京都府立鳥羽高等学校

19 first and second year Toba students took part in a video meeting with teachers at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) through the Internet video conference system on January 15 (W). Toba students seemed to be a little nervous while they were waiting for the system was ready, but when one of the QUT teachers waved her hands to Toba students through the screen saying "Hello," they looked amazed, and smiled looking at the teacher on the screen. She briefly introduced QUT using slides and video clips, saying that QUT is "a leading Australian university ranked in the top one per cent of universities worldwide in the 2019 Times Higher Education World University Rankings."

At the beginning of the session, Toba students took part in a quiz session using the application software called "Kahoot!!" as an ice breaking activity. QUT teachers provided Toba students with a lecture about what global society is, what differences and similarities there are among world cultures, what constitutes culture in the first place, and how we who have different cultural backgrounds should interact with each other in the global community. The lecturer emphasized that, in order to understand people from different cultures, it is important to be keenly attuned to them, and try to see things from multiple points of view.

Today's video meeting seemed to provide the students with a good opportunity to think about and get direct contact with a different culture while still being in the Multi-Purpose Room of Toba High School.