Photoblogging with the Facebook Generation: using GenY's strengths in study abroad reflection
Greg Downey and Tonia Gray presented to 200 at the Forum on Education Abroad in Denver, Colorado (March 21-23, 2012). The conference theme, for this 8th Annual Forum Conference was "Tracing the Experience: From Inquiry to Integration," and focused on the transformational nature of education abroad. The conference explored the experienceas a whole, looking at the impacts in students' lives. http://www.forumea.org/Denver2012.cfm

As Aldous Huxley once stated, "Experience isn't what happens to you, it is what you make of what happens to you" and intercultural learning from the study abroad experience, requires reflection to fully realise its educational goals. This engaging session discussed how the use of blogging and photo-elicitation harnessed the strengths of GenY, to facilitate reflective narratives about impacts of the study abroad experience.

There was a great deal of interest and feedback over the Bringing the Learning home project's approach many were delighted that the learning and teaching resources on this website were freely available under a Creative Commons License.

This presentation is available as a Prezi format at: http://tiny.cc/b03gbw

Unit in Global Engagement
From July 2012, Murdoch University will be offering students undertaking exchange the opportunity to enrol in a new unit, Global Engagement. The learning design draws directly on the outcomes of the Bringing the Learning Home project in supporting the study abroad and exchange experience.  As part of this new unit, students will participate in workshops on themes such as exploration, adaptation reflection, globalisation and cosmopolitanism, and professionalisation, both pre-departure and  after their return from exchange. They will also participate in a  blog while on exchange. An important  focus of the unit will be students' contribution to campus internationalisation after their return.

Photographic Competition
As part of the Bringing the Learning Home project, students were given the opportunity to participate in a photography and reflection contest. We asked students for photographs which captured the study abroad experience - what they learned, crucial experiences, breakthroughs, obstacles -  illustrating all the challenges they faced and the lessons they brought back with them. The contest was open to students from the three institutions participating in the 'Bringing the Learning Home' project. Three prizes were awarded at each institution, Macquarie University, Murdoch University, and the University of Wollongong, and many of the images were used in the BTLH resource materials. Students were asked to include at least one sentence explaining why the photo was important to them, and to remember that what they wrote was as important as the quality of the image. Photo entries, including judges' comments on winning entries are included in this photo gallery.