An article from the Associated Press reports that as more U.S. students are studying abroad, colleges and universities have increasingly encouraged them to venture beyond the "bubbles" of their peers and interact with the locals. Colleges and universities have used various means to foster greater assimilation, including offering study abroad options beyond so-called "island" programs, where U.S. students live, study, and socialize together. Other options include giving the students "less free time, mandatory local internships, signed promises students won't speak English, and even ‘Amazing Race’-style solo scavenger hunts—like one where wide-eyed Nebraska students were dropped off their first morning in China in a distant corner of their new city with $5 and instructions to find their way back home alone." Colleges and universities also have come up with ways to push students out of technology bubbles, where many spend hours each day on the Internet instead of in their places of study.
To read the complete article, please click here: www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2011/09/25/american_students_abroad_pushed_out_of_bubbles/
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