Running Head: TECHNOLOGY 1

Communication Technology: an attack on prejudice or its unwitting enabler

Rob Glover

Queens University
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Mark Twain is credited as saying: Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and

narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these

accounts. At its heart, I feel like the Soliya programs greatest possible

strength is an attack on the prejudice which festers in a sedentary existence

through the power of technology. What I learned is that technology itself

may, indeed, be the inadvertent cause, or at least the enabler, of such

prejudice. As well connected nations dominate the media, less wealthy

countries struggle to share their voice in the face of a tidal wave of

messages produced en masse and carried on much more powerful networks.

Nuts and Bolts

The Soliya program is based on a group Facetime like platform, where

several people log in and share both voice and video. When working well, the

platform is pretty successful. Having the ability to see facial expressions,

dress, and surroundings was some of the most interesting parts of the

program.

The website also allows for small breakout sessions. These were basically

mini-version of the main meeting room and were very helpful for some

activities and also for our final project. One of the greatest benefits of the

smaller breakout room was the ability to have a more personal discussion

with one or two members of the group.

As is true in the wider world, sometimes technology is a downfall as much as

it is a blessing. Several people in the group, mostly those that lived outside
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the U.S., had some recurring technological issues. One of our Pakistani

members continually had sound issues. He had a deep voice and his accent

was thick, but more detrimental was the constant background noise that

came through his microphone. This made it a requirement for him to repeat

statements or type them in. He was a little frustrated so he answered fewer

questions. At times, we all simply left his misunderstood comments hanging

because we felt bad about continually asking him to repeat what he said.

Our member from Lebanon had many problems with connection. Several

times each session she would drop and come back on. The other Pakistani in

our group had good connection but it ended abruptly at a certain time (was

cut off by the University). In both cases, this caused some stress on the

conversation leaving them out of some discussions.

While these were certainly negatives, it was also part of the learning process

for me. Things like poor connection or less-than-ideal technology can greatly

affect the ability of one group to communicate. The natural result is often the

dominance of one voice while others are silenced. It helped me to think

about how important an equal technological playing field is to healthy global

communication.

The people

I believe I had a fairly diverse group, even though some members werent

always able to connect. The members were evenly dispersed from the U.S.

and middle-east.
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Tatiyana, or Tati for short, is a Lebonese student. Her early connection

problems greatly reduced our ability to hear her voice in group discussions.

Fortunately, as the course continued, she was able to stay connected for

longer periods of time. I believe there was at least a little language barrier as

she would provide answers that werent always directly connected with the

question. However, her thoughts were well presented and obviously from a

place of passion for her country.

Hajar is a young female from Morocco. We heard the least from Hajar, mostly

due to continual connection and sound issues. She was able to type some

answers during our discussions but she has been absent for the last two

sessions. I thought this as a great detriment as she was the only member of

our group that came from Africa.

Hasan lives in the city of Lahor, Pakistan. Given his location, he is all-too

closely familiar with the bombings that occurred over Easter. The theme of

technical difficulties didnt escape Hasan as his mic typically picked up so

much background noise he had to type much of what he said. I found his

engagement thoughtful and he was not shy about sharing them. Some of my

favorite exchanges were between Hasan and the other Pakistani in our

group, Aruna, as their thoughts about Afghani migrants differed.

Aruna also hails from Lahor, Pakistan. As the most vocal member of our

group I could rely on her to help me move the conversation along. Her

English was great and her connection / mic were consistent. In one exercise I
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will describe later, she and I were paired to speak in a breakout room. Along

with Hasan, she was very vocal in her dedication to a food dish called

Biryani. After their suggestion I was able to try it in Charlotte and, I would

agree with their positive assessment.

There was a member of the group named Rob. He was annoying.

Haley grew up in Southern Illinois and attends Southern Illinois University.

She was moderately participative and typically offered non-confrontational

opinions. As a member of our breakout group for the final project, she was

very helpful in quickly identifying a topic and method.

Kaitlyn was the most vocal of the US group members (besides that jerk Rob)

and her M.O. was what I consider typical of a college student. She was very

liberal in her approach to topics and didnt offer much confrontation to any

opinion. Kaitlyn is also a student at SIU but is from New England.

Our moderators were Kate and Vesna. Unlike other members of our class, I

felt that they did a fairly good job. Kate is a teacher from New York and Vesna

grew up in Croatia but now lives in Massachusetts. The first couple meetings

were a little slow and neither was, in my opinion, aggressive enough in

moving the conversation forward. I felt like both gained confidence as the

semester went on and they are now much more active in gathering input.

The activities
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I suppose its on purpose that many of the activities we were given to do

during each session were reminiscent of those we did in 100 level

communication courses. I imagine a communication facilitators handbook

that must list these.

In one exercise, we were paired with one other group member and spoke

with them privately in a separate room. This was the exercise I referred to

previously. I was paired with Aruna. We were each to talk about a struggle we

have had and how it affected us. One person would talk about that topic and

the other would listen. Then that same person would repeat the information

and the other person would repeat it back. Finally, the speaker would tell the

story a third time while the listener asked questions. It turned into one of the

best activities of the semester, as I learned about how difficult it was for a

Christian living in Pakistan.

In another thought provoking activity we had to list seven things that define

us to the outside world. Then, systematically, we were asked to eliminate 1,

then 2 and so on until we were left with what we felt were the most

important three. It was difficult and an interesting discussion piece.

Finally, in our last meeting before this writing, we were given a word and had

to list a few stereotypes that may go with it. This is when I noticed our

facilitators becoming more active. Overall the group did a good job of

engaging with this practice, but for the most part no one was willing to say
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anything negative. We left the session with a request from our facilitator to

not be so worried about discussing negative stereotypes.

Conclusions

I believe the Soliya program can be very valuable especially for college

students as the next generation of leaders. For the program to be truly

successful, however, the facilitators could be trained to move the

conversation forward earlier. There are methods that are working now, mid-

semester, that I think could be employed earlier.

I learned some important lessons, but few I expected. While I was exposed to

a little of the other cultures present (I think each semester and session

should begin with some sharing of local culture specifics), what I really

learned was how difficult it can be to foster communications between such

disparate places. I am most certainly left with big questions on my mind:

How can we create a world of equalized communication opportunities? Even

if the technology were available everywhere, what political blockades would

there be creating this equilibrium? And finally, is it possible for nations with

high levels of consistant connectedness to no dominate the global

conversation or is that a natural and unavoidable byproduct of an un-level

playing field?

I am glad to see we have come so far in our ability to share messages from

around the world, but I think I will have to continue to rely on travel. It would

be interesting, however, to see what Mark Twain would think of Facebook.