What does the virtual cross-cultural activity mean? 

Statute 22 CFR § 62.24(h)(1)(ii) specifies that EV teachers must complete a cross-cultural activity component. Does this mean that exchange teachers are required to create/organize/lead a cultural activity during their US placements? 

Yes, EV teachers must complete, within the US, and during each academic year of program participation, at least one cross-cultural activity from each of the two categories listed in 22 CFR § 62.24(h) and submit them in a report to the PED. 

EV teachers are required to supplement the goals of the in-person exchange, through virtual exchange or other means. The virtual activity is one element of their cross-cultural component that involves US students’ dialogue with schools or students in another country, preferably in the EV Teacher’s home school. This activity is required of EV teachers by 22 CFR § 62.24(h)(1)(ii). 

A virtual exchange is defined in 22 CFR § 62.24(c)(7) as a “technology-enabled, sustained, people-to-people cross-cultural educational program that may supplement the goals of an in-person exchange and integrates global knowledge, cultural awareness, and/or foreign language into the classroom or other setting.” 

Two examples of virtual exchanges are as follows: (1) Students in the EV teacher’s home and host schools work together online and through e-mail to complete a news-magazine that covers an interesting topic relevant in both the teacher’s home country and the US; (2) students in the EV teacher’s home and host schools collaborate through a virtual joint classroom session: US students practice a foreign language with students of their own age in the exchange teacher’s home school, and students abroad have an opportunity to practice their English with the teacher’s host school students in the US.