WISCONSIN: A University of Wisconsin-Baraboo/Sauk County professor is bringing his expertise to Sri Lanka this summer in an effort to connect international college students with industry professionals, according to a report published in the community newspaper, Baraboo News Republic in the U.S. state of Wisconsin.
UW-Baraboo mathematics professor Kirthi Premadasa will serve as a United States Fulbright specialist at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura near the capital city of Colombo in June. Premadasa’s work overseas will focus on fostering classroom collaboration and connecting students with information technology and finance industry leaders before they graduate.
While the caliber of student academics is high in Sri Lanka, Premadasa said cultural barriers sometimes prevent gifted people from reaching their full potential.
“The students often come from cultural backgrounds where being reserved is regarded as a good thing,” he said. “One has to be humble and quiet.”
The U.S. State Department’s Fulbright Specialist Program sends American educators and professionals to serve as expert consultants on curriculum, faculty development, institutional planning and related subjects for several weeks at academic institutions abroad.
Premadasa has researched classroom collaboration extensively during his career at the UW System, authoring several academic papers on the topic. Some methods he has explored include solving difficult math problems collaboratively over Twitter, voting for multiple choice answer problems via cellphones and providing students with interactive videos. Premadasa said he hopes to introduce “best practice” methods in Sri Lankan classrooms.
“These methods create collaboration in the classroom and enhance the students’ motivation, problem-solving skills and other things,” he said. “We’re trying to replicate that in Sri Lanka, but go beyond what we do here.”
The UW-Baraboo professor also wants to create live problem-solving sessions between IT and industrial math students in the university and IT and finance professionals in the employment sector. The project is intended to enhance the collaborative, problem-solving and presentation skills of Sri Lankan students, as well as create strong contacts between the employment sector and the university.
“I want to train the university professors to create these conversations for different subjects in IT and industrial mathematics and then start a portable model so they can replicate it every year,” Premadasa said. “I want them to take ownership and create a kind of council of companies which will always be very strongly linked with the university.”
Charles Clark, UW Colleges Southwest Region executive officer and dean, said Premadasa’s participation in the Fulbright program recognizes his pedagogical expertise and leadership in the area of bringing instructional technology into the classroom.
“Through this program, Professor Premadasa will be able to assist our colleagues in Sri Lanka as they work to further collaboration between learning in the classroom and application of that learning in the business world, specifically in the area of finance,” he said. “I am thrilled that Professor Premadasa has this opportunity this summer.”
While Premadasa hails from the Sri Lankan capital and views the forthcoming trip as a kind of homecoming, he said he will be acting as an ambassador from the United States and Wisconsin.
“Sometimes people have an incorrect perception of what the United States is because they only see the country from the perspective of international politics,” he said. “I want to take that message that I’m not going there as a Sri Lankan — I’m going there as an American.”
