Engaging Gen Y pre-service teachers in online spaces to improve their digital and intercultural competence

In 2013, as part of a compulsory unit, over 150 pre-service teachers were tutors in an online environment to over 300 school students from Australia, Malaysia, India and Nepal. The eTutor initiative aims to address the challenge of preparing teachers for a more culturally diverse and digitally enhanced classroom by using social media tools to facilitate communication across and between cultures. We report on the challenges teacher educators faced in engaging Gen Y learners in an authentic online cultural exchange. Gen Y learners are positioned as social media savvy, however our experience suggests that teacher educators cannot take for granted the ability or preparedness of Gen Y pre-service teachers to transfer their social media skills from a personal to a professional domain. Using participatory action research, we reflect on pre-service teachers' initial resistance to the online environment and theoretical knowledge and discuss the pedagogical 'choreography' that was required to engage these learners.