty to participate in multidisciplinary activities. Still, this example breaks down intra-university silos but leaves other types of silos intact. International silos are typically bridged maintaining academic content silos (Devin et. al. 2024) and global North institutions.
The authors, all participants in the project, recently recognized that a “web” has been established bridging various silos related to VIRSL in complex technological, disciplinary and international patterns. Through VIRSL related projects, academic bridges were established between the colleges of education (professional studies and teacher education departments), arts and sciences (languages department) and continuing education (ESL program) at the author’s university. Transnational bridges were established with a Central American agricultural university, private universities in Armenia, Kenya and Japan, English language institutes in Colombia and an American School in El Salvador. The “web” connects each of these entities through technological and other mechanisms.
The VIRSL project connects students in Latin America (Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia), Eastern Europe (Armenia), Asia (Turkey, Japan) and Africa (Kenya) with students from the authors’ university. VIRSL seeks to promote equitable collaborations between a university in the global “North” and educational institutions in the global “South”. The project recognizes that students and faculty from each involved country and institution have important views on issues affecting the world’s citizens. Participants discuss UN Sustainable Development Goals as they relate to the participants and to diversity topics such as gender equity, religious perspectives, educational structures and access, social class and poverty, treatment of people with special needs, racial and social justice, cultural factors and personal experiences. Participants also dialogue on topics of group interest. Participants in the VIRSL project grew out of previous projects designed by the authors to reduce intercultural stereotyping and assumptions about people from the global North and South. Students and faculty from the U.S. author’s pre-service teacher diversity classes interacted with students and faculty from universities in Kenya (communications), Tanzania (education) and Honduras (agriculture). The U.S. author’s involvement in her university’s international studies program and her creation of a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certificate program offered future TEFL instructors opportunities to interact with English Learners and for these and international relations students to gain transnational intercultural competencies. Involvement of students from these two programs created bridge between two colleges and four departments. The work of another author working in TEFL internationally provided opportunities to expand VIRSL participation to an American school in El Salvador, a university English program in Armenia and a partnership with Binational Centers in Colombia. Finally, the creation of an English as a Second Language (ESL) tutoring program brought community members into VIRSL and created a bridge to continuing education. Further, faculty from participating institutions created a research group to examine various aspects of VIRSL including language learning, equity in North-South collaborations and transnational cultural competence. This complex web would not be possible except for technologies the project relies upon.
In previous research on VIRSL the authors examined the use of technology during the pandemic to bridge silos created by the North/South divide, and by cultural and economic barriers (authors, 2023). Using a phenomenological case study approach (Patton, 2002) we expand on previous research through an exploration and reporting of the process of creating bridges between intra-university, inter-university, inter-educational institution, inter-global North/South and inter-student-faculty silos, technology contributions to the process and the resulting structures and benefits. Qualitative data were collected during the Spring and Fall 2024 semesters and will be collected in the Spring, 2025 semester. Initial data collection utilized document review, synchronous event observations, participant observation, field notes and researcher interviews. Data was coded into emergent themes. Subsequent member checks and data gathering is being conducted through informal interviews. This data will be triangulate to confirm emergent themes (Lincoln & Guba, 1985).
Data reveal that bridges were initiated through the VIRSL project, the TEFL certificate and the ESL tutoring programs at the author’s university. The data revealed how bridges form a web connecting each academic entity, international partner institutions (and programs), students and faculty from different academic disciplines and enhance collaboration and transnational intercultural competencies for participating faculty and students. The data also revealed that university-provided and free technologies have proved necessary in bridging the aforementioned silos. Participants used web conferencing applications (Zoom, Webex), Google Docs, social media applications (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube), Learning Management Systems (Canvas, Sakai), meeting scheduling applications (World Clock Meeting Planner, Doodle), whiteboards (Jamboard, Zoom whiteboard) and messaging applications (Facebook messenger, WhatsApp) to facilitate various aspects of VIRSL.

Authors

• Laureen A Fregeau, University of South Alabama

• Robert D Leier, English Language Programs, U.S. Department of State

• Ukaiko Ojiambo, St. Paul's University

• Elizabeth Hernandez, Escuela Agricola Panamericana Zamorano

• Felix Ariel Romero Romero Figueroa, University of El Salvador