A cross-cultural web-exchange project “Ibunka-2023”
Oksana Chugai
A cross-cultural web-exchange project “Ibunka”, which means “different cultures” in Japanese, was launched by Prof. Masahito Watanabe from Yokohama National University in 2000, involving more than 20 countries including Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, Taiwan, Colombia and Ukraine (Watanabe, 2020). Teachers and students from different countries take part in a web-based bulletin board discussion during twelve weeks. Covering the topics related to school life, cultures, social issues and world peace, they also focus on current international conflicts. There are some requirements that regulate discussion: frequency and size of postings and comments, quality of photos and videos, etc. Teachers register their students and moderate their postings, but students are free to choose any topic from the suggested list and any post of other participants to comment on.
This academic year more than one hundred teachers and students from National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” take part in this international project. Completing the process of registration, using their personal usernames, IDs and passwords, the participants introduced each other, shared photos of their educational institutions and responded to posts of others. First topic “School Life” is open from 25 September to 22 October, each group of participants share their posts not only within their group, but respond to the posts of other institutions from Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan learning about academic culture and lifestyles of their peers.
This unique project will not only promote better understanding of multicultural society, but disseminate the experiences of Ukrainian students and teachers struggling through wartime.
References
Watanabe, M. (2020). Project Ibunka – a web-based virtual exchange project. In E. Hagley & Y. Wang (Eds), Virtual exchange in the Asia-Pacific: research and practice, 201-230. Research-publishing.net.| https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2020.47.1153