SBIR Phase I: A platform for cross-cultural collaborative learning by 6th-12th graders based on synchronous watching of international films from different locations

The broader/commercial impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is in exposing students to cultures other than their own to foster empathy, not only for others, but to better understand themselves and their own culture. The 21st century workforce requires multilingual, curious, collaborative, empathetic learners. Yet, immersive opportunities to exercise empathy cross-culturally are difficult to access and empathy requires practice. Geographic and cultural knowledge from travel abroad programs is proven to increase empathy, but such experiences serve relatively few students. Schools need a cost-effective and safe way of equitably delivering immersive cross-cultural engagement to meet increasingly global demands. This project intends to present the international film festival as a rich learning atmosphere, replicable at scale to serve learners well beyond the traditional audience diversity and number. The immersive experience will be delivered to respond to learning needs in the classrooms, after-school programs, hospitals, and refugee centers. The films will be expertly curated, globally streamed, co-viewed across time zones, and enhanced with moderated curriculum. This project replicates and magnifies aspects of the film festival model which correspond to social impact business innovation, specifically, empathy. Multiple identified paths to empathy in each session are activated and reproduced through discussion, analysis, gamification and assessment. This series of assessments engages the learner to better understand how they learn, while reinforcing the memory of learning of a culture outside of their own as integral to their developing worldview. The project also establishes a foundation for both media and cultural literacy. The platform will activate non-generative artificial intelligence (AI) in service of matching profiles, scheduling, automation, assessment tabulation and reporting, and archiving. The technology will employ generative AI with AR (augmented reality) in service of translation in post-film discussion as well as location-based information to enable additional points of empathy for discussion. With respect to assessments, AI will be used to provide feedback to participants, impacting learning episode memory. The assessments will also serve in the facilitation of qualitative assessments so that participants receive timely reports, illuminating similarities and differences. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.