Intercultural Dialogues

What is Intercultural Dialogues?

Intercultural Dialogues is a First Year Seminar course. First Year Seminar courses are interdisciplinary, which means that the class will draw from more than one straight discipline like math or history. In our course, we will be looking at some art, film, history, and intercultural studies. However, it is not an introductory course to any of those disciplines. Instead, this course will help you to discover (hopefully) a new way of approaching learning and get to know your fellow students (yes, even online!) and your instructor in an academic environment. You’ll be introduced to the knowledge and skills you’ll need to succeed in college and become a lifelong learner, and we will be doing all of that as we learn about other peoples, places, ways of being, and intercultural competence. There are no prerequisites for this course. You do not need to have any background in intercultural competence, or any prerequisite knowledge in order to start the class!

Why take Intercultural Dialogues?

Can you interpret the world around you? What do you think when you see a person waving their arms wildly and talking loudly with another person? Do you and I interpret the situation the same way? Can that situation have multiple meanings? Are we witnessing excitement? Anger? Confusion? Everyone sees reality through their own cultural lenses. Some people believe that if something is important, then emotion must come into the conversation, otherwise, it shows a lack of care and interest. Others may be culturally conditioned to think that if something is important, reason and calm must prevail and emotion should be left out of the conversation. Neither is right or wrong, but just different. In this course, we will first look at our own cultural lens, and then discover how others see the world, and gain the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to act and move appropriately in intercultural situations.

How are we going to learn in Intercultural Dialogues ?

Answer: Constructivism

Constructivism is basically a theory -- based on observation and scientific study -- about how people learn. It says that people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. Intercultural Competence requires experience and reflection. Your knowledge will be tested by doing and by performing, and your learning will come from reflecting upon those experiences. Since intercultural competence relies heavily on a personal understanding of how you make meaning yourself, and then understanding how others make meaning, employing a constructivist approach is a very apropos strategy that will allow us to think about our own thinking as we construct meaning.

why are we learning this way?

Kolb’s experiential learning cycle (shown in the diagram on left) explains the four stages of learning. First, you act or experience something. This may be a conversation, watching a film, an exercise of some sort that you are directed to do. Second, you will reflect on what you have done. Third, you will conceptualize, or try to understand why something happened (and we will work together to understand this). And fourth, you will apply this new knowledge in a different circumstance. This will be the process for learning in our course. You will notice that we will have a heavy emphasis on reflection throughout the course because that is when the learning truly happens.

Teaching and Learning as Spelunking?

How do you conceive of learning? Is it a passive non-action of receiving information? Is it a transaction where the instructor gives out something that you take and then later give back in some form to demonstrate your knowledge? This video, set in Linville Caverns, not too far from campus, explains my view of what teaching and learning will be in our First Year Seminar class.

I value you as a unique person

Want to know about the many different people you will meet at Appalachian, either in person or online? Take a look at our "in progress" work with this short video to the right. Pay particular attention to the emphasis that First Year Seminar puts on learning about other peoples and cultures at the 5:30 mark. You'll see Director of General Education Ted Zerucha explain how FYS includes intercultural competence as one of our General Education learning goals. Getting to know other students is actually a vital part of your education here at AppState!

Who is your instructor?

Lillian Nave

You can find out much more about me on the "Meet Your Instructor" page of this website

Meet Lillian

Technology needs?

You will need a smartphone, access to a computer, and internet access (preferably high speed) to participate in this course. You also may want to download As-U-learn app to your smartphone to easily complete assignments. We will be in touch using email, so be sure to check regularly for updates there or in the As-u-learn announcement forum.

Required Books?

There is only one required text and it is absolutely FREE! Do NOT pay for this book. You can pick it up at the bookstore if you are enrolled in our class. We start off the semester reading this, so make sure to pick it up. If you are not on campus, the chapters we read are provided as PDFs, so you can use those instead!

When do we meet?

Our class will meet twice a week for 75 minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We will be collaborating and working on our intercultural skills together in these "live" sessions.

First Year Seminar @ Appstate?

First Year Seminar (UCO 1200) introduces first year Appalachian students (freshmen and transfers) to rigorous academic study at the University level through interdisciplinary engagement with a broad topic or question. Experienced faculty engage FYS students in a shared process of inquiry in small seminar-style classes. (The average class size is 22.) The faculty also help students make the transition to academic life at Appalachian by introducing students to a variety of library research tools, making connections with faculty and other students, introducing the wide range of resources Appalachian provides its students, and involving the university and local community. Additionally, all First Year Seminars share in common the following learning goals, which are the foundation of the University's General Education Program: developing creative and critical thinking abilities; cultivating effective communication skills; making local-to-global connections; and understanding responsibilities of community membership. Appalachian’s First Year Seminar course also serves as a designated Global Learning Opportunity ("GLO" for short) because all FYS courses cultivate intercultural competence by examining a single issue from multiple perspectives.

No, you're not Smelly

Are you a FRIENDS fan? If so, you may have heard of Phoebe Buffay's "Smelly Cat" coffee house song. Some fellow creative professors and I have reimagined the song as a First Year Seminar anthem of sorts. We just want you to know that we care about what you are learning and we are ready to take on the challenge of college alongside you as you start your journey at Appalachian State. (And yes, that's me singing and performing it, but the synching is a little off.)

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