Adopting a digital socratic dialogue through virtual exchange

This session will present the virtual exchange project we created after partnering together through the AMICAL Digital Collaboration initiative. Our project emphasized dialogue as means of truth-seeking and decision-making. While some assumptions behind debate and argumentation include the notion of winning and losing, we wanted to revisit debate as a conversation with a purpose, where ethical decision-making can be conducted in a critical manner, following the principles of the Socratic Method. Students from the Lebanese American University in Beirut and Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane connected through a virtual space to discuss ethical issues connected to technology and sustainable development. Their inquiries during these sessions focused on examining existing assumptions/biases and clarifying obstacles/challenges. They also applied different approaches to ethics, specifically moral reasoning, to identify ideal solutions to current cases involving ethics, technology, and global development. The session will focus on the format we used, the successes, and the lessons learned. Virtual exchange has gained importance over the past few years as a means of connecting across borders, and we want to emphasize the value of creating opportunities for dialogue using the different digital platforms available to us. While our courses focused on moral philosophy, we believe this digital collaboration could be beneficial in any liberal arts courses that include discussion and debate. We will also emphasize ideal means for carrying out virtual exchange using low stakes assignments that would not exacerbate a heavy academic workload.