Last week, more than 30 delegates from institutions across the country met in the windy city for three days for the TEAN Roundtable and Open House to discuss trends in international education, share ideas, and spend time learning together.
The aim of this conference is to give our domestic partners an opportunity to learn a little more about TEAN, our programs, and people but also have the chance for some professional development with industry colleagues.
We had a great lineup of presenters who covered the following topics.
Social Media Trends in International Education
Hannah DeMilta, Outreach Manager for The Education Abroad Network spoke on how millennial students are using social media. We are working with a generation of digital natives who are inseparable from their mobile devices and use social media to make purchase decisions. 37% of younger Millennials said that they feel as if they are “missing something” if they are not on social media every day, compared with 23% of non-Millennials. The session covered trends in social media, best practices and why social media is an important part of the approach to connect and communicate with students.
Topics and Trends in Health & Safety with International Mobility
Julie Friend joined us to discuss the evolution of Health and Safety Management in the field of International Education. Julie is the Director of Global Safety and Security at Northwestern University, and has more than 15 years experience in international education. While this area has always been a consideration in the design of international programming, a combination of events have firmly changed the focus to position Health, Safety and Security as a major component of any experience abroad. International offices employing full-time professionals in this area are now commonplace. The session covered the changing landscape and provided updates on the most recent developments in the Heath, Safety and Security field.
Student Mobility and Measuring Cultural Competency: A New Tool
Dr. Katherine Rosenbusch and Dr. David Earnest spoke on their research on a new tool to measure cross-cultural competencies. Employers report that strategic international understanding and cross-cultural experiences are essential skills in today’s workforce. Global education programs seek to provide these applicable workplace skills through diverse experiential opportunities. The session covered the use of cultural competence as a measure of global skill development, education program success, and future employability. To conclude, they reviewed their own work in developing a measure of cultural competence that evaluates workplace related soft and hard skills.
Assessing Up the Wrong Tree! Learning Outcomes of the 21st Century
Dr. Scott Blair’s session talked about learning outcome assessments and program evaluations. We all take learning outcomes in education abroad seriously. But do we really? Through the use of pre- and post-surveys, e-portfolios, focus groups, and reflective writing, we collect evidence demonstrating that our programs foster in students valuable things—global learning, intercultural competence, and global citizenship. If our fragile ecosystem is to continue providing for all Earth’s inhabitants—flora and fauna alike—then we as education professionals had better start teaching and assessing human behavioural outcomes that are truly, globally and equitably sustainable.
Psychological Perspectives: Multicultural Encounters, Student Issues, and Staff Training
Dr. Patricia Perez is an Assistant Professor in the International Psychology program at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Her talk took the approach from an international psychology perspective, pointing to interesting observations of cultural encounters for both students and faculty venturing abroad. The discussion examined both the process and preparation of an international experience as well as how they relate to the final, sometimes unexpected, outcomes. We also looked at ways in which faculty can be made ready for surprising consequences of clashing customs and how to properly foster an environment that encourages cultural competency while avoiding common pitfalls.
Of course, we also took some time to enjoy summer in Chicago. This included an evening architectural river and lake cruise, as well as a tour and dinner at the Art Institute of Chicago. The event wrapped up by heading out to cheer on the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
We couldn’t be happier with how the 3rd TEAN Open House and Advisory Roundtable all came together and that we got to celebrate our 20th anniversary with such a wonderful group in Chicago. Thanks so much to everyone who was able to take time to attend and spend a few days with us.
Cubs game @ Wrigley FieldPlease see more photos from the Open House and Advisor Roundtable on the TEAN Facebook page.
