The Atlantic features a short documentary called Social Distance, which shows how people from 30 different countries have been going about their day during the COVID-19 quarantine. The filmmakers, Ivan Cash and Jacob Jonas, created the documentary by editing videos that people submitted. Additionally, the score, which was written by Steve Hackman, is a compilation of musicians around the world who received Hackman's sheet music and then recorded themselves playing. 

Sources for my course

Source: Snodgrass, L. L. (2017). The effects of internship abroad curricular experiential interactions on the cultural intelligence of program participants (Doctoral dissertation, Purdue University).

This dissertation examined the impact of internship abroad experiential curricular interactions on the development of culturally intelligence of participants using pre- and post-test Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) scores. The study indicated that the experiential programs, that embedded elements of critical culture, including critical knowledge, critical thinking, critical pedagogy, and critical community, had significant effects on the growth in cultural intelligence. 

Gail Morong & Donna DesBiens (2016) Culturally responsive online design: learning at intercultural intersections, Intercultural Education, 27:5, 474-492, DOI: 10.1080/14675986.2016.1240901

This article presents evidence-based guidelines to inform culturally responsive online learning design in higher education. The guidelines present a base for online design methodology to support intercultural learning and enable formative evaluation of pedagogy, learning activity and assessment applications.

This chapter addresses the question, “How can we overcome potential cultural discontinuities in online collaborative project-based learning environments?” The authors first identified differing worldviews, communication practices, and technological issues that can present barriers that frequently arise in intercultural online courses. Then they identified constructivist project-based teaching strategies that reduce these intercultural barriers. Differing worldviews can be reconciled by fostering collaboration, grouping, relevance, and metacognition. 

Walker, U. & vom Brocke, C (2009) Integrating content-based language learning and intercultural learning online: An international eGroups collaboration. A. Brown (Ed.)(2009) Proceedings of CLESOL 2008

This paper reports on a didactic concept which integrates subject-based language learning with intercultural experience through online collaboration in an international eGroups set-up. Data from student interactions will help illustrate to what extent the eGroups model promoted interactive, communicative and intercultural competence through content-related bilingual collaboration.

Lee, L., & Markey, A. (2014). A study of learners’ perceptions of online intercultural exchange through Web 2.0 technologies. ReCALL, 26(3), 281-297.

This paper reports a Spanish-American telecollaborative project through which students used Twitter, blogs and podcasts for intercultural exchange over the course of one semester. The paper outlines the methodology for the project including pedagogical objectives, task design, selection of web tools and implementation. Using qualitative and quantitative data collection, the study explored how the application of Web 2.0 facilitated cross-cultural communication. How the use of digital technology affected the way in which the students viewed intercultural learning and peer feedback was examined.

This chapter describes the development and implementation of a fully online intercultural communication course that aims to propel students to a higher level of intercultural competence and engagement while they are participating in an international exchange program.

This collection of over 20 lesson modules and/or syllabi was curated by Dr. Kris Acheson-Clair, Director of Purdue's Center for Intercultural Learning, Mentorship, Assessment & Research (CILMAR). Each item in the collection is catalogued as to:

1. Which of the six elements of the Purdue definition of intercultural competence it nurtures,
2. Whether it is an appropriate intervention for learners at all stages of the Intercultural Development Continuum, and
3. Which phase of Vande Berg's Four-Facet Developmental Framework of intercultural competence it addresses.

This assessment measures the five facets of global-mindedness (responsibility, cultural pluralism, efficacy, global-centrism, interconnectedness). 

Instructors or learners who access the instrument will be better able to differentiate between the commonly confused concepts of "Intercultural Competence" and "Global Citizenship.

This segment of NPR's Morning Edition highlights the immense disparities between the rich and the working class during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as some of the tone deaf responses from the wealthy on social media.

Lee, L., & Markey, A. (2014). A study of learners’ perceptions of online intercultural exchange through Web 2.0 technologies. ReCALL, 26(3), 281-297.

This paper reports a Spanish-American telecollaborative project through which students used Twitter, blogs and podcasts for intercultural exchange over the course of one semester. The paper outlines the methodology for the project including pedagogical objectives, task design, selection of web tools and implementation. Using qualitative and quantitative data collection, the study explored how the application of Web 2.0 facilitated cross-cultural communication. How the use of digital technology affected the way in which the students viewed intercultural learning and peer feedback was examined.

Walker, U. & vom Brocke, C (2009) Integrating content-based language learning and intercultural learning online: An international eGroups collaboration. A. Brown (Ed.)(2009) Proceedings of CLESOL 2008

This paper reports on a didactic concept which integrates subject-based language learning with intercultural experience through online collaboration in an international eGroups set-up. Data from student interactions will help illustrate to what extent the eGroups model promoted interactive, communicative and intercultural competence through content-related bilingual collaboration.

This article, written by John Knipfing for LinkedIn, provides useful tips on how to avoid miscommunication during virtual conversations. 

In this blog post, "a mom of a tall black 15-year-old" describes her fear of her son wearing a mask in public (because of racial bias, profiling, and violence) in conjunction with her fear of him risking illness by not wearing one. Her conflicted thoughts/emotions represent how many Black Americans are currently feeling as the pandemic continues to disproportionately impact marginalized communities. 

In this activity, participants are asked to consider how their belonging to certain social groups influences their experiences and the opportunities they receive by physically placing themselves on one side of a line or another depending on their identification with particular social categories. 

The Purdue University Asian American and Asian Resource and Cultural Center (AARCC) has compiled resources that aim to help instructors/professors address anti-Asian racism, bias, and violence that has occurred as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This chapter addresses the question, “How can we overcome potential cultural discontinuities in online collaborative project-based learning environments?” The authors first identified differing worldviews, communication practices, and technological issues that can present barriers that frequently arise in intercultural online courses. Then they identified constructivist project-based teaching strategies that reduce these intercultural barriers. Differing worldviews can be reconciled by fostering collaboration, grouping, relevance, and metacognition. 

The two articles linked in this post demonstrate both the COVID-19 pandemic's effect on marginalized communities and how those communities have responded. The first article from The Atlantic ("Why Don't We Know Who the Coronavirus Victims Are?) highlights the lack of statistics on communities disproportionately affected by the coronavirus. The second article from Yes Magazine ("12 Ways Communities Are Taking Care of Each Other During the Pandemic") shows how communities who face systemic oppression and are often forgotten by our institutions are sharing resources and helping each other through the crisis. 

The juxtaposition of these two articles demonstrates how culture leads us to respond in particular ways and how we shape culture through our actions. Additionally, they show how power and equity affect our actions and responses. 

This article discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted death and funeral rituals around the world. Many families and friends who recently lost a loved one are facing delayed burials or required social distancing at funerals.