Durham College professor Lon Appleby recently travelled to Taiwan for the 18^th annual International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies (IAICS) conference to share the college’s Global Class, an interactive medium allowing students to connect with peers globally, with representatives from 32 different countries.

Held from June 8 to 11 at Yuan Ze University in Chung-Li, Taiwan, the event brought educators and scholars together to discuss their ideas and experiences on communication across languages and cultures.

“I saw this as the perfect opportunity to share with others what it means to be living in a global world and extend an invitation to other institutes to take part in this collective learning,” said Appleby who learned about the conference from Edwin McDaniel, a doctor of Communications and professor at California State University in San Marcos, California, who co-wrote the textbook Appleby uses for course preparations.

He suggested Appleby submit a 200-word abstract about The Global Classroom and indicate his interest in speaking at the conference.

In addition to the abstract, Appleby drafted a paper about the classroom he hopes to publish in the IAICS’s Intercultural Communication Studies Journal with submissions from other speakers at the conference.

“The key to Lon Appleby’s Global Classroom is intercultural communication,” said McDaniel. “I can think of no more important forum for increasing awareness of his project and interacting with international scholars dedicated to improving intercultural communication than the annual IAICS conference.”

Through Appleby’s paper, The Development and Future of The Global Classroom, he explained why there was a need for the classroom, how it was established, how it has grown thus far, and his goal of creating partnerships with at least one institution from each continent.  

After returning home with many new contacts interested in The Global Classroom and a renewed excitement from the positive reaction received at the conference, Appleby is confident his goal is within reach. He is currently planning classes to hold with his new international partners and hopes to recruit students to help run the classroom as it grows.