Building Cross-Cultural Understanding Through Facebook
/This assignment uses social media to give students a chance to have meaningful cross-cultural interactions while learning about social psychology and ways to promote international dialogue, peace, and social justice. In this particular case, a Facebook page was co-developed by psychology classes in Egypt and the United States, and student groups in each class were asked to design a program that would improve relationships between Muslims and non-Muslim Westerners by using what they had learned about (1) the causes of prejudice and intergroup conflict, and (2) methods for reducing prejudice and making peace. After students designed their programs, they discussed them in class and then posted their ideas to the Facebook page for comments by students from the other country. As a result of this cross-cultural exchange, students often reported that they had not only learned about psychology of prejudice reduction but that their own prejudices had been reduced. As one student summed up the experience in her final Facebook post: "thank you all for teaching so much in such a short period of time! I learned a lot about you and about myself from this project, and I know that the lessons I learned will stay with me for the rest of my life."