Luisa Conti, Fergal Lenehan (eds.) Lifewide Learning in Postdigital Societies

**Studies in Digital Interculturality**

# **Editorial**

As cultural boundaries blur and virtual and physical spaces merge, interculturality and digitalization mould our everyday world. We believe these entangled concepts should be viewed together.Our interdisciplinary book series is dedicated to the idea of a scholarly Intercultural Communication,informed by the perspectives of critical Digital and Internet Studies: **Studies in Digital Interculturality**. In this series we wish to publish thematically relevant monographs, anthologies, dissertations, and edited volumes of the highest quality.

The seriesis edited by Luisa Conti, Fergal Lenehan,Roman Lietz andMileneMendes de Oliveira.

**LuisaConti**(PD Dr.)is a researcher at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena,Germany, as well as P.I. in the EU-project "KIDS4ALLL: Key Inclusive Development Strategies for Lifelong Learning" and "ReDICo: Researching Digital Interculturality Cooperatively". The chief pillars of her interdisciplinary research are education, communication and cultural studies. Her focus is on the factors and dynamics which foster or hinder social cohesion, with digitality being therefore a central aspect of her field of research.

**Fergal Lenehan** (PD Dr.) is P.I. and researcher at the research co-operative "ReDICo: Researching Digital Intercultuality Co-operatively". He has written extensively on the intellectual history of the European idea, Irish-German relations and histories and theories of the Internet. His research focuses on theoretical linkages between postdigitality, intercultural communication and cosmopolitanism.

Luisa Conti, Fergal Lenehan (eds.)

# **Lifewide Learning in Postdigital Societies**

Shedding Light on Emerging Culturalities

This volume has been written within the framework of the project ReDICo: Researching Digital Interculturality Co-operatively, which connects the universities of Jena, Potsdam and Mainz.

## **Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek**

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**First published in 2024 by transcript Verlag, Bielefeld © Luisa Conti, Fergal Lenehan (eds.)**

Cover concept: Akemi Paz and Tatiana María Pinzón Villafrades, Leipzig Illustrations (including cover illustration): Akemi Paz, Leipzig Proofread: Cathal Sheahan, Dublin Printed by: Majuskel Medienproduktion GmbH, Wetzlar https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839468890 Print-ISBN: 978-3-8376-6889-6 PDF-ISBN: 978-3-8394-6889-0 ISSN of series: 2942-2620 eISSN of series: 2942-2639

Printed on permanent acid-free text paper.

*Dedicated to Jürgen Bolten*

# **Contents**

# **Playful Learning, Serious Games**

#### **Scimification**

# **Online Connection, Onsite Inclusion**

#### **Virtual Exchange as a Mechanism for Digital Education**

#### **Digital Competences in the Educational Sphere**

# **Appendix**

# **Acknowledgements**

*Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bolten at the first ReDICo E-Co-Conference "Lifewide Learning: Transformations and New Connections in Postdigital Societies." Dornburger Castles, Jena, 1 July 2022.*

First and foremost, we extend our deepest and most heartfelt appreciation to Jürgen Bolten; a visionary whose exceptional teaching, dialogic spirit, and innovative thinking have not only enriched our own lives, but have left an indelible mark on the thousands of students, scientists, and practitioners fortunate enough to cross his path.

Throughout ReDICo's inaugural E-Co-Conference from 29 June to 1 July 2022, which served as the crucible for the concept of this book, we had the privilege of celebrating three remarkable decades of his department's existence. Jürgen's open-minded approach has been nothing short of transformative, igniting inspiration in us all. His work, which fearlessly navigates the complexities of our intricate reality and revels in the art of embracing ambiguity, has opened up fresh vistas of understanding. With this book, we aspire to share a glimpse of his profound contributions on an international stage, as his influence, though substantial within the German discourse, deserves broader recognition. Jürgen died after a relatively short illness in March 2023.

We are deeply indebted to the artist Akemi Paz for her boundless creativity. Her artistic work breathed new life into conference discussions, has imbued our series on "Studies in Digital Interculturality" with a unique ReDICo character, and helped envision the content of this book: Learning unfolds continuously in our postdigital society, as we engage individually yet interdependently with the Internet's intricate web.

Our sincere appreciation goes out to all the authors and contributors who participated in the conference, actively engaging in dynamic discussions during the digital, hybrid, and analogue sessions. Special commendation is reserved for those whose work has found a home in this inaugural volume of the "Studies in Digital Interculturality" series. The prompt responses and dedication to refining the chapters have been pivotal in our collective endeavor.

We would also like to recognize our esteemed ReDICo colleagues, dedicated peer reviewers, and consultants who provided invaluable guidance throughout the process: Milene Mendes de Oliveira from the University of Potsdam and Roman Lietz from the University of Mainz. Additionally, we extend our gratitude to the scientific assistants who are integral members of the Jena ReDICo team, with a special mention of Carmen Pereyra, for their unwavering support.

Last but certainly not least, we wish to express our gratitude to the BMBF (German Federal Ministry of Education and Research) for their generous funding, which has made the realization of this entire project possible. Their commitment to advancing the field of "Intercultural Communication" on both strategic and scientific fronts is laudable and essential for our collective growth and development.

This book stands as a testament to the collaborative spirit and dedication of all those mentioned above. It is through your contributions, support, and steadfast enthusiasm that we have been able to embark on this transformative journey into the realm of digital interculturality.

Thanks to the publisher transcript for their receptiveness to our proposal. We are excited to commence a potentially enduring series of captivating and innovativeinterdisciplinary perspectives.This endeavor will continue to enrich the discourse on digital interculturality and foster meaningful collaborations among scholars, practitioners, and learners worldwide.

**Introduction**

# **Of Wineapples and Acorns**

*Nuala O'Connor*

I follow Calista because of the photograph of a pomegranate tree that she tweets. I zoom in, realising I haven't known how or where the fruit grow. The pomegranates are blushed and golden on the branches, topped with tiny crowns.

'Wineapples,' I whisper to the screen.

I'm brought back to myself as a child, peering at strange fruit on a cart outside my Dublin school. The fruit-seller calls them wineapples and splits one open, seducing me with the seed-rubies that belch from its heart. Sharp and gritty in my mouth, I love the seeds' alien nature, and the heft of the sundered carapaceinmy hands.Thisis exotica; thisis beauty; thisis the elsewhere I crave.

'Gorgeous', I respond to Calista's tweeted photo.

She replies instantly. 'This tree grows beside my house.' And I imagine a place of whitewashed walls and a blue door, the sea beyond. 'Show me an Irish tree!' she types.

I take my mobile phone, run to the balcony, and snap the crenulated, juststarting-to-turn leaves of my only potted plant.

'Oak,' I tell Calista.

'Very nice. And the fruits, what do you call them?'

'Acorns!' I reply. 'They're not for eating ☺'

'Yes. We call them βελανίδια,' she types, and I hop to Google Translate, listen, and say, 'Velanídia.'

We talk about the pomegranate's calyx and the acorn's cupule, how pretty they are, how perfect and essential. We talk about Greek sunshine and Irish drizzle. We move to DMs and Calista tells me she has fallen out of love with her husband. I tell her I have been single for two years and eight months, and that my father has dementia. She says she loves Greece, but she needs to find freshness, locate peace. I say I dislike the western city I'm in and its eternal, energetic clamour.

I sit on my bed at late hours, crack open my laptop like the cleaving of a pomegranate. The screen, in my midnight room, is my mirror and portal, its silver-light my connection. I scroll and tab, flit from platform to platform, from encyclopaedia to document. My last stop, always, is Twitter, to see if Calista is there. She has not posted in three hours. She has not posted in twenty-one hours. Has she gone?

The city without hums and hurries, screeches, slows, and re-starts. I sleep. I turn over and my eyes flick open. The red light of my phone, charging by my head, is bright as a ruby. I lift my mobile and go straight to Twitter. The numeral 1 hovers over the message icon and I quicken as I tap on it. Calista. She tells me she is flying to Ireland. She tells me that my oak needs solid ground, a rooting place, and that I do too.

'I am open to you,' she says.

I send her back words from a poem: 'The end cracks open with the beginning: rosy, tender, glittering within the fissure.'

'I knew you would understand,' Calista types back.

# **From Interculturality to Culturality** The Bridging Function of Postdigital Lifewide Learning

#### *Luisa Conti*

On 1 July 2022 in the scenic Dornburg Castles near Jena, Jürgen Bolten, keynote speaker at ReDICo's first E-Co-Conference, surprised the participants with a spontaneous and profound preamble to his presentation addressing critical global challenges.

Today, he told us, we have reached a historic turning point, a "Zeitenwende", marking a broader sea change. The once dominant inclination towards openness – seen since the 1990s and exemplified by the dismantling of European Union borders, the proliferation of free online services that have transformed the Internet into a dynamic Web 2.0, and the rise of emancipatory movements across the globe – has been pivoting towards a wider closure for over a decade. This turn towards a closing of society clashes today violently against the imperative of responding, in a sustainable and coordinated manner, to the challenges set by our complex, dynamic, and globalized reality.

On that day Jürgen Bolten criticized,in particular, the lack of prioritization of the ecological crisis, the ignoring of its irrevocable consequences, and this despite the recent experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, which means that we do know how considerable and rapid changes can very quickly dismantle and reconstitute our lifeworlds in new and different ways.

The pressing question Jürgen Bolten raised,in what would become his final public speech before his unexpected death, was how we, as a society, intend to confront and navigate this existential quandary.What resources and strategies do we require to surmount these challenges?

He called on us to embark on a journey of introspection and conscious societal transformation,in the advocacy of a holistic perspective, rather than isolated individuals seeking self-preservation, disconnected from any sense of collectivity. The message was clear: Our times need individuals who are willing and able to engage with uncertainty, by sharing expertise and resources

towards the development of innovative responses which guarantee a good life for all beings on Earth.

Precisely this ability to understand uncertainty not as a menace but as a challenge and to cope with it in a constructive manner, while creating new (fragile) normalities, is what Jürgen Bolten, in his extensive published work, has defined as intercultural competence. In this framework, interculturality denotes the encounter with the unfamiliar, while culturality represents the fabric of easily decipherable "familiar multiplicity" (Bolten, 2015, p. 118). Culturality emerges as individuals engage in habitual interactions within diverse contexts, thereby shaping their personal yet interconnected lifeworld over time. These interactions occur across various "fields of action" (Bolten, 2015, p. 40), contributing to the formation of a person's multifaceted cultural identity. In contrast, interculturality signifies encounters with the unfamiliar, which can occur not only in unfamiliar contexts but increasingly within familiar contexts, due to the intensifying dynamics of change. What is initially unfamiliar can evolve into being familiar; interculturality transforms into culturality, while expanding the "horizon" (Schütz & Luckmann, 2003, p. 48) of one's own lifeworld (Bolten, 2015, p. 117). Interculturality can, therefore, be understood as a transformative transition, enabling the assimilation of the new into the known, coupled with the simultaneous transformation of the self.

As summarized by Martin Buber's I-Thou formulation (Buber, 1996), our identity is a product of the encounters we undergo. Therefore, what people know, do (including thinking, perceiving, and de/coding), and feel are contingent upon what they have learned until that moment in the different fields of action they have spent their time in. While traditional cultural knowledge acquisition was grounded in immediate surroundings, the denizens of postdigital societies now have access to an almost boundless array of fields of action. The Internet has considerably expanded the realm of cultural learning, forming the foundation for a cultural hybrid digital space accessible at the click of a button. Consequently,interculturality becomes an *ubiquitous* experience of unfamiliarity, and learning becomes not just lifelong but *lifewide*: We are permanently and throughout our heterogeneous lifeworld confronted with newness which we need to 'learn' to understand.

The concept of intercultural competence, as proposed by Jürgen Bolten, does not just, however, underscore the importance of navigating uncertainty constructively. It also centres on the importance of fostering an ability to communicate effectively and harmoniously across cultures, defined broadly and fluidly, and in fuzzy cultural spaces.This competence does not merely concern the confronting of unfamiliarity, but the bridging of gaps, the establishment of connections, and the fostering of mutual understanding in a world characterized by increased interconnectivity (Bolten, 2015, p. 109).

As already stated, the digital space today plays a pivotal role in shaping interculturality. It is an ever-expanding field of action, which does not only intensify spontaneous encounters with unfamiliarity, but can also be used strategically for cultivating intercultural competence. The Internet offers individuals the opportunity to engage with diverse perspectives, access global information, and connect with people with various cultural backgrounds. Thus, intercultural competence in today's world involves not only adapting to newness but also actively engaging with it, harnessing the potential for personal growth and inclusive societal transformation.

Prior to dedicating the second volume in the series "Studies in Digital Interculturality", stemming from the second ReDICo-E-Co-Conference on "Cosmopolitanism in a Postdigital, Postmigrant Europe, and Beyond," to the diverse manifestations of cosmopolitan and authoritarian dynamics in the digital realm, this volume purposefully centres on the harnessing of the digital sphere's potential to foster intercultural competence. This is to be seen in the supporting of the transformation of interculturality into culturality by postdigital lifewide learning processes, contributing potentially to the development of a cohesive and inclusive world society.

Lifewide learning takes centre stage in this volume and, driven by their unique research enquiries, each chapter offers insights into the emergence of various culturalities within the digital realm. Nuala O'Connor, an award-winning Irish author, has already commenced the volume with her flash fiction piece "Of Wineapples and Acorns", written especially for the ReDICo conference. While some chapters delve into informal learning, others explore strategies employed in formal education and provide concrete case studies. Despite this diversity in research objectives and disciplinary perspectives, a connecting thread may be seen among the chapters.

To enhance clarity and coherence, we have structured the nine chapters into three sections, each guided by a distinct thematic focus and accompanied by a graphical representation from the Chilean artist Akemi Paz, created especially for the ReDICo conference.

In the section entitled "Playful Learning, Serious Content", the three chapters not only provide examples but also engage in critical examination of how playful frameworks can effectively convey substantial content.This exploration encompasses informal interactions on social media and innovative formalized frameworks within higher education.

All three chapters in the second section, "Online Connection, Onsite Inclusion", centre on the crucial role of digital platforms in supporting newcomers as they grapple with the complexities of integrating into new environments. These chapters illuminate the interplay between online and onsite experiences in fostering a sense of belonging, emphasizing how digital tools can facilitate inclusion, making it more accessible and effective.

Lastly, in the section labelled "New Teaching, New Frontiers", the spotlight shifts to the opportunities and challenges brought forth by digital technology in the realm of formal education. These chapters underscore the significance of overcoming barriers, whether they pertain to geographical distance or limitations in competence, to advance learning in the digital age.

# **1. Playful Learning, Serious Content**

Jürgen Bolten's article "Scimification: Holistic Competence Scenario Development and the Example of Virtual Intercultural Escape Rooms and Simulation Games"introduces the concept of "Scimification", a term he coined by merging the terms "science" and "gamification".This concept encourages exploration of the opportunities presented by digitalization in the development of creative educational approaches. It emphasizes the importance of addressing the complex interplay between knowledge, skills, and motivation, not least in higher educational contexts. While challenging the long-term suitability of traditional cognitive teaching formats, he also introduces educational innovations, such as virtual escape rooms and strategy games, which may significantly contribute to the holistic development of competencies.

The strategy game "Megacities", featured also in Jürgen Bolten's first chapter, serves as the backdrop for Milene Mendes de Oliveira and Mario Antonio Tuccillo's investigation into interactional patterns fostering intercultural learningin remote virtual teams. In their chapter entitled "Intercultural Learning as an Interactional Achievement in a Digital Space", they conduct a microanalysis of interactions among old and new members of an international team, and complement this with an examination of learning journals authored by the strategy game players themselves. The study uncovers distinct learning paths for newcomers, emphasizes the strategic role that digital tools may play, and underscores the responsibility of existing group members in newcomers' inclusion in the group in the formation of a shared culture.

In the chapter "Learning About Colonialism by Scrolling? The Twitter Thread as Lifewide Textual Offer and Cosmopolitan Potentiality", Fergal Lenehan explores informal learning processes within social media, specifically Twitter. His chapter delves into threaded conversations on Twitter relating to European colonialism. The author emphasizes that the, at times, interactive nature of Twitter threads, where users may textually engage with each other, fosters a learning process which may lead to a shift of perspectives. This argumentation aligns with Reischmann's lifewide learning concept, emphasizing its voluntary and subjective nature, and connects, he argues, with Delanty's thesis that exposure to global issues may transform perspectives. As discussed by Fergal Lenehan in this volume, Twitter threads offer a platform where cosmopolitan cultures may emerge and, indeed, spread.

# **2. Online Connection, Onsite Inclusion**

Yolanda López García's chapter "Exploring the Interplay of Lifewide Learning, Migration, and Social Network Sites in the Postdigital Field of Action" focuses on the potential of Facebook for informal learning. Following the bricolage approach, the author undertakes a multimodal analysis of two Facebook groups in which Latin American migrants in Europe offer emotional support to each other, while sharing knowledge and covering a variety of topics relevant in different phases, from decision-making concerning initial migration to managing life in the new country of residence. In this digital space, migrants find a vital platform to address questions that may otherwise remain unanswered. Through co-creating a common 'E-maginary', they not only share what they have learned but also enable others to learn from their experiences.

In their chapter entitled "Does Integration Still Take Place 'at the Local Level'? Challenging a German Integration Paradigm in a Postdigital World," Roman Lietz and Magdalena Loska critically dissect the traditional German discourse on integration. They argue that the focus on the material, local context no longer aligns with the postdigital reality of migrants. Today, migrants navigate a complex web of connections: their local community, diaspora, and their community of origin, all intertwined digitally. Drawing from recent empirical studies across Europe and North America, the authors reveal the multifaceted impact of ICT on migrants, including the profound influence on

identity development. Their work paints a comprehensive picture of how digitalization reshapes integration patterns, emphasizing the intricate interplay between migrants and their diverse cultural spheres.

In the final chapter of this section, "Buddy-Culture Goes Viral: Meaning and Potentiality of the Buddy-Approach in and Outside Formal Educational Settings", Luisa Conti, Janice Darmanin, Christine Fenech, and Klara Räthel present a hybrid educational design developed within a European Innovation Project to enhance the inclusion of young migrants. Using a digital platform, the project aims to foster key competences among both migrant and non-migrant students, teachers, and educators, promoting the buddy-system and disseminating the buddy-culture. The article addresses the lack of systematic research on this topic by exploring the core characteristics and objectives of the buddy approach, drawing insights from a systematic literature review on peer buddy systems and empirical data from buddy initiatives in Germany.

# **3. New Teaching, New Frontiers**

In her chapter "'Global Classroom': Postdigital Connecting Across Continents", Siobhan Brownlie explores an initiative undertaken by three universities spanning different continents. The goal of their collaborative 'Global Classroom' module was to enhance students' understanding of diverse political, social, and cultural issues. The author critically examines whether the arrangement of guest lectures, student presentations, and Q&A sessions on the selected topics could foster the emergence of a "small culture" and cultivate a postdigital critical cosmopolitan perspective among participants. Additionally, she reflects on the influence of the postdigital reality on student participation. Comparing the module's methodology to Virtual Exchange, Brownlie emphasizes the absence of peer-to-peer interaction in small groups, questioning its implications for the development of intercultural competence.

Virtual Exchange (VE), as a concept and a practice, takes centre stage in Rawan Tahboub's chapter, "Virtual Exchange as a Mechanism for Digital Education." Integrating her perspectives as both a scientist and a practitioner, the author explores the methodology of Virtual Exchange which aims to foster intercultural dialogue and knowledge sharing. Drawing from literature on facilitative pedagogy, documentation of specific VE programs, and her personal field observations, she compares various VE initiatives, elaborating key elements that guide the method's practical implementation and that explain

its pedagogical significance. Reflecting on its transformative impact, she argues for VE's potential in promoting peace education. Moreover, through her analysis, Rawan Tahboub underscores the success that Virtual Exchange has achieved in higher education in relation to the creation of culturality, and advocates for its broader recognition and adoption.

The chapter "Digital Competences in the Educational Sphere: A Case Study From Italy," authored by Tanja Schroot, Giulia Maria Cavaletto, and Roberta Ricucci, highlights the challenges posed by limited digital competence in the realm of pedagogical practice. The article explores digitalization in education in a case study drawn from the city of Turin, considering teachers' and students' competence, technical resources, as well as a variety of further factors that impact the use of digital tools for educational purposes and the creation of a new digital educational culture. The empirical study sheds light on critical aspects which underscore the necessity for teachers and educators to embrace a transformative approach: Digital integration demands a fundamental change in teaching culture, with educators first needing to fully understand its advantages.

# **References**

**Playful Learning, Serious Games**

# **Scimification**

Holistic Competence Scenario Development and the Example of Virtual Intercultural Escape Rooms and Strategy Games<sup>1</sup>

*Jürgen Bolten*

Abstract *Scimificationis anewly constructedword composedfromthewords science and gamification. In terms of content, it describes a realized form of the reciprocal connection between the competence levels of knowledge (cognitive level), ability (conative level) and will (affective level) in digital and virtual university teaching. The question of whether, andif so, how, science and gamification fittogether, arises with urgency againstthe backdrop of the corona-accelerated digitalization movement in higher educational teaching: Should games such as virtual strategy games be taken seriously at all in academic training and further education? Conversely, against the background of significantly changed teaching/learning scenarios, the question arises as to whether cognitive teaching/learning formats, such as 90-minute lectures, remain suitable for the initiation and maintenance of sustainable learning. Using the example of interdisciplinary and transnational university cooperation, this chapter outlines how virtual escape rooms and strategy games can contribute to the promotion of holistic competence development processes. They may also stimulate new curricular directions for the methodology-based didactic implementation of digitalization and internationalization.*

Keywords *Scimification; Gamification; Virtual Escape Rooms; Digitalization; Internationalization*

<sup>1</sup> This chapter is based on a paper given by Jürgen Bolten at the ReDICo E-Co-Conference "Lifewide Learning: Transformations and New Connections in Postdigital Societies", held at the Dornburger Castles, Jena, on 1 July 2022. It was translated from German into English by Fergal Lenehan.

# **1. Corona and its Consequences: A 'New Normal' for Teaching and Learning Scenarios?**

Since the spring of 2020 continuous speculation has reigned, from a wide variety of perspectives and in relation to various facets of life, as to what features may constitute the 'new normal' following the Corona pandemic (see e.g. Minkmar, 2021). What is common to most forecasts and visions of the future is their provisional sense: Are reliable statements on long-term structural developments possible at all in such a volatile 'between-stage' of 'finished' but, yet 'not quite finished' pandemic?

Precisely for this reason the search for a 'new normal' is a central and at the same time a paradoxical issue; an expression of a longing for clarity, for clear rules, a sense of constancy and consistent explanatory power – knowing full well that the 'new' quality of normality will consist of an unquestionable increase in uncertainty and ambiguity, not only technological but also ecological. In this sense, 'normality' represents actually the 'not-normal' (from a contemporary perspective) and an 'uncertainty' which is disruptively generated and whose structures are fragile, fuzzy and tend to retain a limited and temporary validity.

In other words: In theinterplay between structure and process,i.e. between culturality as unquestioned "relevance", "plausibility" and rule-formation (e.g. Schütz & Luckmann, 1991) and inter-culturality as the uncertain, the unfamiliar and the fluid (Kron & Weihrauch, 2021), the balance of power seems to have shifted towards the processual and the uncertain, in the sense of what is currently often referred to via the acronym VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) (Abidi & Joshi, 2015).<sup>2</sup>

<sup>2</sup> With the further acceleration of global technological, ecological, and economic dynamics of change, the more present and relevant the "inter-cultural" will become as a primary experience of uncertainty in familiar contexts characterized by culturality: Global and local, culturality and interculturality will increasingly lose the sharpness of their demarcation and instead represent a dynamic and ambiguous context of reference. Intercultural competence is thus expanding into a "VUCA competence", which still references classic experiences of uncertainty, for example in international assignments in which normalcy, plausibility and relevance are largely unrecognizable thus making routine action not clearly possible. However, due to the increased disruptive experiences of uncertainty – resulting from the consequences of climate change, pandemics, and the future failure of digital global networks – such a predominant deficit of culturality structures will increasingly gain prominence in culturally-familiar fields

In higher educational institutions, which remain the primary focus of this chapter, the departure from the 'old' structures of normality with the onset of the pandemic was at least not entirely unprepared for, as both digitalization and internationalization had already been a "core task of higher education development" (HRK, 2015) in Germany for several years. Although digitalization and internationalization represent a central component of – most – higher educational institutions' target and performance agreements with the respective federal states in Germany<sup>3</sup> , many of the strategies were not ready for practical application at the time of the complete suspension of face-to-face third-level teaching in March 2020.

According to a study by the Stifterverband für Deutsche Wissenschaft – a non-profit registered association which looks to connect the fields of education, science and entrepreneurial innovation<sup>4</sup> – in the winter semester 2019/20, according to the university teachers surveyed, just 12 % of the courses were digitally available, whereas "since the beginning of the pandemic, the proportion increased to 91 %"<sup>5</sup> (Winde et al., 2020, p. 2; see also Buchholz et al., 2020 and Besa et al., 2021). This adjustment usually took place within 30 days, sometimes even faster (Winde et al., 2020, p. 2).

Accordingly, what has often been experienced as "forced digitalization by Covid 19" (Sonnleitner 2021, p. 183) has, on the other hand, given not only digitalization but also, indirectly, internationalization efforts at universities an enormous and unexpected developmental boost:

The abrupt rethinking and reorganization, especially with regard to teaching [...] allowed virtual forms of internationalization to become, within a very short time, in many cases the only way to maintain international connections, to allow international students to continue to participate in the university life of the host institution and to offer international experience to German students. (Bendenlier & Bruhn-Zaß, 2021, p. 11)

of agency. This will make, therefore, intercultural competence especially necessary and relevant, and in an expanded sense (see: Bolten 2017 and Bolten/Berhault 2018).

<sup>3</sup> In the case of third-party funded project applications, the existence of clearly formulated internationalization and digitalization goals have increasingly become prerequisites for the successful awarding of funding.

<sup>4</sup> More than 11,000 students and 1,800 teachers took part in the survey, which was conducted by the Stifterverband in association with McKinsey & Company, Inc.

<sup>5</sup> All translations by Fergal Lenehan.

The "virtual internationalization" (Bendenlier & Bruhn-Zaß, 2021, p. 9) as well as the short-term conversion of teaching to digital formats required (and still requires) a large degree of willingness to improvise on the part of all involved. Schaller (2021, p. 30) formulates how this is seen from the perspective of students:

Face-to-face classes suddenly become digital lectures, journeys to the university and the walking distances between lectures are no longer necessary, group work or preparation for presentations in the form of joint meetings require new organizational ideas. The measures of the Corona pandemic, thus, not only have an effect on their learning and organizational behaviour, but also on their social life. Common breaks with fellow students, the morning coffee in the cafeteria, the chat in between – none of this takes place as usual anymore.

The recommendation, arising from this, for students is to "restructure their day and define new (digital) processes for their mode of work" (Schaller, 2021, p. 30), and is ultimately a plea to take the construction of a 'new normality' into their own hands. What ultimately must be structured individually and very differently with regard to the framework conditions of learning@home (time and media management, social contacts, adaptation to exercise and nutrition, etc.), also has an effect on satisfaction levels with one's own learning experience.

According to the Stifterverband survey, this dropped from 85 % in the winter semester of 2019/20 to 51 % in the first Corona summer semester of 2020: "Reasons for this include a lack of social life among students, problems with motivation and concentration when learning from home, and insufficient opportunities for exchange with teachers" (Winde et al., 2020, p. 4).

Accordingly, teachers were challenged not only professionally but also didactically to transform (or redesign) their content from face-to-face to online formats in as short a time as possible, as well as ensuring that motivation was encouraged, concentration maintained, and personal contacts continued to somehow be initiated. This is a task that should not be underestimated, especially since, according to the survey cited above – although with a clearly decreasing tendency – "one in four teachers view digital formats negatively" (Winde et al., 2020, p. 7).

Since, at the commencement of the pandemic, digitalization activities in the field of higher education had begun – more or less intensively – but had

not yet reached the status of normality, a digitalization 'culture' with sufficient practical experience and conventionalized rules of action had not yet been established. The aforementioned 'digitalization compulsion' was therefore premature from a developmental perspective and triggered uncertainties and negative effects that would probably not have occurred – to this extent anyway at least – if the cultural change had taken place without disruption.

Due to the pressure of having to co-constitute a 'new normality', digitalization initiatives have often created a paradoxical situation – because they have been implemented 'too quickly' for many actors, they have led to a complexityrelated loss of motivation<sup>6</sup> and to concentration weaknesses<sup>7</sup> . In short, this situation has contributed to a situation of indeterminacy, which, in view of the still unpredictable duration of the festering pandemic, apparently cannot be overcome in any other way than through digitalization.

It seems clear that the measures themselves will have to change. What will emerge as the 'new normal' in the field of digitalization requires a longterm and continuous negotiation process between technology development and user acceptance. How such a process will proceed, what will be developed, accepted, and further developed and what will not, can only be vaguely

<sup>6</sup> Loss of motivation results, among other things, from the 'too much and too fast' of the digitalization process, e.g., from the high innovation dynamics of software development (the necessity of permanently learning about the use of new 'tools'), to the lack of clarity as to what should exactly be learned and in what way.

<sup>7</sup> Causes of the concentration deficits lamented in the Stifterverband study result from multimedia practices: The smartphone, which is available to secure technical connections via the PC or as a supplement to them (e.g., when using voting tools), tempts people to engage in parallel social media activities, for example. This further increases the already multi-channel perception requirements: the 'old' all-in-one perception of face-to-face teaching is now distributed across channels such as audio, visualizations on the split screen, video segments, one's own webcam, chat functions and possibly even subtitles. In addition, there may be specific perception requirements of the home office environment, such as children requiring certain things, flat mates in the adjoining room or, indeed, curious pets.

predicted.<sup>8</sup> This leads to consciously experimental and sometimes improvisational behaviour within the very process itself.

A case in point from the context of digitalization is the lack of response to MOOCs imported from the USA at the beginning of the 2010s in the higher education sector: Massive Open Online Contents (MOOCs) use new technological possibilities with which, for example, lectures could be placed online and distributed worldwide. This process was linked to business models that sought to improve the income levels of universities. Less relevant were reflections upon higher educational pedagogy and as to whether, for example, face-to-face lecture formats with a duration of up to 90 minutes, and without further learning support, would be accepted at all. MOOCs were ultimately not widely accepted (Beck, 2015) because they were not relationally conceived as components of a complex system within a variety of connectivity options and were, accordingly, rejected by the face-to-face teaching system, which was still clearly dominant at this time.

As a reaction to this, experiments were conducted with "MOOC games" (Tan, 2013) in an attempt to establish a relationship with possible target groups in a playful and effective way and in an attempt to situate MOOCs within existing learning cultures. Another variant with similar objectives is to be seen with Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL):

In contrast to MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), smaller teams usually cooperate with each other in COIL formats in time-limited, closed, seminar-like structures. The students have to meet several requirements in the process: They organize themselves in university-mixed teams, solve tasks together in synchronous and asynchronous settings and in this way produce performance records. (Schillig & Girschik, 2021, p. 61)

<sup>8</sup> Tools such as Miro, wonder.me or video conferencing systems such as Zoom, which are now widespread in university teaching and also standard in the context of negotiation processes for data protection guidelines, were largely unknown before the pandemic, but these tools will play a central role, with decisions to be made as to which further technological developments are oriented towards them, with certain adaptations. In this way, dynamic networks with specific digitalization cultures emerge – with quasiguidance by the 'invisible hand'.

# **2. Affective Access, Conative Collaboration Scenarios and Cognitive Anchoring: The Holistic Orientation of the Scimification-Approach**

As this attempt in relation to MOOCs has not led to the desired success, at least in the German MOOC scenario<sup>9</sup> , it suggests that a playful approach does not *per se* also lead to the intended effect of attracting and retaining learners for learning subjects.

Controversies surrounding the meaning and benefits of including playful elements within learning processes – which have of course been undertaken since the earliest days of school pedagogy – in a digital context occupy the entire spectrum of reactions, between vehement rejection and enthusiastic advocacy.Thus, on the one hand, the danger of "losing sight of the seriousness of learning and academic activity and losing oneself as an educational institution in the shallow waters of the fun society" (Martens, 2009, p. 39) is emphasized, while, on the other hand, extremely enthusiastic reports on the successes of edutainment measures<sup>10</sup> are also to be seen (see e.g. Gris & Bengtson, 2021).

Empirical studies on the advantages and disadvantages of the use of games and gamification and the practice of game-based learning (GBL)<sup>11</sup> are indeed numerous, but also have not been able to clearly resolve this controversy, as recent meta-analytical comparisons show: Hoblitz (2015) summarizes that game-based learning slightly increases motivation in the classroom, but hardly improves learning effectiveness.

<sup>9</sup> As far as can be observed, there are still no empirical studies on the success or otherwise of the MOOC game strategy. In Germany, since the end of the MOOC hype in the mid-2010s, there has been a "relatively high degree of scepticism", as the study from the project "MOOCs After the Gold Rush" summarizes (Hüther et al. 2020, p. 70). According to the study,"none of the universities interviewed in Germany [...] plans to offer mini-courses of study or full courses of study as MOOCs" (Hüther et al. 2020, p. 70).

<sup>10</sup> Edutainment is a newly invented word mixing 'education' and 'entertainment'.

<sup>11</sup> Games may be embedded in learning processes, but basically exist independently of them. In gamification, game elements or playful tools (e.g., virtual reality glasses, virtual escape rooms or quiz formats, such as Kahoot) are integrated into contexts that are initially not game-based, such as conventional teaching/learning processes, while game-based learning makes playfulness the basis of the learning process. These include, for example, serious games. On the typology of the different game perspectives, see also Jaeger (2015).

Schaumburg (2018, p. 29f) comes to similar conclusions in her meta-analytical comparison: The effects of games on learning are positive, but the effect size is rather low. Important, however, is her (Schaumburg, 2018, p. 36) argument that "the learning effectiveness depends decisively on the reflection of one's own procedure in the handling of game scenarios", and that above all the way in which the game elements are didactically embedded is "decisive for the learning effectiveness" (Schaumburg, 2018, p. 37). When assessing the effectiveness under relational aspects, the question thus is not so much how good or bad a game or gaming element is, but to what extentis it suitable to be didactically implemented, and to what extent is this actually realized in the concrete individual case.

Competency models provide an orientation for the assessment of didactically successful implementations.<sup>12</sup> Even if the current structuring of the concept of competence varies greatly, competence concepts generally use grids that refer more or less explicitly to Heinrich Roth and/or Franz E. Weinert. In his *Pädagogische Anthropologie* (Pedagogical Anthropology) (1971) Roth divided the areas of competence into subject competence, social competence, and selfcompetence, which – supplemented by methodological competence in later discussions – still represents an important orientation framework for the development of education plans. This "broad concept of competence" (Detjen et al., 2012, p. 19), which clearly goes beyond the transfer of "information knowledge" (Erpenbeck & Sauter, 2016, p. 49), has been expanded in the context of the Pisa discussions.

According to Weinert (2001, p. 27f), competences describe the "cognitive abilities and skills available to or learnable by individuals to solve certain problems as well as the associated motivational, volitional and social readiness and abilities to use the problem solutions successfully and responsibly in variable situations." From Weinert's perspective, the interaction of cognitive competences and motivational orientations is constant for action competence. The functional aspect ('knowing, wanting, acting') that is also considered here has been anchored in educational policy across the board following the so-called Klieme expert report (2003) *Zur Entwicklungnationaler Bildungsstandards*(On the Development of National Educational Standards). Even if there are sensitivities within the competence discourse that do not seem to be necessarily conducive to an integration of the Roth and Weinert traditions (see e.g. Erpenbeck

<sup>12</sup> Compare also Bolten (2016a) on the concept of competence.

& Sauter, 2016, p. 74), a combination of both areas is likely to be expedient. Interfaces with intercultural competence research are obvious, although these tend to refer to cognitive, affective, and conative attitudinal components (Eppenstein et al., 2015; Bolten, 2016; Bolten 2020a). These interrelationships are more clearly shown in Figure 1:

*Fig. 1: Action Competence: Structural Features and Contextualization*

(Jürgen Bolten's representation, recreated by Carmen Pereyra)

With regard to the effectiveness of the digital tools used, it may be concluded that this is dependent on the degree of holistic tool implementation regarding their interconnection with the competence levels – in the sense of the meaning of the etymological origin of 'competence', namely from the Latin verb competere: to bring together. If the didactic implementation succeeds in the sense of such an interconnection of the affective, conative and cognitive competence levels, there is the chance of a high learning effectiveness through the fact that "competence development takes place as a circularmovement"(Erpenbeck & Sauter, 2016, p. 112), or better still in the sense of a spiral movement with its own dynamics.

In the theoretical positioning of recent competence discourses, the importance of the holistic aspect is beyond question: It is a matter of eliminating the "separation between the cognitive realm and the motivational realm" and modelling practical measures with which "motivational and affective aspects can be included as determinants of learning success" (Münzer, 2012, p. 3).<sup>13</sup> Appropriately holistic approaches take into account the ever more extensive networking of learning processes due to digitalization. For competence research, however, the stronger consideration of the interconnectedness and the non-linear character of its subject area also presupposes the willingness to review its own concept of science:

Thinking in networks is another way of thinking. At least in the Western world, networks and systems are broken down into parts in order to deal with them individually. The concept of science emerged from this reductionist view: The word 'science' is derived from the Indo-Germanic root 'skei-', which means 'separation' or 'sepe-ration'. Problems are broken down into parts in order to be able to deal with them better [...] and the holistic view is excluded. (Zenk & Behrend, 2010, p. 212)

However, a holistic understanding of 'science' must not mean an undifferentiated holism, but one in which the analytical depth of 'modern science' is preserved in its diversity and this diversity itself enables cohesive dynamics. The impetus here is the affective, which "with all its underlying directions of force", is the movement towards "charging action with energy" (Dahms, 2019, p. 15).

As shown, the strength of the affective aspect also remains dependent on a holistic perspective. This is less of an issue when game-based learning elements are regarded merely as supplementary, as is often the case in schools when games are used in substitute lessons. In higher education, the acceptance of the inclusion of game elements has been gradually increasing – but still rather remains on the level of a 'nice-to-have', which at least does no harm:

<sup>13</sup> However, the idea of a holistic understanding of competence associated with this does not correspond to practice. In practice, according to the critical view of current PISA and Bologna implementations, "the mighty and powerful knowledge transfer and assessment system continues to be granted dominance via distancing diagnosis and evaluation" (Erpenbeck & Sauter, 2012, p 22).

"Even in the classic forms of teaching, be it lecture, seminar, exercise or practical course, a loosening up through game aspects can certainly not be a disadvantage" (Martens, 2009, p. 45).

In digital contexts, the same is true for gamification applications: Learning progress indicators, quizzes, opinion polls, digital 'energisers', etc. have become increasingly popular because, for example in the case of a high-content complexity of teaching, they create a free space for short-term diversion and relaxation and – depending on the tool – promote social relationships.

However, the criticism basically concerns not the gamification tools themselves rather than their lack of didactic integration (Kerres, 2018): Thus, even if they are used selectively, playful elements can serve as motivational 'door openers'. It is important, however, to indeed keep the door open – for example, by ensuring that gamification elements do not only serve to 'loosen up' the teaching situation but are given defined functions within the content development of a learning process.

With such a step, playfulness no longer proves to be a separate or added tool, but an integral part of the learning process, in the broader sense of a "game-based learning."<sup>14</sup>

# **3. Action in Cooperative and Collaborative Scenario**

In Game Based Learning (GBL), playful elements are an essential part of the learning process. The focus is on competence development on a conative level: It is about the application of knowledge, for example in serious games15; also, in simulation games or in strategy games (Martens, 2009, p. 42).

<sup>14</sup> Gamification elements such as rankings, bonuses, badges and point systems are also used, for example, in serious games as forms of game-based learning. For a distinction between gamification, digital game-based learning, and serious games, see Farber, 2018.

<sup>15</sup> Examples of serious games in the school sector are above all "Dragonbox" (see: https://dragon-box.com/products/elements last accessed 29.9.21) or in the secondary/tertiary education sector subject-specific games in which one can go through team-building processes within the framework of video games or apply the knowledge learned in architecture, medicine, psychology etc. (see: https://seriousgamesportal.org/ last accessed 29.9.21).

Video games usually link knowledge acquired separately in teaching programmes with game actions, in that the players have to prove their acquired competences in a given game action by means of avatar characters. The game itself usually takes place separately from the classical teaching context. This can be fascinating in well-designed games, but usually retains a "nice to have" image. The separation is reinforced by the outsourcing of the players to an artificial avatar figure, which – similar to role-playing games – can be assigned alibi functions if actions are not successful. If avatars or roles are not provided for, the players are responsible for their actions as real persons. In simulation games, this applies to a somewhat more limited extent, in that business administration students simulate<sup>16</sup>, for example, decisions made by managers in specific industries, while the players in strategy games or *Planspiele*<sup>17</sup> are identical to the game participants.

The advantages of digitally supported and (e.g. through videoconferencing) virtualized simulation games and strategy games are especially evident in connection with the intensified internationalization@home measures due to Corona:They enable theimplementation of transnational cooperation with relatively little effort (see Kappe et al., 2021).Within this framework,intercultural experience can be gained, multilingualism practized, and international university relations intensified. Examples include the implementation of a TOP-SIM simulation game by student teams from Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences and the German-Turkish University of Istanbul (Kappe et al., 2021), as well as the transnational, intercultural strategy games "Megacities" (Bolten,

<sup>16</sup> See: "TOPSIM – Going Global: The management simulation game depicts six economic regions with different framework conditions. In the role of the management of a washing machine manufacturer, the participants initially operate exclusively in their home region. Soon, however, the focus shifts to the internationalization of the company's activities. Learning content: Corporate mission statement; expansion decisions; international marketing mix; strategic marketing" (see: KB\_TOPSIM\_GoingGlobal.pdf; retrieved on 31.8.21).

<sup>17 &</sup>quot;TOPSIM – Marketing: In the strategic and competitive business strategy game (Unternehmensplanspiel) TOPSIM – Marketing, the participants manage the marketing department of a manufacturing company. The participants control the operational processes from production to marketing of the products. Depending on the scenario, the products may consist of watches, mobile phones or sport shoes. Furthermore, participants decide on the strategic orientation of the company. Learning content: Objectives and instruments of marketing, market analysis; strategic production programme planning; test marketing; contribution margin calculation" (See: KB\_TOPSIM\_Marketing.pdf, retrieved on 31.8.21).

2016) and "Bilangon" (Bolten & Berhault, 2019; Bolten & Nietzel, 2021), both conducted via the "Glocal Campus".<sup>18</sup>

Since interculturally unpredictable dynamics are generated by the participants themselves due to the transnational collaboration in the strategy game, virtual strategy games may be seen as intercultural competence developmental actions: The aim is to be constructively competent not only in predominantly familiar contexts (see Fig 1), but also in unfamiliar contexts in which plausibility, normality, relevance and possibilities for routine action are predominantly not given (see Fig. 2, Bolten, 2020a and footnote 1).

Depending on the subject embedding of the strategy games, the learning target focus changes: for example,in the field of intercultural studies, the focus is primarily on the application of intercultural theory and model knowledge, while in the field of business studies, business knowledge is implemented and intercultural competences are addressed more as additional "future skills relevant to the labour market" (Kappe et al., 2021, p. 74).<sup>19</sup> The same applies to international projects that are carried out collaboratively without being embedded in game stories, such as the cooperation in the cross-national production of learning videos (Münch-Mankova & Müller de Acevedo, 2021, p. 155; see also O'Dowd & Lewis, 2016).

The extent to which the strategy games and projects are linked to the cognitive part of teaching, in which the knowledge to be applied was taught, depends on the curricular conditions and the didactic-methodological initiatives of those doing the teaching: Debriefings may take on a bridging function, provided that scenarios of knowledge transfer such as seminars,lectures, etc.offer corresponding reconnection interfaces. If this is not the case, there will be no self-contained dynamic interlocking of the competence levels and no holistic

<sup>18 90</sup> universities from 31 countries are involved in the glocal-campus.org learning platform, which is managed by the University of Jena and interculture.de. The platform serves to internationalize teaching and research in the fields of architecture, education, engineering, IT, intercultural studies, medicine, and urban studies. In addition to the exchange of digital teaching, joint lecture series and projects, intercultural strategy games on interdisciplinary topics are carried out on an ongoing basis. See the DAAD-funded IVAC project "Blended collaboration in intercultural simulation games": https://vi-gil.uni-jena.de.

<sup>19</sup> An important future task of intercultural research and teaching could be to develop practical forms of intercultural support for international academic collaboration scenarios and processes.

teaching/learning process at this point: Collaborative cooperation would remain, then, more or less isolated as an 'exercise' at the level of conatively-oriented teaching.

*Fig. 2: Action Competence and Intercultural Action Competence*

(Jürgen Bolten's own representation, recreated by Carmen Pereyra)

# **4. Holistic Orientation of the Scimification Approach**

In view of the need for rapid change in higher educational teaching due to the pandemic, it is possible at this point to summarize the discussion on the inclusion of game contexts from a methodological-didactic point of view:

• A 1:1 conversion from face-to-face to online teaching is too complex to ensure the necessary level of concentration and motivation. Comparable to the experiences with didactically non-embedded MOOCs, not only too

much learning content but also too little social contact has a negative effect on learning motivation. Game references can counteract this.

There is room for improvement in the practice of linking the described intersections to a holistic learning process in which gamification, game learning and scientific research and development intertwine as components of a teaching/learning process and initiate a momentum and dynamic of their own.

How corresponding scimification approaches may be conceived and implemented is outlined in conclusion on the basis of two IVAC (International

<sup>20</sup> E.g. Miro.com.

<sup>21</sup> A digital world café may be created using, for example, the tool wonder.me.

#### 44 Playful Learning, Serious Games

Virtual Academic Collaboration) projects that were worked on at the University of Jena (Intercultural Business Communication) from 2020–22.<sup>22</sup>

# **5. Scimification: A Practical Example**

IVAC (International Virtual Academic Collaboration) is a programme funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research and implemented by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to promote the integration of digital collaboration formats in study programmes within the framework of international teaching cooperation.The University of Jena (Intercultural Business Communication) participatedin the first call for proposalsin 2020/21 with the project VIGIL, and in the second (2022) with the project VEERIL. VIGIL, at its centre, concerns the implementing and updating of the virtual intercultural strategy games "Megacities" (Bolten, 2016) and "Bilangon 21" (Bolten & Nietzel, 2021), as well as developing a train-the-trainer course for moderating and debriefing virtual intercultural strategy games.

The VEERIL project was concerned with the development of a virtual Educational Escape Room. Other universities participating in both projects include: Université de Montréal (Canada), Université de Poitiers (France), Åbo Akademi University Turku (Finland), Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Iaşi (Romania), Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań (Poland), and the Beijing Foreign Studies University Beijing (China).

The scimification approach builds on the IVAC projects and links them to a teaching/learning scenario in which affective, conative, and cognitive competence levels are interdependently interlocked. In order to achieve this holistic effect, the scimification approach, visualized in Fig. 3, is structured into three activity stages.

<sup>22</sup> In relation to IVAC, see: https://www.kooperation-international.de/aktuelles/bekann tmachungen/detail/info/daad-foerderprogramm-ivac-zur-internationalen-virtuellen -akademischen-zusammenarbeit and https://www.daad.de/en/information-services -for-higher-education-institutions/further-information-on-daad-programmes/ivac/ (10.09.21).

#### *Fig. 3: Scimification Approach*

(Jürgen Bolten's own representation, recreated by Carmen Pereyra)

Stage 1 includes participation in a virtual Educational Escape Room.<sup>23</sup> The primary target groups of the version developed in the VEERIL project, with the focus on intercultural learning, were students who wish to include international experience (also virtual) in their studies within the framework of international university exchange programmes, blended mobility activities, or internationalization@home initiatives. It was also aimed at employees in international offices, language centres, and administrative departments involved

<sup>23</sup> The learning environment of an "Educational Escape Room" (EdER), originating from the USA, remains largely unknown in the European context (see the research report by Veldkamp et al., 2020). Unlike conventional escape rooms, the aim here is less to achieve a goal (e.g. deciphering a code to leave the room by solving tasks), but to experience the solution path as a motivating learning process and to become eager to deepen acquired and applied knowledge after completing the escape room activities.

with central tasks in the internationalization processes of their respective universities.

One of the main objectives is to motivate people in a playful way to understand and accept the challenges of international cooperation such as multilingualism, varying mindsets, unfamiliarity, and uncertainty as potential opportunities. A central result is, therefore, to overcome threatening feelings, e.g. in foreign-language or generally undefined or 'foreign' situations; not to withdraw, but to find the courage and desire to become active oneself.

The tasks of the intercultural escape room aim to provide a low-threshold and playful way of gaining initial experience in dealing constructively with unfamiliar and possibly unsettling situations. Uncertainty is created through exercises in which the participants are confronted in the virtual escape room with, for example, foreign/multilingual situations, different mindsets, implausible or ambiguous contexts of action, disruptive developments, and, apparently, untransparent facts. A game group should consist of 4–6 people from different universities and be international.

At the beginning of their work in the escape room, the participants are introduced in a lingua franca to the case study they are solving.They are asked to write down all of the expertise they think they can personally contribute to the solution of the case study. The collection of expertise is then visible to all the participants and suggests, for the course of the game, who among the participants has the necessary know-how for certain tasks within the escape room. Specific areas of responsibility and accountability are determined by the participants themselves on this basis at the beginning of the game. In the initial version of the escape room, a goal-oriented solution to the tasks (and thus the 'escape') succeeds on the basis of relationship-oriented communication, team action, knowledge communication, and knowledge sharing. In the foreground of the game life is the possibility to experiment in a protected space and to experience one's own strengths in order to open oneself in this way towards intercultural tasks, also outside of the escape room.<sup>24</sup>

<sup>24</sup> After the cooperation in the escape room, a debriefing is offered in which the participants may reflect on the (intercultural, virtual) cooperation as well as their solution path and formulate expectations, but also "uneasy" feelings, regarding upcoming challenges of intercultural practice. As an option, target agreements for the following weeks are planned, which the participants formulate in the form of a "note to themselves" and hand over to the game leader in a sealed envelope. After an agreed period of time, they receive the envelope back unopened and are thus "teased" to reflect on their own development or to gather further learning experiences (on the next levels).

In principle, an Educational Escape Room can be designed as a 'teaser' and a motivational tool for any subject area and discipline – and,if necessary, combined with intercultural challenges. It is conceivable, for example, that largely unknown fields of study, such as urban studies, can be thematically grasped in the game plot of an escape room and that interest in a more intensive engagement with the corresponding courses of study may be aroused.

Stage 2 in the intercultural scimification example outlined here does not necessarily require stage 1 in the chronology of the learning process but potential participants may certainly be encouraged by participation in the intercultural escape room, which may act as a 'teaser'.

The second stage focuses on the implementation of virtual intercultural strategy games – with the aim of engaging more intensively with challenges, such as the constructive handling of indeterminacy,multilingualism, time differences, and the negotiation of 'new normalities' or applying corresponding knowledge (for example acquired in stage 3).

Participants in the virtual intercultural strategy games "Megacities" and "Bilangon" – mentioned above and usedin the context described here – consist of three university teams from three different countries. The university teams comprise of 5–20 participants and, ideally, each have a headquarters room at their university, "onsite".<sup>25</sup> The three teams meet once a week for 2–3 hours in video conferences over a period of 6 weeks to solve the common tasks of the strategy game.<sup>26</sup> The video conference meetings are supported by collaborative tools such as the whiteboard Miro.

The overarching strategy game case study consists of the transformation of a brownfield site of several hectares into an attractive and liveable area. The brownfield site is divided equally among the cities or regions of the universities participating in the game. The three strategy game teams represent their respective university region in the design task as consultants, where they do not take on a predefined role or simulate the situation, but act as consultants on the basis of their own professional and non-professional expertise. The expertise is made transparent to all participants at the beginning of the game, similar to the procedure described in the escape room. It is possible to recruit

<sup>25</sup> With the discontinuation of face-to-face teaching due to the pandemic, the strategy games were no longer conducted in a blended learning format, but completely online.

<sup>26</sup> If time differences, semester schedules, or holiday regulations of the participating universities do not allow for continuous meetings, the simulation games are held in a time-adjusted form, e.g. as a block seminar at the weekend.

a limited number of members from other teams if a team lacks important expertise.<sup>27</sup>

Before the start of the joint planning game phase, the three consulting teams each draw up their own initial concepts for the redevelopment of the brownfield site. With a "cultural" self-conception of their objectives formulated in this way, the teams commence the collaborative phase of the game. The virtual wasteland, as well as the entire interaction scenario, become intercultural fields of action at this moment, as common rules of action remain initially largely undefined and developments in both the game and the group dynamics are difficult to predict.

In the course of the game, the aim is to collaboratively develop a common concept that is acceptable to all participants and, at the same time, does justice to the interests of the three regions. The three teams have to make a series of joint decisions and solve tasks in the individual rounds of the game (e.g. choice of language for the joint game phases; agreements on how to behave in undefined situations such as technical faults and team conflicts; elaboration of common guiding principles; a logo for the planning project; public relations; financial decisions, etc.). Most of the tasks are designed in a manner that requires collaborative and synergy-orientated work in order to find a solution.

The game is 'won' when the three teams succeed in creating common ecological, economic, social, and communicative 'infrastructures' in cross-team cooperation, allowing for a 'global' action scenario – characterized by sustainability – to emerge.On the other hand, the game is also about practising diversity in such a way that the ideas of the individual teams – further developed in the game – are realized in their regions and the members feel comfortable 'locally'.

Depending on the conference system used, the meetings are recorded by the system itself (Zoom, Teams) or via screencast and used at the beginning of the following meeting for an evaluation of the participants' intercultural interaction processes in the form of a debriefing: How do they deal with undefined situations? What are the strengths and weaknesses of collaborative working in individual cases? To what extent do they act and communicate in a relationship-oriented/perspective-reciprocal way?

<sup>27</sup> As a rule, the recruitment process intensifies situations of uncertainty within the teams because, for example, multilingual action is taken right from the start and unfamiliar assumptions of thought and action may play a role.

At this point, stage 2a offers the possibility of linking the conative and cognitive levels: In order to be able to deal more intensively with questions raised in the debriefing of the recordings, the participants are offered corresponding learning materials on the Moodle platform Glocal Campus. This includes specialist literature on diversity, intercultural team building or multilingualism research, wikis, videocasts and lectures on topics of intercultural cooperation, exchange forums, and peer-to-peer chats.

Since, similar to the escape rooms, the simulation games can be conceptually supplemented with subject-specific challenges in any weighting by adapting the framework story and the tasks (e.g. urban development, political science, tourism research, ecology, social sciences, etc.), the subject-related portfolios on the Glocal Campus expand accordingly. In this way, the strategy game materials are gradually 'rebuilt' with learning materials and specialist literature from different disciplines and countries – potentially, across many student generations. In addition, translations of the game materials into the common languages of the participating university countries and recordings of the strategy games (approved by the participants) are made accessible on the platform.

What is being realized in the current IVAC project context on the part of the seven participating countries, in the sense of the establishment of a foundation,may subsequently be developed further over generations of studies and students, and may initiate transdisciplinary research discourses. In this way, a "multi-paradigmatic sensitivity" (Grosskopf & Barmeyer, 2021) for international research cooperation can be promoted, in which it becomes possible to address currently dominant forms of cultural centrality in research and teaching perspectives and to test new ways of academic networking.

Stage 3 primarily refers to the level of cognitive competence development but is essentially aimed at developing an understanding of the systemic connection of the competence levels. The focus here is on supplementing the described teaching/learning and research materials of stage 2a, while also simultaneously engaging in an in-depth scientific examination of these materials.

The target groups are students and teachers, especially from intercultural disciplines, who are more intensively involved in general intercultural research. They may be interested, for example, in using strategy game recordings for analyses of intercultural discourse or intercultural action processes. This may be done individually or in the form of conventional courses. Ideally, this will lead to cross-university and cross-national cooperation, for example in the context of virtual seminar projects, lecture series, or research projects.

The results of the cooperation become accessible on the Glocal Campus and can, thus, also flow into the further conception and design of the game offerings at stages 1 and 2 (and vice versa). Therefore 'science' and the game/application level are brought together and constitute an interdependent 'scimification' learning scenario that may potentially initiate the aforementioned "competence development" "as a circular movement" (Erpenbeck & Sauter, 2016, p. 112).

In order to be able to actually implement the holistic nature of the scimification approach in practice, it is necessary to a) address the described structural limitations of the competence levels vis-à-vis potential actors, and b) instigate corresponding dynamics and self-initiated learning momentum:

In VIGIL the teachers from the participating universities initially accompany their teams in an organizational manner and participate rather passively in the debriefings of the strategy game management. Supported by the corresponding further materials on the Glocal Campus, after some time they should be in a position to conduct the first debriefings with their group themselves. If participants are interested in more in-depth training, they will be offered an online course "Debriefing of Intercultural Simulation Games" at stage 3, which is followed by a certificate and enables one to conduct complex debriefingsindependently.This in turn motivates you to independently acquire further partners in your own university networks and can generate a multiplier effect.

In the VEERIL project the self-initiated learning momentum is related to the product level: Teachers (here the participants of the VIGIL project) with experience in strategy games and good knowledge in the field of intercultural research and practice enter at level 3. They receive information on the objectives and design principles of Educational Escape Rooms and are asked to participate in an Educational Escape Room of their choice (if possible, in the country of their university location).

In a three-day "design thinking workshop" of the VEERIL project, the teachers then exchange their theoretical and practical experience. Supported by the project management, they jointly design and realize an intercultural virtual Educational Escape Room for stage 1 and conduct a trial run with their students. In this way, the students are introduced to the 'circular cycle' and at the same time – depending on their interests and courses of study – become motivated to take part in stage 2 and/or 3.

The teachers, in turn, have created a link between stages 3 and 1 for themselves by creating the escape room. By documenting the process of Educational Escape Room creation as part of their development work and by adding further theoretical or methodological-didactic materials on Educational Escape Room theory from their own particular research context, they establish a new feedback loop in relation to stage 3. In turn, the creation of an Educational Escape Room 'product' is a motivating factor to entice other teachers from their own university networks to participate in the escape room or in the creation of an escape room.

An essential factor for the creation of self-initiated momentum and dynamics within the scimification cycle is its curricular integration at the various universities. This is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges for IVAC projects.

The aim, thus, is to create testing opportunities for the scimification approach. It remains to be seen whether, and how, this will impact the respective university teaching approach and whether it will indeed help create a 'new normal' in terms of university teaching, at least within individual areas.

# **References**

Saarbrücken, 27. Juni 2012, Universität des Saarlandes, Germany. https:// www.uni-saarland.de/fileadmin/upload/einrichtung/zfl/PDF\_Fachdidak tik/PDF\_Kolloquium\_FD/Kompetenzorientierung\_aus\_Sicht\_der\_empiri schen\_Bildungsforschung\_Statement\_mit\_Folien.pdf

# **Intercultural Learning as an Interactional Achievement in a Digital Space**

*Milene Mendes de Oliveira and Mario Antonio Tuccillo*

Abstract *Digital spaces offer individuals the opportunity to interact and connect with others,to engage with more perspectives, andto develop intercultural competence. Inthis chapter, we explore processes of learning and participation by newcomers in a team, pursuing the goal of becoming fully-fledged members of that community. We observed the behaviour of a team consisting of four students from a German university and two students from a Finnish university, all participating in a number of sessions of an online simulation game. Particular attention was given to the participation development of the two students from the Finnish university, positioned as newcomers in the already-established team from the German university. We describe interactional practices adopted by the two newcomers and by the other members which foster participation and inclusion. Our findings show two learning paths by the newcomers, one in which legitimate participation became connected with performing a specific role in the group and another in which participation meant sharing the interactional routines established in the team. This case study, based on successful experiences of a remote team, can shed light on the link between intercultural learning and interactional practices.*

Keywords *Intercultural Learning; Interaction; Participation; Interculturality*

# **1. Interculturality, Learning, and Participation**

The intercultural communication literature is replete with descriptions of critical incidents (Spencer-Oatey, 2013), interactional mismatches (Gumperz, 1982), and communicative failure (Mendes de Oliveira, 2023) in intercultural encounters. There is also a vast literature on intercultural competence that describes the conditions under which this competence may be identified

amongst actors (Rathje, 2007) or the characteristics of a so-called intercultural speaker (Byram, 2021). Additionally, there has been a growing interest in "intercultural learning", with most studies focusing on tools and final outcomes of instructed education (Çiftçi, 2016), thereby building frequently on nationstate-based notions of interculturality.

Relatively few empirical studies have focused on how exactly learning takes place in intercultural environments,i.e. studies that build on the microanalysis of interactional practices, and their changes in such settings (see Borghetti et al.,2015). In this chapter,we focus on how learning takes place throughinteraction in a series of Zoom meetings involving two previously established groups. The definition of learning in our case study leans on learning as participation, a paradigm that counters a view of learning as a cognitive process of knowledge transmission (Freire, 1996; Sfard, 1998).This is in line with Bennett's reflections (2012; see the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity) that posit the existence of different experiences of intercultural relations, from denial of cultural differences (Bennett adopts a broad definition of culture that goes beyond national cultures; see Grosskopf, 2023), at one end of a continuum, to integration,i.e. the expansion of one's self as including a broader repertoire of cultural worldviews (Bennett & Castiglioni, 2004, cited in Bennet, 2012), at the other end. According to Bennett, when integration takes place, people consciously construct "dynamic identities for themselves that acknowledge their primary socialization but [...] extend who they are into alternative worldviews".<sup>1</sup>

As widely known, human beings participate in several collectives, each of which contain more or less conventionalized ways of thinking and acting. These ways of thinking and acting can be referred to as 'culture'. In this vein, Bolten (2015, p. 118) defines culturality as "familiar multiplicity" in recognition of the plurality of lifeworlds encompassed by the concept of culture. Thus, culturality denotes a condition in which individuals act within a known and familiar field of action; that is, they are familiar with the conventions – i.e. expectations of behaviours and moral judgments – used in the group and can easily understand communicative practices used by other individuals in that same field of action. By contrast, interculturality is characterized as "unfamiliar multiplicity" (from the German *unvertraute Vielfalt*) (Bolten, 2015, p.118) and is manifested when actors find themselves in a position where the frames of reference are unfamiliar (see Schütz, 1944) and cannot be grasped quickly.

<sup>1</sup> This is in opposition to Bennett's own past and more static views of identity and self (e.g. Bennett, 1993).

According to Bolten's theory, interculturality can be gradually transformed into culturality as the unfamiliar becomes progressively familiar and routines of thought and action begin to emerge (Berger & Luckmann, 1966).

A framework presumably able to explain how interculturality is transformed into culturality is Lave and Wenger's Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP).This is a framework that describes learning as a social phenomenon that leans on participation in certain communities of practice. It describes the processes experienced by newcomers in their attempt to become members and eventually old-timers in these communities (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Becoming a member of a community is a gradually evolving process that entails a newcomer participating first in simple but still meaningful tasks in the community, and through these interactions, developing an understanding of and participating more actively in the practices in this same community. As time goes by and participation evolves, newcomers eventually become oldtimers. As for the power relations between old-timers and newcomers, the former have the power to confer legitimacy to the latter and to control their access to sets of practices and experiences within the group.

In connection to their case studies on apprentices in communities of practice, Lave and Wenger state that:

Newcomers' legitimate peripherality provides them with more than an "observational" lookout post: It crucially involves participation as a way of learning – of both absorbing and being absorbed in – the "culture of practice". An extended period of legitimate peripherality provides learners with opportunities to make the culture of practice theirs. From a broadly peripheral perspective, apprentices gradually assemble a general idea of what constitutes the practice of the community. This uneven sketch of the enterprise (available if there is legitimate access) might include who is involved; what they do; what everyday life is like; how masters talk, walk, work, and generally conduct their lives; how people who are not part of the community of practice interact with it; what other learners are doing; and what learners need to learn to become full practitioners. It includes an increasing understanding of how, when, and about what old-timers collaborate, collude, and collide, and what they enjoy, dislike, respect, and admire. In particular, it offers exemplars (which are grounds and motivation for learning activity), including

masters, finished products, and more advanced apprentices in the process of becoming full practitioners. (Lave and Wenger, 1991, p. 95)<sup>2</sup>

The notion of participation has also received attention from scholars interested in the micro-analysis of social interaction. Even though the procedures for allocating turns in conversations (Sacks et al., 1974; see section 2 below) do not favour any particular participant, in actual conversations (especially institutional ones), rights to speakership are not equally shared (Drew, 1991, p. 21–22). An early and empirical study is analysis by Erickson and Shultz's (1982) of counselling sessionsin junior collegesin the USA.Amongst other aspects, they show how differing listening responses by students and counsellors and a mismatch in the use of cues by white teachers and African American students can lead to conversational trouble. In a study on participation structures in classrooms, Philips (1983) also investigated student-teacher interaction and their allocation of turns and learned that there is a major mismatch between participation at home, where learning follows observation in community activities, and school, which fosters separation between individuals. The use of bodily and prosodic cues has been observed by Goodwin & Goodwin (2005) in their analysis of how a man with aphasia manages to position himself as a ratified participant in the conversation. Their contribution set forth theoretical and methodological foundations for the multimodal conversation analysis<sup>3</sup> of participation. In a similar vein, in a recent study on decision making in mental health settings, Weiste et al. (2020, p. 2) called attention to the fact that participation presupposes social interaction, "which in return requires the capacity to coordinate with and make sense of each other's actions."

<sup>2</sup> Lave and Wenger (1991, p. 37) explain that periphery is a positive term: "Full participation, [...] stands in contrast to only one aspect of the concept of peripherality as we see it: It places the emphasis on what partial participation is not, or not yet. In our usage, peripherality is also a positive term, whose most salient conceptual antonyms are unrelatedness or irrelevance to ongoing activity. The partial participation of newcomers is by no means "disconnected" from the practice of interest. Furthermore, it is also a dynamic concept. In this sense, peripherality, when it is enabled, suggests an opening, a way of gaining access to sources for understanding through growing involvement. The ambiguity inherent in peripheral participation must then be connected to issues of legitimacy, of the social organization of and control over resources, if it is to gain its full analytical potential".

<sup>3</sup> Multimodal Conversation Analysis takes into consideration different modalities employed in the interaction, both verbal and non-verbal, i.e. eye gaze, speaking activity, facial expression, body movement, and hand movement (Penzkofer et al., 2021).

In keeping up with the aforementioned notions of learning and participation, in this chapter, we aim to answer the following research question: "How does learning through participation take place in a newly established online group?" We are especially interested in investigating whether processes of intercultural learning follow the patterns described in the LPP framework presented above. Thus, we investigate how the participation of new members is achieved interactionally in online exchanges via Zoom and his this reflected upon by participants themselves in journal entries written after the online sessions.

# **2. Dataset & Methods**

This study is based on the observation and analysis of data extracted from the virtual intercultural game "Megacities"(Bolten 2015).The script of the game involves a large piece of land ("Wasteland") which three neighbouring cities will inherit from a wealthy senior citizen under one condition: The cities must cooperatively develop a plan on how to use the land that is profitable for all three parties. The students participating in the game considered in our study met for five Zoom sessions – which from now on will be respectively called round one (the "Kick-off session"), two, three, four, and five (the final session). After being assigned to the different cities, in round one, each team has to come up with characteristics for their city (e.g. name of the city and its socio-economic strengths and limits), as well as the role each participant will cover throughout the game (e.g. moderator, presenter, etc.). After this initial phase, the teams are to exchange ideas and devise a plan on how to use the wasteland that will be submitted to the senior citizen. The participants are students who, at the moment of the game, live in different countries, study at different universities, and have different linguistic backgrounds. The language chosen for communication amongst the participants of the game is English as a Lingua Franca. None of the members is a native speaker of English.

The data used in the context of this study comprise video recordings from round one, round two, and round five of one of the teams. Automatically generated transcripts from these Zoom meetings were used for an initial appraisal of the instances which needed to be isolated and analyzed. Such cases were then transcribed according to the conversation analytic transcription system GAT2 (*Gesprächsanalytisches Transkriptionssystem*, "discourse and conversationanalytic transcription system") with conventions to notate the wording and the

prosodic features of naturally occurring interactions (Selting et al., 2011). In some of the excerpts transcribed, it was necessary to consider the multimodal features and other means of communication employed by some of the members.These include gazes and gestures, which contribute to the interaction and convey specific messages. A third sample of primary data collected for our observations consists of the learning journal entries which were submitted by each student at the end of every round: In these, the participants shared their impressions on the teamwork and what they learned during the session.

The team selected for our analysis is City Three from a game which took place during the Winter Semester 2021/22. The members were students from a German and a Finnish university which were respectively acquainted with peers from their own institution, but not with those from the other university. City Three of this game consisted of two students from the Finnish university and four from the German institution. The focus of our analysis lies on the participation patterns of the two students from the Finnish university, namely Sakke and Helmi (the real names of the participants were replaced with pseudonyms). Figure 1 shows the members of City Three, with their respective pseudonyms and the acronyms "GU" and "FU" which stand for "German university" and "Finnish university", according to the institution they are enrolled at.

*Fig.1: Screenshot of the Team Members of City Three.*

While the analysis of the learning journal entries leaned on the method of inductive qualitative analysis (Thomas, 2006, p. 238), the analysis of interactions that follows is based on conversation analytic methods (Sidnell, 2010). Specifically, we focused on participation features from a multimodal perspective (Goodwin & Goodwin, 2005). This perspective considers the foundational conversation analytic notions of (a) turn-taking and speaker selection (Sacks et al., 1974), (b) preferred and dispreferred responses (Pomerantz, 1984), as well as (c) displays of alignment (Stivers et al, 2011). These concepts are explained hereinafter.

The turn-taking and speaker selection system is at the heart of Conversation Analysis and describes how speaker allocation follows a set of clear operations in dyads or multi-party conversations (Liddicoat, 2007). According to this system, there is a general orientation towards the norm of one-speakerat-a-time in conversations. Despite this general characteristic, overlaps and long silences routinely occur in communicative interactions. Both phenomena may be considered interactionally significant in the course of a conversation, and people often orient towards them as potentially problematic. Hence, when they occur, they are generally handled as phenomena in need of repair. Within the system, speaker allocation usually follows a pattern according to which the current speaker selects the speaker of the next conversational turn (e.g. by asking "*Sarah*, what time is it?", the current speaker is selecting Sarah as the next speaker). In situations where the current speaker does not select the next one in a multi-party conversation, the next speaker may self-select (e.g. someone answering, "it's four o'clock" to the question "does anyone have the time?"). Alternatively, the current speaker may choose to take the next turn (e.g. "what time is it, guys?" (silence) "Livia, can you tell me the time, please?"). In the latter situation, the speaker orients to the silence as potentially problematic and, instead of waiting for conversational partners to self-select, they decided to select the next speaker explicitly (Livia, in the example).

The concept of *preference* used in the analysis of interaction "does not refer to personal desires of the speakers but rather to the recurrent patterns of talk in which actions are carried out" (Liddicoat, 2007, p. 110–111). In short, dispreferred actions are actions that are avoided or delayed in their production (such as invitation declines being preceded by long pauses and tokens such as 'hm' or 'well'). Preferred responses, such as the acceptance of an invitation, are usually performed directly with little or no delay.

*Displays of alignment* are a broader notion and can comprise turn allocation and preference practices. Stivers et al. (2011, p. 21) has explained alignment in the following way: "Aligning responses cooperate by facilitating the proposed activity or sequence; accepting the presuppositions and terms of the proposed action or activity; and matching the formal design preference of the turn." Thus, alignment can be broadly defined as interactional practices that display cooperation with the conversational partner(s).

# **3. Analysis: Learning and Participation as an Interactional Achievement**

In this section of the chapter, we depict the analysis of interactional sequences that showcase changes in communicative practices, which, in turn, point to how learning happens within the newly established online social environment. The analysis of such interactional sequences will be complemented by excerpts from the players' learning journals where they report how they themselves perceived the participation patterns in the game rounds. Sections 3.1 and 3.2 are centred upon the two students from the Finnish institution, Sakke and Helmi.

# Sakke

Right after round 1 of the game, Sakke writes the following: "Currently I feel a bit overwhelmed when I would have to interrupt someone else while they are speaking." By contrast, after the final session of the game, he reports the following: "The biggest improvement when thinking about my own ways of working in group projects is that I do not need to be so 'afraid' of other people and I just can bring forth my own ideas and opinions more bravely. What I would still change is that I could have started talking more earlier but as I said, that improved during this project." In contrast to his fellow player Helmi (section 3.2 below), Sakke's speaking rate does not vary significatively from round one to round five of the game.

The first excerpt reproduced below has been selected from round one of the game. During the meeting, the group was asked to create a name for their city. Following this task, each of the participants had to pick up one of the proposed roles and/or skills they would like to be responsible for in the remaining sessions of the game (e.g. presentations, negotiations, management of virtual tools). Besides that, the participants were given the possibility to add additional roles which would be considered important for the game. The excerpt has been extracted from this latter phase of the discussion, namely that of the

addition of new possible roles. After the common decision of a name for their city and the assignment of the pre-set roles,Klaus asks the group whether there is any other role/skill which could be included in the list. Given his position as a moderator, Klaus is the person in the group who most frequently elicits his peers' contributions in the discussions. For this reason, the assignment of the next speaker within the group is strongly dependent on Klaus' moderation.

At first, Klaus elicits participation by the group by asking the other players about possible additional points for the assignment of roles they did not discuss or consider during the previous phase of the discussion. In doing so, he uses an inclusive "we" (line 02, *anything we want to add on your own?*). What follows is a silence in which the rest of the participants refrain from taking the floor. Klaus orients to the silence as potentially problematic and reframes the previous broad question (line 03, *Helmi, Sakke, any ideas for an additional role?*). He replaces "we" with the specific vocative "Hemmi, Sakke" and specifies the content of the question, from "anything" to "any ideas for an additional role." In overlap with Klaus' turn, Lukas orients his turn to the two students from the Finnish university to ask whether they would be interested in any role, also including the specific ones already discussed (lines 05–07, *or maybe something you wanna dive into?*).This general orientation towards the inclusion of the team members from the Finnish university can also be seen in Klaus' learning journal, which states: "I would have liked to involve the Finnish students even more as they face a somewhat difficult situation as all of us German students know each other quite good by now."

After the questions posed by his teammates in lines 02–03 and 05–07, Sakke gives bodily signals of thinking, through eye gaze, specifically by looking up and facing back and forth the two screens he is working with (presumably one for the collaborative board and the other one for the Zoom meeting).These signals seem to point to the intention to say something and the fact that he is trying to detect a transition-relevant place<sup>4</sup> in order to start a new turn in the conversation. As soon as Helmi starts her turn (line 09), Sakke appears to be opening his microphone. At the moment in which he produces the turninitial item "well" (Heritage, 2015), Petra starts her turn (lines 13–15). Thus, Sakke's attempt to take the floor is not ratified by Petra nor by the rest of the group, and Sakke gives up joining the conversation, which moves slightly in another direction. Petra continues her turn without hesitating, in spite of the latching (i.e. "the absence [...] of the beat of silence which commonly occurs between turns", Schegloff, 1986, p. 114) with Sakke's "well" (lines 12–13). Here, it is not possible to state with certainty whether Petra did not hear Sakke talking or if she already interpreted the content of Sakke's turn as similar to Helmi's previous dispreferred response (line 09, *I don't have any further ideas*). Note that "well" is often a hesitation marker preceding dispreferred (i.e. a disagreement or a rejection which misaligns with the prior turn) responses.

The second extract took place in the second round of the game. The group discusses the characteristics and the concept of the imaginary city they are representing. Once again, Klaus selects the next speaker by calling out Sakke's name and orienting a question directly to him on his willingness to add any detail to what the rest of the group has already discussed.

Sakke's response to Klaus' question starts with "uhm" (line 13), so once again with a filler which might indicate a state of uncertainty and the projection of a dispreferred answer. The delay with which his reaction comes (line 12) is another indication of a dispreferred answer. On the other hand, his reaction, together with the facial expressions and gaze movement (lines 07, 09, 11–13), are embodied displays of "doing thinking," showing his involvement in the joint interactional activity (Goodwin & Goodwin, 1986). What follows

<sup>4</sup> A transition-relevant place is the span that "begins with the imminence of possible completion" of a turn-in-progress. The transition to a next speaker must not necessarily occur at this place, but it becomes "possibly relevant there." (Schegloff, 2007, p. 4)

is the use of a doubled token "well, well" (line 15), which, besides signalling the non-straightforwardness in responding – also to gain time for his answer (Schegloff & Lerner, 2009) – projects a sarcastic tone to Sakke's answer. The "well, well" used by him, in fact, is an intertextual element that refers to other discourses, especially the ones circulating on the internet through memes (see Figure 2 below). This type of intertextual element might be used to position the speaker (Internet-user), sarcastically, as an expert making a judgement they are entitled to (on entitlement, see Asmuß & Oshima, 2018). Klaus orients to the sarcastic tone and laughs after Sakke's uttering this prefacing-token (line 17).

After an initial pre-explanation of his assessment, Sakke uses the exact same structure (line 23,*I would liketo see…*) as the one used by Klaus for his question (line 10, *what would you like to see…?*). After that, it is possible to identify a progressive display of affiliation between Sakke and Klaus, beginning with the alignment of the team moderator by agreeing (line 27, *yeah of course*) and with an assessment (line 33, *ohthat's a goodidea*), and then with his enthusiastic elaboration of Sakke's proposal by adding new features to it (starting in line 35 and finishing in line 53). Sakke, who, before that moment, seldom explicitly displayed alignment in other cases of group discussions, appears to feel entitled to give clear signs of support to Klaus' ideas, as this confers legitimacy to his own initial idea. Examples of evidence suggesting alignment include the nodding (line 39), the use of an agreement token as a continuer/backchanneling (line 47, *sure*), and the chuckle (line 51). The latter of these signals shows another level

of intersubjectivity: Sakke displays understanding and affiliation by "sharing" Klaus' smile, approving of his rather funny ideas. In the conversation-analytic literature, smiles have been described as invitations for the others to share the laughter (Jefferson, 1979).

*Fig. 2: Willy Wonka Sarcasm Meme*

(Meme Generator, 2020)

At the end of the exchange, Sakke makes his role in the group relevant: He is the person in charge of – or entitled to (Asmuß & Oshima, 2018) – the management of the virtual collaboration (lines 64–68, *I'm sort of the Zoom and Miro guy*).

This analysis shows that a member's behaviour requires the detailed consideration of behaviours by others as well. Thus, such an interactional perspective stresses that participation is a product of practices used by the group, which complicates accounts of participation solely based on e.g., word-count, number of turns, or even perceptions of participation (as raised in interview or survey studies of intercultural groups). Such measures would therefore neither be able to account for participation nor intercultural learning.

#### Helmi

A different manifestation of the processes of change in the participation style as well as a progression in the adoption of a variety of conversational strategies throughout the game are to be found in the case of the second student from the Finnish university, Helmi.

Her rate of engagement seems to be higher than that of the others at the beginning of the game (that is, during round one). On this occasion, she is the participant who, for instance, is the keenest to answer questions asked by one of the peers to the whole team (even when the answer is solely: *I don't have any furtherideas,* asin line 9in excerpt 1 above), to backchannel during group discussions, and to deliver positive and supportive feedback to others. In transitionrelevant places, she often self-selects as the next speaker and uses tokens such as *yeah, that's a good idea*; *that sounds cool*; and *that sounds like an interesting subject*. Moreover, she shares additional ideas to what has been said in group discussions, even when not being directly called to talk. A similar behaviour should not be surprising when taking into consideration what she documents in her journal. After the first meeting of the group, she writes that she is "delighted at how easy-going and talkative [her] German team members [are]" and opposes this to her experiences in her home university, where students are usually "a bit reluctant to get started in teamwork". Similar situations often drive her to cover a managing and moderating role when working with peers from her university, as reported in her journal entry: "[with students from the home university] I have got used to taking a leading and managing role, which has sometimes felt almost a responsibility." Nonetheless, the presence of someone else in the team taking the moderating role pleases Helmi, who documents in the journal entry "[...] today there clearly was someone else in our group doing that, which I felt as a great relief." In the same entry, she carries out some selfcriticism on her turn-taking style, claiming that "[…] something [she] would do in a different way would be to listen to others more instead of talking" and that "[she] may have talked over people or said unnecessary things." Noticeable consequences of this critique are found during round two of the game: Here, we identified a number of cases in which she abandons her attempts to take turns as well as cases in which she speaks exclusively when directly spurred to talk, which results in a lack of propensity to compete for the floor. Besides, during this session of the game (round two), the turn-taking style of the peers from the German university stands out: They continuously overlap, actively participate in discussions, and use a quite ironic tone. In this context, Helmi seems to learn the participation dynamics and the communicative style from the "oldtimers" by observing them and, at first, refraining from talking ("listen[ing] instead of talking", as documented in her learning journal). In his definition of experiences in intercultural processes, Bennett (2012) explains that before integration – thus, expansion of one's world view – is reached, actors often take a self-reflexive stance that allows them to see others' actions and behaviours as different from their own, thereby expanding their repertoire of worldviews.

When considering the fifth (and final) session of the game, a conspicuous change in Helmi's participation style – in terms of turn-taking patterns, joking style as well as her participation rate – can be identified when compared to round two.The most crucial change in the turn-taking style during the session is the high rate of cases in which she jumps into the discussion without being directly spurred to talk, at some points even in overlap with other members' contributions. The following excerpt illustrates this finding. It was taken from a task in which the players reflect upon their behaviour and communication style during the game.

Jakob shares his opinion on the communication (turn-taking) style the members of their group adopted when meeting with others (lines 01–03, *most of the time we don't really care if we are [...] more or less jumping in and interrupting each other as long as we are all cool with it,* and lines 05–07, *but I feel like the other groups might have done that a bit different, I don't know*). Jakob and Helmi keep on talking and competing for the floor, and a series of overlaps occur in a very short lapse of time (lines 08–18). Ironically enough and not intentionally, this set of overlaps happens right at the moment in which the members are engaged in a meta-communicative discussion led by the topic of the task: Jakob points out that they constantly interrupt each other (lines 01–03). This caused not only Jakob and Helmi but also the other peers to laugh at the dense exchange of turns (line 16). This is also clear by Helmi's question (line 17, *did I interrupt you?)*, which is an evident reference to what has been said by Jakob (lines 01–02,*we don't really care if we are like jumping in and interrupting each other*). What is striking here is that, differently than what happened in the previous analyzed sessions, Helmi does not hold back from talking when another participant is occupying the floor but rather jumps into the conversation (in an overlapping position), keeps talking although the other participant has still not completed their turn, and only stops her sequence when explicitly asked to let that person finish (line 14, *let me quickly finish*). This evidence of a shared way of communicating within the group shows that the newcomer, Helmi, has become more outspoken during team activities, similarly to her peers. Further

evidence for her growing outspokenness is the fact that the initial self-critique carried out after the kick-off session does not emerge in the final entry of the learning journal: Here, instead, she explains how "more outgoing, active and relaxed" she has become. In the journal, she also engages in explicit remarks on the whole team's communication culture by saying how it was "relaxed and informal" and how the members could "quickly and easily […] adapt to other's communicative culture in interaction" – i.e. to the members who were already acquainted with each other and already shared a communication culture (the group of "old-timers").

# **4. Discussion and Concluding Remarks**

Throughout our analyses of Sakke and Helmi's participation patterns in the game, we had the following research question in mind: "How does learning through participation take place in a newly established online group?" Our reflections were guided by Lave andWenger's (1991) LPP which considers learning a social phenomenon related to membership in communities of practice. Our analyses demonstrate that the LPP framework does provide an adequate starting point to understand learning processes by newcomers in groups. We showed, for instance, how Helmi's interactional practices confirm that the player was able to first take up and later go beyond the observational lookout post connected to peripherality in the group. Her case is indeed illustrative of peripherality changing into legitimate access: By observing and reflecting upon the interactions in the group, she was able to get an understanding of how to operate in the group and to later position herself centrally in group discussions and decisions. In Sakke's case, legitimate access was shown to be less a matter of emulating the existing speaking styles of old-timers; instead, his access and fully-fledged membership was enacted in relation to his role in the group (as the person responsible for Zoom and the shared virtual boards). This latter point can be connected to the very use of digital tools as affordances of participation in virtual settings. For instance, in Conti et al. (2022, p. 199), players of the same intercultural game (Megacities) reported that virtual tools "enabled everyone's involvement despite language barriers and insecurities" and allowed them "to convey their opinions and ideas in the written format."

Thus, Helmi and Sakke seem to follow different learning paths. While Sakke's overall participation rate, as per the number of words and turns, did not vary much during the sessions, the quality of his participation changed, with sequences evidencing engagement with teammates and participation in key game decisions. For Helmi, the interactional practices changed substantially in comparison with Sakke. The analysis of her learning journal entries helps us understand why: She suddenly became aware of interactional practices that are usually taken for granted in everyday conversations, a process of self-awareness and self-reflection connected to interculturality (Bennett, 2012). At the end of the game, both her journal entry and her interactional practices show how comfortable she is with the interactional routines (Schmidt and Deppermann, 2023) of the group.

In our analysis, it became clear that Sakke and Helmi's contributions were facilitated in several moments by members of the German university (such as Klaus and Lukas),who showed an orientation toward theinclusion of themembers of the Finnish institution, both in the learning journal and through interactional moves in the game. Overall, the styles and remarks of the members of the German university unveil that these players already had a shared communication culture which had been established prior to the game. These players, thus, orient to Sakke and Helmi as newcomers confronted with interculturality and in need of a 'helping hand' to become fully integrated into the team (which goes along with how Sakke and Helmi position themselves in the group as evidenced in their learning journals).<sup>5</sup> These findings confirm that the capacity to coordinate and make sense of each other's actions is at the core of the participation dynamics in a team (Weiste et al., 2020). They, moreover, demonstrate the multimodal character of participation, which is manifested not only in verbal language but also in laughter and facial expressions (Goodwin & Goodwin, 2005).

Our answer to the research question of the case study corroborates a view of learning as a fully social rather than a solely individual process. Thus, investigating Sakke and Helmi's learning processes independently without taking a holistic view of all participants and actions within the sequence would invariably lead to an incomplete picture of the situation. In fact, a complete view of learning will necessarily need to take the trajectory of the group as a whole into account. In this connection,it is important to acknowledge that this is a limitation of the present study: By focusing on Sakke and Helmi's learning trajectories, we needed to leave behind the descriptions of other potentially meaningful practices including a practice introduced by Helmi that was emulated by the group from the German university, i.e. the use of self-deprecating jokes. This finding indeed complicates the application of the LPP, which does not account for old-timers adopting newcomers' practices, since the former are, according to the framework, the ones retaining the power to confer legitimacy to the latter and to control their access to sets of practices and experiences within the group. Thus, while the LPP does describe much of what we found in the data, it cannot account for all processes found within the group.

We find that the magnifying-glass effect provided by the micro-analysis of interaction coupled with the analysis of the learning journal shows the contingencies of the learning process in intercultural groups. These are relevant points for a more situated view of 'intercultural learning,' which should account for the development of interactional histories of actors and groups in situations of interculturality.

<sup>5</sup> Even though we have, throughout the chapter, avoided reflections of cultural dimensions of national groups, it is interesting (not least to defy stereotypes) that the group from the German institution (in which most of the participants report to be of German nationality) displays a style that goes counter several descriptions of German cultural dimensions in which German nationals are claimed to appear "humourless" to some other national cultures (Lewis, 2006, p. 227) and smiling is described as being reserved for friends (Lewis, 2006, p. 229).

# **References**

Freire, P. (1996). *Pedagogy of the oppressed*. Continuum.

John Heritage (Eds.), *Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis* (pp. 57–101). Cambridge University Press.

# **Appendix: Conventions used in the transcripts (GAT2)**

# **Learning About Colonialism by Scrolling?** The Twitter Thread as Lifewide Textual Offer and Cosmopolitan Potentiality

# *Fergal Lenehan*

Abstract *It is here argued that lifewide learning possibilities may also be viewed in relation to social media, not least the platform Twitter, recently rebranded as X, and the Twitter/X thread; a number of tweets threaded together to form a longer text which is then communicated to, often, a large number of people. Twitter threads may be seen as a lifewide textual offer containing cosmopolitan potentiality, meaning here the potential for a transformation in perspective due to contact with others on global issues, as envisioned by Delanty (2008). It is also argued that the Twitter/X thread functions as a type of social media genre, andthree specifictypes ofthread are here analyzed: 1) a collectively created type of thread which looks for contributions from numerous followers on Twitter/ X, creating a multi-agenttext; 2) an individually-created, 'closed' and usually numbered thread; and 3) an individually-created and open and/or open to collectivization thread, to which othertweets may be added at anytime. Twitterthreads fromthe curated Indigenous Australian account @IndigenousX, the British-Irish academic Katy Hayward and Irish historian Liam Hogan are analyzed aslifewidetextual offers containing cosmopolitan potentiality.The global issue atthe centre of allthreethreads – and accounts – arethe contemporary consequences of European colonialism.*

Keywords *Twitter/X; Cosmopolitanism; Colonialism; Brexit; Slavery*

# **1. Introduction**

The concept of lifewide learning presents various facets of everyday life as imbued with learning possibilities, as containing the potentiality for informal, holistic and 'unmapped' forms of learning. It is here argued that lifewide learning possibilities may also be viewed in relation to social media, not least the platform Twitter/X and the Twitter/X thread; a number of tweets threaded together to form a longer text which is then communicated to, often, a large number of people. Twitter/X threads may be seen as a lifewide textual offer containing cosmopolitan potentiality, meaning here the potential for a transformation in perspective due to contact with others on global issues, as envisioned by Delanty (2008). It is also argued that the Twitter/X thread functions as a type of social media genre, and three specific types of thread are here analyzed: Twitter/X threads from the curated Indigenous Australian account @IndigenousX, the British-Irish academic Katy Hayward, and Irish historian Liam Hogan may be seen,it is argued, as lifewide textual offers containing cosmopolitan potentiality. The global issue at the centre of all three threads – and accounts – are the contemporary consequences of European colonialism. The accounts were initially analyzed due to their educational content and, subsequently, conceptualizations of digital textual genre were formulated. The accounts were analyzed from the methodological and literary-oriented perspective of digital hermeneutics (Gerbaudo, 2016; Sadler, 2021) and aphorism as literary form, as well as digital communicative genre as part of emerging online norms (Blommaert, 2018).

# **2. The Learning Context: Twitter/X, Lifewide Learning, Cosmopolitanism and the Twitter/X Thread as Digital Communicative Genre**

# Twitter and Education Research

Founded in the US in 2006, the online platform Twitter had acquired 313 million monthly users by 2016, including large and active populations of users outside of the English-speaking world, such as in Japan, India, Indonesia and Brazil (Burgess & Baym, 2020, p. 3). Indeed, as a social platform it has garnered a rather elite reputation. Burgess and Baym (2020) suggest that "many journalists, academics, and politicians are virtually dependent on it as a social listening, professional dialogue, and public relations tool" (p. 4). Despite the existence of several well-known far-right tweeters, and the re-establishment of various far-right accounts following Elon Musk's acquirement of the microblogging site in late 2022 and the subsequent rebranding as X in mid-2023, American-centred research suggests the platform attracts, in the US at least, a disproportionate amount of liberal, young and well-educated individuals who generally vote for the Democratic Party (Wojcik & Hughes, 2019). Since the platform is of course relatively new, research on Twitter is also a relatively new phenomenon, with various orientations, such as, for example, research on the platform's relationship to media agenda-setting (e.g. Vasterman, 2018 and Abdi-Herrle, 2018), Twitter's influence on electoral politics (e.g. Galdieri et al., 2018 and Kamps, 2020), its interconnections with street protests (e.g. Gerbaudo, 2012 and Dang-Anh, 2019), and Twitter as a performance space for the creation of an online persona (e.g. De Kosnik & Feldman, 2019 and Burrough, 2016).

Twitter has also been extensively investigated from the perspective of learning and education research, especially in relation to the third-level educational context (Ricoy, 2016). Malik et al. (2019) have conducted a review of 1,313 anglophone academic articles written on the subject of Twitter and education between the years 2007 and 2017. The authors conclude that 80.6 % of the articles that they found deal with higher education; 9.7 % with the context of secondary schools; 3.9 % are categorized as dealing with online surveys; 2.9 % with academic conferences, while 2.9 % of the articles analyzed are regarded as having a miscellaneous educational institute as their principal topic (pp. 5–6). What is interesting here, from my perspective, is that *informal* situations of learning would appear to be largely absent from the existent research dealing with Twitter and education. In the context of a platform with more than 300 million monthly users this seems like a significant omission, as the platform surely retains a substantial potential for informal forms of learning.

#### Lifewide Learning and Cosmopolitanism

According to Jackson (2012) "lifelong and lifewide learning are considered to be necessary for learning societies which view the whole of life as an opportunity for learning" (p. 1). Ideas of lifewide learning have their roots in the "experiential learning" ideas of early 20th century educational thinkers, such as John Dewey and Eduard Lindemann (Jackson, 2012, pp. 2–3), while Jackson (2012) also sees Jost Reischmann as the most prominent contemporary theorist of lifewide learning (p.4). Reischmann's (2014) concept of lifewide learning is central here to the conceptualization of the Twitter platform as a space in which a type of informal, textual-based learning may take place. Reischmann calls lifewide learning "learning en passant" or learning "by passing by," which

may occur in many contexts and via numerous types of actions, and can, he believes, be divided into three types of learning (p. 293). Thus, learning may occur parallel to "other planned and intended activities;" may be seen as "single event learning" linked to a "clear describable life situation" (p. 294); or as "mosaic stone learning" with outcomes "woven into life routines" (p. 296). Indeed "Mosaic stone learning" may be intertwined with many life activities. As Reischmann (2014) writes: "Reading books, magazines, newspapers, watching tv, talking to colleagues, observing others, and exchanging with whomsoever forms a universe of small learning experiences" (p. 296). He sees lifewide learning as something that is "low compulsory" and "highly individualised" and also as something that retains a degree of uncertainty in its execution, as well as its outcome; "it can happen – or not" and "different people learn different things from the same situation" (p. 296). Lifewide learning, as conceived by Reischmann, may however also be highly experiential and go well beyond the acquirement of new knowledge: "Often this learning is holistic; it includes not only knowledge, but also reality handling, emotions, valuing, perspective transformation" (Reischmann, 2014, p. 297). Lifewide learning, in the contemporary context, can also be *digital* and can take place via social media; a context that is also without doubt "low compulsory" and "highly individualised", with outcomes "woven into life routines" (p. 296).