PRESERVING THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE CULTURAL HERITAGE



USING TECHNOLOGY TO ENHANCE UNDERSTANDING

ACROSS CULTURES(

Erol İnelmen

Ph.D., Boğaziçi University, Faculty of Education, Turkey, inelmen@boun.edu.tr

Abstract

Tourism industry can only develop if there is peace in the world. In order to establish peace, people living in various regions of the world should understand that while having differences in cultural background they can still live in harmony. We argue that an education program is necessary to create a culture of peace in the world. Technology can provide the adequate environment where people living far apart can learn about each other.

Tourism -being the ultimate beneficiary of peace- should help in promoting the easy and cheap access to technology. In this context, the UNESCO “Delors Report” on education published in the year 1996, the UNESCO “Manifesto 2000” and the UNESCO sponsored “Universal Forum for the Culture of Peace” to be held in Barcelona the year 2004, can provide sources for inspiration. Based on these documents the author has worked with 38 university students using modern technologies during one semester, as an example of what can be done to enhance mutual understanding.

Introduction

Peace on the planet is a prerequisite for the healthy development of the tourism industry. Here we propose that if tourism should be ready to make greater efforts to increase the accessibility of technology to the people, education for the culture of peace would be enhanced. An account of a) documents related to activities that are promoting peace on the world, b) an implementation the findings in a semester course in the university where the author is affiliated and c) activities to be supported aiming at the development of mutual understanding, is given in the paper.

Tourism as any other organization actively participating in the decision making on problems related to the future of our planet, has the duty to launch activities that would encourage the development values for convivencia (the “way we live together”). Creativity, flexibility and cooperation are the basic cultural values for the well being of the society as whole [1].

The values, which are the basis for our global cultural identity, can be classified as individual values (tolerance and solidarity) and community values (equality, morality and legality). The measure of the degree of acceptance of the “other” (tolerance), the willingness to share resources (solidarity), the behavior towards the others (equality), the perception of what is socially correct (morality) and the zeal in abiding norms and rules (legality), identify the cultural features of a community [2]. This subject is covered in the three documents here presented:

Delors Report 1996

In search for excellency the UNESCO Delors Report presents the four pillars in education: learning to know, learning to be, learning to do and learning to share [3]. During the conference for the “Education for the 21st Century in the Asia-Pacific Region” held in Melbourne, Australia in the year 1998, practical measures for the implementation of the Delors Report were suggested:

• Recognize that there has been a wide interest for the concept of responsible and participative membership of a society,

• Warn the dangers of a limited view of citizenship and recommends to develop links for the “education for peace”,

• Stress the need to seek for a joint future and to recognize the potential for significant advances through effective partnerships between all those involved,

• Point at the centrality of moral issues and emphasizes the need for citizenship education,

• Suggest that education for peace and education for international understanding are all linked with moral education [4].

Millennium Manifesto 2000

A recent document released by UNESCO -known as the Manifesto 2000- points at the need for each citizens of the planet to:

• Practice active non-violence, rejecting violence in all its forms: physical, sexual, psychological, economical and social, in particular towards the most deprived and vulnerable such as children and adolescents;

• Defend freedom of expression and cultural diversity, giving preference always to dialogue and listening without engaging in fanaticism, defamation and the rejection of others;

• Promote consumer behavior that is responsible and development practices that respect all forms of life and preserve the balance of nature on the planet;

• Contribute to the development of the community, with the full participation of women and respect for democratic principles, in order to create together new forms of solidarity [5].

Barcelona Forum 2004

An international forum to be held in Barcelona in the year 2004 will help to disseminate the ideas for the culture of peace. The Forum also sponsored in part by UNESCO will:

• Create the environment for a democratic platform necessary to develop inter-cultural dialogue between different ethnic, religious, linguistic, ideological and historical groups,

• Establish the hierarchy of ethical values required to promote peace and sustainable development in the world [6].

Hopefully the Forum will make it possible for the participants of all parts of the planet, to be involved in the development of new ideas. As such the Forum will be a living model of the future society. The Spanish think-tank “Center for International Relations and Cooperation” (CIDOB) also resident in Barcelona, foresees that:

• Discussion on the topic of cooperation and conflict resolution between different groups is a means to promote intercultural dialogue.

• The large number of groups, which form the Europe today, will provide a rich environment for academic study [7].

When the ideas here suggested are to be implemented in all societies around the world, tourism industry will be the instrument for better understanding of nations.

Method

The author implemented a novel program of education during the spring semester of the 1999-2000 academic year at the university of affiliation. A group of 38 university students from the faculty of education participated in the “Introduction to Computers” course, designed to develop the basic communication skills required today in daily life using emerging technologies. The method adopted in this course is the result of many years of experience gained by the author while using computers as tools for learning [8].

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Figure 1. Proposal for a holistic “Culture For Peace Program” to be implemented in 2004.

Conventional “Technological Mediated Learning” (TML) material emulates the same classical teaching techniques that have been implemented along the centuries. No matter how fancy TML is made by using sophisticated multimedia techniques, the students are expected to follow the guidelines given as passive agents. This situation leads inevitably to the same boring environment that lectures and textbooks are always blamed for. The following case study shows clearly that encouraging students to prepare the own educational material provides a creative environment where the learner takes a fully active role and makes “learning a source for fun”. See Figure-1 for a holistic program to be used as guide in a virtual education setting.

|Ideology | |Relations |

|Secularism (mutlu) | |Germany (evci) |

|Republicanism (bulut) | |Japan (sendogan) |

|Nationalism (oksuz) | |URSS (recepoglu) |

|Populism (cinar) | | |

|Etatisme (kapucu) | |Pacts |

|Revolutionism (gonullu) | |Capitulations (kirbi) |

| | |Mondros (tigdemir) |

|Reforms | |Lausanne (yasar) |

|Hat (gunoz) | |Nato (hocaoglu) |

|Education (cetin) | | |

|Constitution (yazlik) | |Conflicts |

|Democracy (arin) | |Canakkale (ozcelik) |

|Language (akbay) | |Sakarya (baltali) |

|Early (yilmaz) | |WW-II (baltali) |

| | |Cyprus (metin) |

|Gatherings | | |

|Amasya (bayhan) | |People |

|Erzurum (degirmenci) | |Enver (akpinar) |

|sivas(bayraktar) | |Inonu (ince) |

| | |Bayar (yalcin) |

|Events | | |

|Caliphate (ozturk) | |Groups |

|March 31st (gocmen) | |New-Osman (uyrum) |

|1950 (yucel) | |Jon-Turk (kunduz) |

| | |Tanzimat (ispir) |

| | |Kadro (aslan) |

Figure 2. Topics covered by “Introduction to Computers Course” on Turkish History.

Turkish History (1860-1960) was selected as the class general topic, each student sharing a specific subject matter. The objective was to encourage students to develop their own learning material following a weekly schedule, which included the description of the key words, the roadmap of the presentation, the preparation of the presentation material using animation techniques. See Figure-2 for the classification of topics covered in the course.

The students prepared drafts on paper for the presentation slides and then transferred the approved material to the computer followed whenever possible by oral presentations. Make-ups were not allowed and grades were reduced for late presentations. The “standard grading system” generally accepted was adopted as the basis for the final assessment. Students not familiar with this “project centered learning” approach, had difficulties to adopt during the first weeks. Nevertheless performance improved as pride on the work accomplished became -without the pressure of grading- the main concern.

Results

Although collaboration between students was not encouraged, in some cases it was inevitable. For the sake of checking the authenticity of the work, short examinations were given whenever possible. By the end of the semester students were requested to make one peer-evaluation and prepared the own final examination questions. No doubt that although puzzled with the educational method adopted by the instructor, students enjoyed in most cases with this new learning approach. Documents can be found in yeditepe.edu.tr/~eor/ders folder.

Results obtained at the end of the semester are very encouraging. Students in many cases confessed that they were unfamiliar with some of the themes of their own history. Presenting their contributions in class demanded effort to develop both written and oral presentation skills. This experience showed the need for a publication that would give learners a step-by-step method in public presentation. Such a document can now be find in the files car.ppt and mpp00.ppt in the same web page cited before.

Curiously enough the author was involved another project started at the same time for students in the areas affected by the recent earthquake in Turkey. A mobile bus furnished with 18 personal computers is now making weekly visits to schools in the area. Here primary and secondary students get hands on experience in the use of modern technology [9]. Examples from the work of two students are given: a) primary school village students in Figure-3, and b) university student in Figure-4.

|[pic] |[pic] |

Hüsamettin Çakar No:322 Sevimdik İlköğretim Okulu

Figure 3. Text and figure drawn by 10-year old village student in the mobile bus (19.3.2000).

FIRST JAPAN-TURKEY RELATIONS STARTED WITH THE ERTUGRUL FRIGATE

Sultan Abdulhamid II sent Japan a ship

full of Ottoman’s presents to set relations.

Figure 4. Slide prepared by student in “Introduction to Computers” Course 1999-2000 academic year.

Discussion

The experience gained while creating an environment that would enhance mutual understanding, showed that relevant examples drawn from real life are necessary. Here we list some interesting examples:

• Scotland will be home to Britain's first "cyber school" to be in operation by August 2000, connecting up to 60 pupils [10].

• A program for developing countries -known as the WorLD project- is sponsored by the World Bank to connect the youth around the world [11].

• The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has included the graphically 3- dimension interactive presentation of Bury St. Edmunds Cathedral [12].

• Very attractive web sites give comprehensive information about cultural life in Australia [13].

• The charming Salamanca Market in Hobart located in the island of Tasmania is a fine example of what a civil community can achieve [14].

• A project started by a new film star Meltem Cumbul is promoting a program of peace in the world starting from Australia [15].

• The Dardanelles –an important setting the World War I- promises to attract the attention of many world citizens [16].

• Like in the case of Gelibolu municipalities can develop their own patrimonial list [17].

• The Turkish History Foundation has launched the “Turn of a Millennium in Anatolia” cultural heritage program [18].

• The Catalunya UNESCO Center in Spain is searching for solutions to the social and economical problems due to globalization [19].

• In the “Education for Peace Seminar” directed by Dr. Carme Romia Agusti in the University of Barcelona, creative arts are being implemented [20].

• The same strategy for the reproduction across species that nature makes good to improve quality, can be used to assure peace [21].

Conclusion

A plan for the development of the “education for peace” is suggested and implemented in this paper. While sharing their common values learners will contribute to the mutual understanding of communities located far apart. We should provide communications means to help in the disclosure of the self and the discovery of the “other”. It is hoped that the tourism industry -being the final beneficiary of the education for peace program- will become the benefactor of the technology that is being used. As “Technology Mediated Communication” (TMC) is rapidly enhancing the way we do business and improving the way we learn, we firmly believe that these technology will provide the environment for the cultural change needed to make “tourism development” move in the right direction.

Acknowledgement

The support of the Research Fund the project 99D202 is acknowledged.

References

[1] Güvenç. B., “Tourism and Culture”. In: International Conference on Heritage and Multicultural Attraction and Tourism, M. Korzay, N.K.Burçoğlu, Ş.Yarcan and D.Ünalan (Eds), Boğaziçi University, ISBN 975-518-136-9 (1999), 29.

[2] Husseynov, A., “Ethical Basis of European Identity”, In: Multiculturalism: Identity and Otherness, Boğaziçi University Publications, ISBN 975-518-104-0 (1997), 57-60.

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[7] ón/programainves9899.html

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( Double blind refereed by two referees.

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