Intercultural Learning

I think that the best circumstances for intercultural learning are those where individuals are able to have personal interactions with several "others." I think that the interactions have to be somewhat personal (including personal opinions, beliefs, etc.) because otherwise instead of understanding nuanced details about the "other", the "other" may be seen as more of a flat caricature which will be more likely to inforce general stereotypes.

That being said, I do think that CMC can lead to this type of intercultural learning, but I am not sure that it can be as powerful as being submersed in the world of the other (like traveling/studying abroad). One of the activities from the articles that seemed to be especially condusive to examining what constitutes "self" vs. what constitutes "other" (the idea of recul) was the textual chats with video conferencing that centered around real (one that are likely applicable to the student) discussion topics. This seemed to promote intercultural learning since students could express and react to each other's idea in real time and focus on better understanding an aspect of their partner's worldview (in relation to their own and other people that they know).

However, one question that I have about engaging in such activities in a classroom vs. outside a classroom is how much does the fact that transcripts will be seen by a teacher affect/censor the type of conversations that students will feel comfortable engaging? I would imagine, at least from my own experience, that there is a sort of distance that is maintained so as not to share one's personal beliefs or ideas to too great a degree when a teacher will be reading the transcript. I wonder if studies have looked at this and how it has been addressed...