For Immediate Release February 23, 2005

For More Information Contact: Rich Schneider, 317-278-4564 rcschnei@iupui.edu

IUPUI Becoming Gateway to the World

INDIANAPOLIS - Two televisions sit inches apart on a stand at the front of an IUPUI classroom, each showing a class of students who are half a world apart from the other.

It is 8 a.m. in Indianapolis and 8 p.m. in Jakarta, Indonesia, when the two groups of students come face-to-face, television style, to attend the same class, taught by the same instructors about the same material at the same time.

The Global Dialogues class marks another initiative to make IUPUI a gateway to the world and to equip its students with skills needed to succeed in a global economy.

Using innovative internet communication technology, the class is designed to encourage students to become interested in foreign cultures, international travel, cross-cultural connections and global dialogue.

The course is unique because it is held in two separate locations, with faculty at each location planning the course and lecturing one day a week to 25 students, 15 from the University Negeri Jakarta (UNJ) and 10 from IUPUI. The two groups of students meet separately another day of the week.

"With global contacts increasing, students more and more will need to understand, be aware and be able to appreciate the global world in which they will live and work," said Hilary Kahn, one of the IUPUI instructors.

"Students learn about each other and from each other," said her IUPUI co-instructor, John Parrish-Sprowl.

During a recent class, students at IUPUI and at UNJ had exchanged family snap shots. Without an explanation of what was occurring in the photos, IUPUI students attempted to explain what was going on in the Indonesian photos and vice versa.

"That exercise showed how visual culture is part of communication and how certain cultural tools are needed to understand and comprehend visual culture," Kahn noted.

Before the semester-long class ends, students at IUPUI and students at UNJ will be paired into teams to make classroom presentations they will prepare by communicating through e-mail and chat rooms.

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