On the first floor of Crockett Hall lays a large gold-colored container. Inside is a virtual gateway to create worldwide connections.
With a total of 17 sessions and more than 150 participants in Richland, the Global Portal is one of Intercultural and Global Student Engagement’s high level global strategic initiatives. The portal is in collaboration with Shared Studios, an immersive audio and video technology company that aims to connect classrooms to global communities.
The sessions are set up by a variety of professors. Integrated campus programs choose the theme of the sessions as well as the country that they want their students to have a conversation with.
The portal works by having students seated in chairs inside the gold colored foil. A large screen is set up with a camera to communicate and have verbal discussions with their global partners.
Richland is the fourth Dallas College campus to have the portal so far. IGSE plans to expand to all seven campuses.
“We want to make sure that everyone gets an opportunity to experience the portal,” said Andrina Jackson, IGSE Director.
The portal was in Eastfield last summer and will be located in Brookhaven in this year’s fall semester. This portal is also the only one by Shared Studios that is currently located in a community college.
With these sessions set up with people across the world, students have the chance to make global connections without even going past their campus.
“A lot of our students don’t necessarily have the opportunity to travel outside of their zip code … so we saw an opportunity to really navigate some of those obstacles,” Jackson said.
For one professor, the portal was a way to educate students outside of his usual location. “I was hoping that it would be another way for them to do two things. One, another way to relate to history and think about history and more digital spaces. And then two, I was looking at it to get them out of the classroom,” said James Conway, a Richland and Brookhaven U.S. History professor.
Conway’s session partnered with Centro de Cultural Digital, a cultural center based in Mexico City. His two 30-minute sessions focused on digital culture and storytelling and explored how digital art and technology are used for community storytelling.
Conway said the session was a chance for students to go beyond what they are used to. “I think it’s important for them to get more of a global perspective instead of in this classroom or at home,” he said.
Alexandria Gurley, IGSE Senior Manager, said some students may even come out with a learning experience in the end.
“They’ve been very receptive to it. … A lot of them are still transformed by the experience by the end of it. They have engaged in some way. They got something from it,” she said.
“It’s given them the opportunity to see that there’s other people across the world. They’re thinking about these same social and global issues. You can be in partnership with others to solve these complex issues,” Jackson said.
