If you receive a scholarship from the Office of International Programs for a semester abroad, you are required to blog\u00a0three <\/strong>times during your study abroad experience. You must complete:<\/p>\n NOTE: ALL semester students, whether you received a scholarship or not, are required to complete the final blog post.<\/strong><\/p>\n Please note that\u00a0if you do not stay on track with your blogs your scholarship will be\u00a0revoked.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>If you are experiencing technical difficulties or are otherwise unable to upload, it is your responsibility to follow the troubleshooting guide below and\/or contact the Office of International Programs.<\/p>\n Please categorize your blog by program!<\/p>\n Instructions for logging into the blog is included below<\/p>\n ___________________________________________________<\/p>\n Logging on:<\/strong><\/p>\n Adding New Content:<\/strong><\/p>\n Editing Content<\/strong><\/p>\n ___________________________________________________<\/p>\n If for any reason, you’re still unable to access the site, the Help Desk is here willing to assist you.<\/p>\n Although you might be overseas, there is still available tech assistance. E-mail the Help Desk and they can schedule an online session with you at your convenience. This will only require an internet connection; so no long-distance charges for you!<\/p>\n ___________________________________________________<\/p>\n One\u00a0of the best things you can do to begin developing the\u00a0skills needed to be a global citizen is\u00a0to\u00a0engage in reflection about culture and identity.\u00a0\u00a0As\u00a0you are preparing to study abroad,\u00a0we want you to reflect on your own culture and identity.<\/span> Answer all.<\/span><\/p>\n For this blog post, we are challenging yo<\/span>u to learn something about your host country. Think about some of <\/span>the<\/span> observations you have been making during your time abroad: these might be observations about the country, culture, people, infrastructure, etc. Pick <\/span>a specific <\/span>one that interests you<\/span>: <\/span>maybe <\/span>the<\/span> political system<\/span>, or the different value placed on time<\/span>, or<\/span> the<\/span> public trans<\/span>it system<\/span>\u2014it can be anything that piques your curiosity. <\/span>Talk <\/span>to someone from your host country (Professor, program staff, student, <\/span>friend, someone you see day-to-day) –<\/span>OR- do<\/span> a quick google search<\/span> on your topic in your host country<\/span> and <\/span>read\/watch a few videos or articles<\/span>\/websites. For your blog post, tell us what you learned,<\/span> how it <\/span>relates to <\/span>cultural <\/span>beliefs and <\/span>values,<\/span> and h<\/span>ow <\/span>it <\/span>impacts<\/span> your continued engagement <\/span>with your host country and culture.<\/span><\/p>\n The following is the required prompt for your return blog. Please post this blog within two weeks of your return home:<\/p>\n Reflecting on your experiences abroad will help you learn from them \u2013 and this is critical if you want to be able to discuss your experience meaningfully in interviews, graduate school statements, resume, and cover letters!\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Now that you have spent a semester abroad, identify one or two specific experiences directly related to cultural values, beliefs, attitudes, habits, or behaviors. For example, you might reflect on a cultural difference that surprised you, a miscommunication or misunderstanding you experienced, a cultural value that was more complicated that you initially thought, or something about the culture that you found it easy or hard to adapt to. Remember this should be focused on culture: you may have found it hard to navigate public transportation, but that is only related to culture if you are reflecting on the attitudes and beliefs around public transportation and not just the difference in infrastructure.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Once you have identified one or two specific experiences, write a reflection in four parts:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Instead of creating a written blog consisting of a minimum of 350 words, you have the opportunity to develop and submit a video blog or photo essay instead. \u00a0For a video or photo essay, you must choose any one of the blog prompts.\u00a0 Videos must be 3-5 minutes in length with Narration.\u00a0 Photo essays must include at least 6 photos, which are fitting and supportive of your blog\u2019s ideas, and at least 150 words describing the photos either in captions or in an introductory or concluding paragraph.<\/p>\n * Photo: Post a picture of a special object, symbol, statue, historical area, or anything of significance to your host culture and explain the meaning behind the photo. Provide context about the image based on information you\u2019ve learned formally in class or anecdotally from locals or peers.<\/p>\n * Video 1: Chronicle your daily path from home to school (or study site, research site, etc.). Either with or without narration, document what your home looks like, the buildings you pass, sights you see, and roads you use to travel. End your video when you arrive to school.<\/p>\n * Video 2: Have you learned how to make any local food or drinks? Either narrating your recipe or captioning your video, show the process from beginning to end and explain its cultural significance.<\/p>\n * Video 3: Visit your favorite restaurant or street vendor in your host country. Ask for permission to video interview the chef or vendor about the work they do or why they do it.<\/p>\n * Video 4: Everyone has a story. Are there any locals unaffiliated with your program who you seem to see frequently? Ask for permission to video interview them about what they do in your host country and what they appreciate most or least about their culture.<\/p>\n * Pecha Kucha: PechaKucha 20×20 is a simple presentation format in which a presenter shows 20 images for 20 seconds each. The images advance automatically, and presenters talk along the images (see http:\/\/www.pechakucha.org\/ for more information). Create a Pecha Kucha describing your time abroad either verbally narrating your photos or captioning them. This video (https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=l9zxNTpNMLo) describes how to create a Pecha Kucha presentation within PowerPoint.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Blogging Requirements If you receive a scholarship from the Office of International Programs for a semester abroad, you are required to blog\u00a0three times during your study abroad experience. You must complete: 1 blog before you depart (see below for required prompt) 1 blogs while you are abroad (see below for required prompt) 1 blog after…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5775","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5775"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22069,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5775\/revisions\/22069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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Logging into the Blog<\/h2>\n
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Troubleshooting<\/h2>\n
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Help Desk Assistance<\/h2>\n
Contact Information:<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Blog Prompts<\/h2>\n
Pre-departure\u00a0prompt\u00a0<\/b>(1-2 weeks before departure) – 500 words\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
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While Abroad – 300 words<\/span><\/h4>\n
Returning Home (1-2 weeks after returning home) – 500 Words<\/span><\/h4>\n
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Ideas for Photo and Video Blogs<\/h4>\n