ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the way in which existing instructional and communication technologies can bridge geographic, digital, and cultural divides and facilitate collaboration on an international scale. It highlights some existing Web-based technologies for distance learning and synchronous and asynchronous communication and explores their limitations in terms of collaboration between first- and third-world participants. The chapter aims to disclose and address the important issues through an analysis of the aforementioned virtual design studio as a shared context for cross-cultural communication and collaboration between the first and third worlds. It shows how third-world laypeople and first-world educators collaborated and designed an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign through the use of existing communication technologies for distance learning and synchronous and asynchronous communication. Research in graphic design and technical communication shows that images, colors, typefaces, symbols, and organizational formats communicate different things to different audiences.
