Cultural Diversity and Social Construction of Meaning Online 

Primary Presenter: Anna MacBriar

Organization: University of Colorado Boulder

Role: Instructor

Track: Presentation

Level: For Mere Mortals

Abstract: How can online learning environments promote intercultural construction of meaning in online humanities courses? This session will provide an overview of current research into engaging cultural difference while exploring humanistic knowledge traditions online. Participants then will engage in a choice of online activities that demonstrate effective approaches to constructivist learning in intercultural contexts.

Bio: Anna MacBriar has taught writing and literature at colleges and universities for the past fourteen years. She holds a PhD in English and is currently completing an M.A. in Educational Foundations, Policies, and Practice. MacBriar has presented papers at numerous academic and educational conferences, including COLTT, the Colorado Conference on Technology in Education, the Conference of the American Anthropological Association, and the Conference of the National Association for Multicultural Education. She is committed to the research and practice of multicultural humanities education, and to exploring the special affordances of online education for promoting multicultural literacy and anti-racist pedagogies and curricula.

Description: The benefits and challenges associated with engaging cultural diversity in educational settings have generated a wide body of research over the past half century. In humanities education, however, challenges associated with intercultural curriculum development have not only stymied the development of effective approaches to teaching culturally diverse student populations, but have also contributed to the gradual decline of humanistic inquiry overall.

Happily, recent innovations in digital media and online learning provide new opportunities to harness the educational power of cultural difference. This presentation will explore current research into the special affordances of online learning environments, and will showcase best practices for utilizing cultural difference for richer and more effective humanistic pedagogies online. The presentation also will include a hands-on demonstration of these affordances through audience engagement with digital tools for constructivist learning. Audience members should bring their laptops. A list of guidelines for promoting effective intercultural learning online will be provided.

Brief Outline Discussion
1. Introduction: Why online humanities education is important.
2. Overview of historical challenges facing theorists and practitioners of intercultural humanities education.
3. Overview of special affordances of online education for intercultural education.
4. Case Studies
• Amy Goodloe’s online Gender and Identity Course.
• Jay Ellis’s blended learning course on Cormac McCarthy.
• Princeton’s new free, national online poetry course.
5. Hands-on exercises
• Anonymous, guided, online discussion of challenges associated teaching diverse student populations.
• Guided creation of a James Baldwin wiki: “Conversations with a Native Son.”
6. Audience discussion of the exercises.
7. Presentation of guidelines.

Expected outcomes:
1. Audience members will gain a new framework for conceptualizing intercultural humanities education.
2. Audience members will be inspired to engage cultural difference in online humanities courses and will feel confident in trying out the digital tools and pedagogies discussed in the presentation.