Á½ÐÔÉ«ÎçÒ¹

When 24 English language educators from 20 countries arrived on campus for the KSU Exchange in early July, they came with diverse experiences—some teaching in high-tech environments, others with almost no access to technology. But over two weeks of workshops, collaborative labs, and late-night conversations, they discovered something more powerful than any tool: shared challenges that transcend borders.

"The magic wasn't just the program we prepared," said Debbie Rozner, director of the English as a Second Language Center. "It was really this cohort of participants. They were open, they were interested in each other, they were supportive."

The program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, represented a joint effort across three of Á½ÐÔÉ«ÎçÒ¹'s educational centers: the Gerald H. Read Center for International and Intercultural Education, the English as a Second Language Center, and the Research Center for Educational Technology. The collaboration brought together Rozner's expertise in ESL and foreign language teaching, Annette Kratcoski's work in educational technology, and Amanda Johnson's leadership in international educator exchanges.

A Framework Built on Human-Centered Design

The program's backbone was the CARE framework—Context, Alignment, Responsibility, and Effectiveness—designed by Kratcoski's Research Center for Educational Technology (RCET). It reflected a principle that ran through every session: technology serves teaching, not the reverse.

"At the very heart of teaching is the teacher," Kratcoski said. "And the teacher, despite all of the very cool tools, the teacher really remains at the heart of meaningful learning."

The framework guided participants as they explored everything from artificial intelligence to robotics to online collaboration tools. But the emphasis was always intentional, ethical, and human-centered. As Kratcoski explained, "the technology is never the driver learning is," and educators had to consider whether a tool actually improved learning or just added noise.

This philosophy proved especially relevant for AI—the technology everyone wanted to explore. "Everybody came wanting to explore AI," Kratcoski said. "But it's got to be intentional. It's got to be ethical. It's got to be human-centered."

The Conversation That Changed Everything

The program's first full day nearly derailed the schedule—in the best possible way. Facilitators asked participants to share their current tech practices and learning goals on large sheets of paper with sticky notes.

"The conversation in the room was just so rich," Kratcoski said. "We were here all afternoon and we didn't even get through it."

"There is so much knowledge and experience in this room," Kratcoski recalled thinking.

That realization shaped everything that followed. Educators from Egypt, Estonia, Kazakhstan, and beyond weren't there to learn from Americans—they were there to learn from each other. And they brought stories of struggles that sounded eerily familiar to anyone teaching today.

Some described being required to integrate technology into everything; others said their policies forbid devices in the classroom entirely. Yet all faced the same core tension: how to keep teaching human-centered in an age of constant technological disruption.

"Some of them talked about being required to integrate technology in everything they do. Some of them talked about being forbidden from involving technology or being severely restricted," Rozner said. "But I think we're all at this intersection of this emerging technology piece where it is enhancing and disruptive, you know, fact of our lives and in our teaching."

Building Bridges That Last

One of the program's themes was building bridges—literally and metaphorically. The program succeeded on multiple levels. It built bridges between educators from 20 countries who now text daily in a WhatsApp group, sharing how they're already using what they learned with their own students. It built bridges between Á½ÐÔÉ«ÎçÒ¹'s colleges, showing how English language teaching and educational technology aren't separate disciplines but deeply interconnected. And it built bridges between theory and practice through action plans each participant developed before leaving.

Those plans asked educators to identify a specific challenge in their context—their learner needs, their goals, their constraints—and design how they'd adapt a technology tool to address it. The results were concrete, thoughtful, and already being implemented thousands of miles away.

"They're already, because some of them are teaching now, their calendar is different from ours. So they've already been showing examples of what they learned here and how they're using it with their students," Kratcoski said. "That's been exciting for us as the instructors because it helps us to see the impact."

A Campus Made New Through Others' Eyes

Beyond the workshops and tech labs, there was the incidental learning—the kind that happens when 24 international visitors see your everyday world as extraordinary. Rozner remembered two participants from Estonia and Kazakhstan sitting outside Bowman Hall watching groundhogs run past. When fireflies emerged at dusk, one educator whispered that it looked like a Disney movie.

"You take it for granted, but yeah, I have to say," Rozner reflected, "it is dazzling to see the fireflies at night."

These moments—and the photos participants took near the university's arch, the conversations over dining hall meals, the shared experience of being on Á½ÐÔÉ«ÎçÒ¹'s green, lush campus—were woven intentionally into the program design. Johnson, Rozner, and Kratcoski wanted participants to feel the university's commitment not just intellectually but viscerally.

"We really tried to strategically insert all of the best of what Á½ÐÔÉ«ÎçÒ¹ has to offer as meaningful program components," Rozner said. The group visited the WIC Poetry Center, where poet David Hassler led a session using Spark Cards—analog tools designed to inspire creative thinking and writing. Participants took cards home and, weeks later, posted photos in the WhatsApp group showing how they'd used them with their own students, blending analog and digital in exactly the way the program had modeled.

What It Means to Go Global Without Leaving

For Kratcoski, who has led RCET for 26 years, the exchange challenged her assumptions about American technological leadership. "We're pretty proud of ourselves and we like to think we're leading innovation. But I was really just so impressed by some of these teachers from other countries, what they're already doing with AI," she said. One Estonian educator was already spearheading a national curriculum pilot with AI tools; others were solving problems in their contexts in ways Á½ÐÔÉ«ÎçÒ¹ faculty hadn't considered.

"It was truly an exchange. You know, as much as Á½ÐÔÉ«ÎçÒ¹ was awarded this grant because of our expertise and our ability to convene these teachers and share what we're doing with educational technology, it was truly an exchange. We learned so much from them," Kratcoski said.

This kind of cross-disciplinary, international collaboration also matters for Á½ÐÔÉ«ÎçÒ¹'s own students and communities. As Kratcoski noted, many American schools—urban, suburban, and rural—now enroll children from other countries. Understanding how to support English language learners isn't just for ESL specialists; it's increasingly relevant in every classroom.

"I can keep doing good work in educational technology. It's interesting. But when you think about the world we live in and how it's so global and interconnected, to be able to partner our college with arts and sciences, educational technology, with English language teaching, and offer these kinds of programs that bring together people from all over the world to study these common issues, and then to create like plans and models that other educators can learn from—that's such an exciting thing that Á½ÐÔÉ«ÎçÒ¹ does," Kratcoski said.

Looking Ahead

Both Rozner and Kratcoski expressed hope of running the program again. The framework works. The partnerships are solid. And there are, as Rozner said, "so many others who could be brought into the same experience."

The real measure of success, though, may already be visible in that WhatsApp group, where educators from Egypt, Estonia, Kazakhstan, and beyond continue to share classroom photos and lesson ideas. Where an educator in the Middle East posts a picture of students using Spark Cards. Where teachers who met for the first time two weeks ago are still learning from one another.

That's the bridge that lasts—the one built not just by a program, but by people who recognized something essential in each other: that whether you're teaching in Ohio or on another continent, the work of education is fundamentally human.

As one educator from Egypt said when presenting his action plan: "We are preparing children for a very rapidly changing world. And so as teachers, we need to prepare. We need to be ready to do that."

Á½ÐÔÉ«ÎçÒ¹, through this exchange, helped make that readiness a little more possible for educators around the globe.

There it is! You can now send this to Annette, Debbie, and Amanda for review and edits before publication. Let me know what changes come back.