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Abroad Final Blog Entry
"Lessons Learned"
This
is the final blog entry for the Japan-South Korea
International Entrepreneurship trip of August
2006. This
trip was designed to be both a great learning experience
and a pedagogic experiment. In addition
to the normal and required elements, (such as see
cultural highlights, eat local foods, and report
on a certain number of firm visits), several other
elements were introduced that changed the trip
in ways that are worthy of discussion.
Before discussing individual components of the
trip, it is necessary to understand the self-imposed
goal of the trip. The goal was to give this
particular group of students a great trip, while
simultaneously experimenting with the generic study
abroad experience. Experiments generally
revolve around the role of a thesis, the amount
of work that can be expected, the required interaction
with locals, the use of technology, and updating
the ways study abroad programs document their trips. This
blog entry tries to evaluate these experiments.
A Strong Thesis
The trip was organized around a very central thesis
that permeated every aspect of the course. The
thesis was very narrow in scope. (“As
generally accepted, the Korean economy is 15% entrepreneurially
based and the Japanese economy is 2% entrepreneurially
based. Why?”) Each speaker
was asked to respond to this central question. The
questionnaires that students gave out were designed
with the question in mind. Theories were
tossed about during the trip. Ideas were
shared and theories explored. But, the thesis
gave focus to the trip, as everything had a role
in answering that question. Also, it changed
the nature of the trip from “study this,” with
little or no clear expected result, to “study
this and answer this question.” The
thesis gave the final student papers a clear topic,
as they answered the question and gave their supporting
data and research. Instead of simply
recounting the company visits, the papers were
based on on-site surveys, original research, and
interviews that the students had conducted.
Making the role of the thesis become even stronger
was that, in this case, it was designed to be wrong. The
students discovered this about one day into their
visit in Japan. Japan cannot be 2% entrepreneurially
based. Walking down any street shows a mom-and-pop
business culture that is too strong and too prevalent
to not account for a higher percent of GDP. Two
speakers on late Monday afternoon reiterated this
belief as part of their response to the thesis
question. Yet, the fact that the thesis actually
had a trick built-in led to increased excitement
and a sense of discovery. During certain
speakers, one could see the lights bulbs go over
students’ heads.
Lots of Work
Speaking to the students about the trip generally
elicits the same response, “We did a lot
of work.” The sentiment is true, as
the group worked very hard, almost too hard. Not
every night, but many, if you walked the hotel
halls at 2 AM, you would see doors propped open
reveling groups still working. It was reminiscent
of a college dorm right before exams. In
addition to their daily activities of meeting with
entrepreneurs and seeing cultural sights, they
were assigned to: 1- blog everyday, requiring a
typed page or two describing the learning elements
presented by each speaker, 2- video the speakers
and edit the videos for posting on the web, 3-
conduct street surveys, 4- arrange to meet and
interview two local areas entrepreneurs, and 5-
write a final answer to the thesis. This
work load was intense, requiring at least three
to four hours of work per night. These assignments
represented a substantial amount of new skill sets
for the students. In addition to the normal
study of the local cultures and the class topic
(in this case entrepreneurship), the students learned
and were graded on blogging, video capture techniques,
video editing, HTML, posting blogs and videos to
the web, answering the thesis question, and their
street surveys (which are discussed below).
Also, the group met with 35 entrepreneurs, government
officials, academicians, and businessmen. This
provided an amazing amount of data for the thesis
study and gave the students as many points of view
as possible. It probably would not have been
possible to meet even one more entrepreneur, the
schedule was that tight. Of course, some
of the meetings were longer and more in-depth than
others. Also, not every student met every
speaker. Some entrepreneurs only met with
4-5 students, as will be discussed later. However,
the contention that this trip involved a tremendous
amount of work is partially validated by the number
of speakers that were able to interact with the
group.
Meeting Locals
Another important experiment was called Scavenger
Hunt Wide, and required each student to stop, meet,
introduce themselves to, and interview ten people
off the street, five in each country we visited. By
the end of the trip, the students had conducted
189 of these street interviews. The process
of stopping individuals walking down the street
was a useful cultural experience in and of itself. Learning
how different people react to being approached,
learning how to get successful meetings and interviews,
and learning how to properly interact with the
interviewees were skills learned by repeatedly
stopping individuals until enough would answer
the surveys. These skills are fundamental
to both sales and entrepreneurship, and in this
situation, provided valuable insight into the cultures. In
South Korea, people welcomed an approach, and called
their friends over to also take the survey. In
Japan, people were very reluctant to speak at all,
but opened up once stopped. In the end,
the group conducted 189 of these street interviews.
The surveys, translated into the local language
prior to the trip without help from staff, were
designed to answer the thesis question. After
answering them, a conversation of some kind almost
always occurred. So, the questionnaires served
three purposes: they forced students to practice
proactive sales and conversation skills, they caused
the students to interact on a personal level with
189 individuals, and they provided valuable data
used to answer the thesis question. Overall,
the participants strongly felt that these forced
interactions with so many locals were one of the
most meaningful aspects of their learning experiences.
Student Led Interviews
Another requirement of the students was called
Scavenger Hunt Deep. Prior to the trip, students
were assigned to research, discover, contact, and
arrange a meeting with one entrepreneur in Japan
and one in Korea. This exercise was met with
deep suspicion. Wasn’t finding speakers
the job of the trip leaders? How could this
be accomplished? However, being an entrepreneur
requires these exact skills and a personality willing
to ask people for help. Using research techniques
that were covered in class, all the student groups
were able to contact and arrange to meet two entrepreneurs. The
students reported that these meetings were “life-changing” in
nature, due to the friendships they made, the stories
they heard, and the frankness with which they were
met. Videos of each meeting were made and
are available in the blogs. This exercise
prepared the students for real life entrepreneurial
activities (such as finding, meeting, and bonding
with other entrepreneurs), offered more insight
into the thesis, and provided data points not affected
in any way by contact with the trip leaders. It
also required that students venture out into Seoul
and Tokyo to visit their entrepreneur’s offices,
so they had to arrange their own meetings, manage
the subways alone, etc. Trip leadership allowed
for some time for this, but in future trips, more
time should be allotted, as much as a day a week
or a day per city.
Blogging
Perhaps the most visible change the trip experimented
with was blogging. Posting on the web a recounting
of daily events and thoughts (blogging) served
three goals. At one level, the instructors
updated the main homepage of the trip website everyday. Within
three hours of arriving in a new city, the website
would be updated to include the status of the trip. It
thereby made it much easier for friends and family
to follow the trip and make sure their loved-one
was safe. Not only were there status updates,
but photos and details of the trip were shared
too. Family members checked the site everyday
to see what their loved-ones had done or to see
if there was a photo of them. So, as the
trip transpired, the trip website changed from “what
we are going to do” to “here is what
we did.” At a second level, the blog
served as the student’s main deliverable
and record of what they had learned. At a
third level, the blogs were very useful to the
speakers. Almost every speaker had been following
the blog, had read about the previous speakers,
and tailored their presentation according to what
had already been covered. This made the speakers
much less repetitious and gave them a chance to
respond to previous speakers. On the August
14th, the first day in Japan, 639 individuals read
the trip blogs.
Technology
In addition to blogging, a significant portion
of the trip devoted to the use of technology. Each
student was given a Video iPod which could be used
to replay videos and capture audio content, and
each group was provided with a top-of-the-line
Apple Laptop and a digital camera. Importantly,
this technology was part of an overall class strategy. Technology
cannot be used solely for the sake of using technology;
it must be part of a comprehensive lesson plan. On
this trip, one of the goals was to learn the proper
uses of technology, but that goal was part of a
larger objective, the proper documenting of the
overall trip and answers to the thesis.
Technical skills taught included video editing
and HTML web creation. The students were
required to video tape all aspects of the trip. In
particular, each speaker was video taped. These
videos were then edited to include only the most
relevant parts to the thesis and were then posted
to the trip website. The students, therefore,
needed to learn video skills, such as proper capture
techniques using their digital cameras, video editing,
audio inclusion, and inclusion on the website. Concerning
the use of HTML, business people and especially
entrepreneurs are frequently paying for website
creation and maintenance. Yet, these website
buyers have no idea how long the work really takes. Simple
changes may take minutes, or seconds, yet businesses
pay for hours or weeks of work. Entrepreneurs
must know enough about these skills to not be exploited. The
class was taught enough HTML to post their own
blogs, hoping that they will be better purchasers
of technology in the future. These skills
were something almost none of the students had
prior to the trip, but they all agreed that they
would be useful later in life. One student
imagined being sent on a business trip, and instead
of returning to the office with just a report,
he could return with edited videos of factories,
sites, business partners, shipping facilities,
and more for his superiors to see.
Socialization
All groups tend to fragment into social cliques,
or smaller groups that stick together, frequently
ostracizing certain other members of the larger
group. On study abroad programs one or two
members of the trip can find themselves left out
of the larger group, potentially ruining their
whole experience. With this trip, every attempt
was made to not allow this to happen. The
students were even warned to not allow this to
occur. Groups were selected in such a way
as to separate obvious friends. It was made
clear that every student was invited and welcomed
to every function or diner. Socialization
can be a delicate topic, but need not harm the
trip. The students greatly appreciated this
aspect of the trip and friendships were formed
at many levels that may not have happened otherwise.
Fighting Traffic
Another change that was tested was using one venue
as a central meeting point. Instead of visiting
the company headquarters or two companies in a
day, as a trip might be very lucky to do, on certain
days the group stayed in one room all day and had
several speakers come through to give presentations. This
enabled the group to see as many as six speakers
in one day. It must be said that this strategy
only works when visiting the offices of a company
are not of value. Many entrepreneurs have
a computer and a fax machine and call that an office. There
is no value in visiting that office, whereas a
factory must be seen. Nevertheless, if company
visits consist of visiting their boardroom, and
not seeing a unique facility, perhaps it is easier
to bring the speakers to the group, as opposed
to bringing the group to the speaker. This
trip had two local sponsors that made this strategy
possible. In Korea, Hoseo University served
as a home base on two days. In Japan, the
government offices of the Japan External Trade
Organization (JETRO) served the same purpose. Using
this strategy, the trip group was able to meet
with 35 entrepreneurs, government officials, and
academics in 8 business days.
And finally, a discussion of a skill that no college
should be teaching, but one that clearly needs
to be taught, managing transportion. Our
students are from all parts of the southeast and
now live in Atlanta. Many have never been
exposed to a world-class subway system. The
class ventured into both the Seoul and Tokyo subway
systems, two of the largest in the world, with
at least twenty intersecting lines in each. Many
of the students needed to be taught how to purchase
a ticket in a foreign language, how to read the
signs to their train, and how to plan a route,
with line changes, to their destination.
Areas for improvement
There were certainly failures in the trip experience
too. As mentioned earlier, the student and
professor workload was excessive, too excessive. Working
until 2 am has its place for sure, but working
that late the majority of the nights is questionable. Students
on a 6 credit-hour trip should work hard, very
hard, but the number of students and staff dragging
by the end of the trip must be attributed to excessive
syllabus demands, not time zone differences.
As mentioned before, the students were expected
to use technology in many ways. The groups
divided the workload, as would be expected, and
certain students worked on editing videos while
others blogged and others did HTML. Students
were provided one laptop computer per group, and
unfortunately this proved to be far too few. Even
with the addition of personal laptops, there were
too few computers. In the future, each group
needs 2-3 laptops.
In addition to more computers, taking some extra
time to give the students more training would have
been helpful. One class session, about 3
hours, gave the students a quick briefing on how
to use the digital cameras they were taking, how
to edit video in iMovie, and how to use Microsoft
Word to create webpages. That’s a lot
of ground to cover in a very short period of time,
and pieces were missing, like optimizing images
for use on the web (in their blogs), using an ftp
program to get the images and the blog postings
on the web, and loading their videos onto the video
server. Doing this would also give all the
students the opportunity to learn skills rather
than relying on one or two people in the group
who had already mastered the skills. More
pre-trip classes are needed.
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