A Virtual University Takes Off For Students Throughout Africa - by Fiona Fleck http://www.changemakers.net/library/templates/WSJnov2002.cfm At any given time, thousands of students across sub-Saharan Africa can watch the same lecture beamed down to them by integrated satellite and Internet technology from universities in North America, Europe and the Pacific. Students may send questions by e-mail from networked computer terminals in their local learning centers to which the lecturer -- who may be several time zones away -- can respond live. African Virtual University was launched as a World Bank pilot project in 1997 to provide university education to one of the world's poorest regions. The university, headed by Mr. Diarra, one of Africa's leading scientists, offers undergraduate-level courses in business studies, computer science and electrical engineering and has registered 24,000 students so far. Students are awarded certificates of completion upon finishing short courses. By the end of 2003, it hopes to offer these as degree courses at 140 learning centers. Beyond Grey Pinstripes: Preparing MBAs for Social and Environmental Stewardship http://www.beyondgreypinstripes.org/pdf/beyondgreypinstripes.pdf http://www.beyondgreypinstripes.org/ This 2001 report, a joint publication of the Aspen Institute Initiative for Social Innovation through Business and the World Resources Institute, addresses the opportunity and practice of integrating environmental and social impact training into the core curriculum of business school education. Business schools provide the foundation for the analytical skills, strategies, and decision-making frameworks required of future business leaders worldwide.In the United States alone, 100,000 MBA degrees, 200,000 undergraduate business degrees, and 1,000 doctoral business degrees are awarded every year. These numbers point to a need to understand what is happening inside business education and to measure how business schools are introducing the concepts of sustainability and social and environmental stewardship to business students. Beyond Grey Pinstripes 2003. Notable Feature(s): Directory of the 100 schools around the world that participated in the 2003 survey. Contact Information: The Aspen Institute Business and Society Program 271 Madison Avenue (Suite 606) New York, NY   10016 USA Telephone: 212.895.8000   Fax: 202.895.8012 Email: info@aspenbsp.org pinstripes@wri.org A Lesson in Computer Literacy from India's Poorest - Edited by Paul Judge http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/mar2000/nf00302b.htm New Delhi physicist Sugata Mitra has a radical proposal for bringing his country's next generation into the Info Age. A Schoolroom Where Life Is the Curriculum - by Leslie Camhi http://www.changemakers.net/library/temp/nytimes091403.cfm This New York Times article traces the development of the French documentary on a one-room, rural school, "Etre et avoir," or "To Be and to Have," which is something of a departure for the filmmaker Mr. Philibert, 52, who has tended to train his camera on more remote subjects, whether scaling high peaks with a rock climber, or exploring the world of the deaf or the universe of a psychiatric clinic. Yet, he insists, a common thread unites his work. "My films speak recurrently about learning to live together...about respecting the singularity and difference of people who are unlike ourselves. The school in 'To Be and to Have,' and school in general, is the first place where you come out of your shell and start associating with others. It's not just about math and English. It's about learning to live in society." One could say emphatically that the documentary's theme or lesson is about the need for and usefulness of empathy in the world, whether in a teacher's work with young children or, by extension, with adults working with others at work. As expressed in the indieWire article by Howard Feinstein (see below): Upon being asked why his films are all set in institutions, [Philibert] replies, "It's not so much institutions that interest me: It's learning to live together. It's not so easy to learn to respect others and their idiosyncracies." His work reveals a great capacity for empathy and love. The MoMA exhibition could even be entitled "Nicolas Philibert: The Extraordinary Humanist." Notable Feature(s): An indieWire story on the same film and filmmaker. Democratising Your School: A Practical Guide for Headteachers - by Ellie Keen and Anca Tîrca http://erc.hrea.org/Library/teachers/keen-tirca00.html This manual was developed in Romania and addresses the connection between internal structures and relations of a school system to those existing in society at large. The authors argue that in order for democratic relations to exist in a a society there needs to be a certain amount of democratisation at the school level as well. The guide offers practical tips to improve relations between and among teaching staff, pupils and parents. It offers many examples on how to create community trust in the classroom and in the school and offers models for school councils, school policies, vision statements, constitutions, job descriptions and questionnaires. Notable Feature(s): Full text of report in PDF format. Education Week on the Web http://www.edweek.com/ Editorial Projects in Education Inc. publishes Education Week, the monthly Teacher Magazine, and Education Week on the Web. EPE is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization based in Washington, D.C. Its primary mission is to help raise the level of awareness and understanding among professionals and the public of important issues in American education. EPE grew out of an initiative launched in 1957. At that time fifteen editors of university alumni magazines launched the bold experiment that would have a substantial and lasting impact on all of American education. In time the group launched The Chronicle of Higher Education. Notable Feature(s): Hot Topics; extensive links to related organizations; daily news; commentary and articles; Teacher Magazine. Contact Information: Editorial Projects in Education Inc. Suite 100 6935 Arlington Road Bethesda, MD   20814-5233 USA Telephone: 301.280.3100   Fax: 301.280.3200 Email: webster@epe.org I-school, my school - by Farwa Imam Ali, Nistula Hebbar and Litta Jacob http://www.the-week.com/23feb09/cover.htm This February 2003 article profiles several school programs in India that are challening traditional approaches to education. All of the schools represent a parallel stream in the education system where the quality and content are the same as formal schools but innovative teaching methods are employed. Contact Information: Email: editor@the-week.com Planting the SEED of Education - by Curtis Sittenfeld http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/70/socialcapital.html http://www.seedfoundation.com/ The students are all neatly dressed in uniforms. The average classroom has 14 kids, and each of them is prepared, engaged, and eager to learn. Outside of class, students get regular exposure to professionals in a variety of fields. In other words, this place boasts many of the advantages that you would find at any good private school. That's what makes the SEED Public Charter School of Washington, DC such a bold step in educational reform. Opened in 1998 as the country's first urban public boarding school, SEED (Schools for Educational Evolution and Development) currently has an enrollment of 230 disadvantaged DC students who are all preparing to go to college. The school is creating a new educational model that founders Eric Adler and Rajiv Vinnakota plan to replicate nationwide. Contact Information: Rajiv Vinnakota The SEED Foundation 1712 Eye Street, NW Suite 300 Washington, DC   20006 USA Telephone: 202.785.4123   Fax: 202.785.4124 Email: rajiv@seedfoundation.com SEED's Harvest - by Natalie Hopkinson http://www.changemakers.net/library/temp/washpost063004.cfm http://www.seedfoundation.com/ This June 2004 article in The Washington Post details the strategy and successes of the SEED organization and its founders, Raj Vinnakota and Eric Adler, who champion the present and future of underprivileged children in the District of Columbia. The idea is simple: Catch them right out of elementary school and move them into dormitories where you can teach them social and life skills. During the day, immerse them in an intensive college-preparatory curriculum comparable to elite boarding schools. Lavish them with the kind of emotional and financial support usually reserved for rich kids. Contact Information: The SEED Foundation 1712 Eye Street, NW Suite 300 Washington, D.C.   20006 U.S.A. Telephone: 202.785.4123   Fax: 202.785.4124 Email: seedfoundation@seedfoundation.com TechKnowLogia http://www.techknowlogia.org/ http://www.knowledgeenterprise.org/ TechKnowLogia is an international online journal that provides policy makers, educators, strategists, practitioners and technologists at the local, national and global levels with a strategic forum to: (1) Explore the vital role of different information technologies (print, audio, visual and digital) in the development of human and knowledge capital; (2) Share policies, strategies, experiences and tools in harnessing technologies for knowledge dissemination, effective learning, and efficient education services; (3) Review the latest systems and products of technologies of today, and peek into the world of tomorrow; (4) Exchange information about resources, knowledge networks and centers of expertise. Notable Feature(s): Large archive of articles on policy and research on use of technology in education, in the classroom, in training programs. Contact Information: Wadi D. Haddad, Ph.D. Knowledge Enterprise, Inc. P.O. Box 3027 Oakton, VA   22124 USA Fax: 703.242.2279 Email: TechKnowLogia@KnowledgeEnterprise.org The First Year - Directed by Davis Guggenheim http://www.pbs.org/firstyear/ The First Year is an emotional journey of five beginning teachers in the Los Angeles public school system. The camera goes inside the classroom and uncovers the passion, frustration, determination and triumphs of America's real heroes - our teachers. This site was developed to provide support, resources and guidance for aspiring teachers. The first year teachers featured in the film share insights about their journey in their own words. Notable Feature(s): Resources; guidance on being a teacher; Outreach: How can a documentary film help inspire teachers? Contact Information: Jeffrey Eagle, Outreach Coordinator Teachers Documentary Project Telephone: 310.572.1332   Email: teachoutreach@aol.com A World Connected http://www.aworldconnected.org/index.php AWorldConnected.Org is a project of the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University, a nonprofit educational organization that promotes innovative thinking about how to achieve a world that is peaceful, prosperous and free. AWorldConnected looks at the lives of real people who are being affected by the processes of globalization. It celebrates the successes and seeks to understand the failures. It traces the connections between people with the goal of identifying actions - well-intentioned and otherwise - that have created obstacles and resulted in human suffering. The project is driven by the real-life stories of individuals struggling for self-determination and success, however they might define it. Notable Feature(s): Social entrepreneurs and globalization resources. Contact Information: AWorldConnected.Org Institute for Humane Studies George Mason University 3301 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 440 Arlington, VA   22201 USA Telephone: 703.993.4880   Fax: 703.993.4890 Email: info@aworldconnected.org Academy for Educational Development - Directory of International Subjects and Projects http://www.aed.org/ AED is an independent, nonprofit organization committed to solving critical social problems in the U.S. and throughout the world. Major areas of focus include health, education, youth development, and the environment. Contact Information: Academy for Educational Development 1825 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC   20009-5721 USA Telephone: 202.884.8000   Fax: 202.884.8400 Email: admindc@aed.org Accelerating Girls' Education http://www.unicef.org/programme/girlseducation/25_2005/index.htm Adolescent Directory On-Line http://education.indiana.edu/cas/adol/adol.html Adolescence Directory On-Line (ADOL) is an electronic guide to information on adolescent issues. It is a service of the Center for Adolescent Studies at Indiana University. Educators, counselors, parents,researchers, health practitioners, and teens can use ADOL to find Web resources for many topics of interest. ADOL is a collection of World-Wide-Web (WWW) documents that focus on the social and emotional growth and development needs of adolescents. Contact Information: Gary Ingersoll - Director Indiana University, Center for Adolescent Studies School of Education, Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana   47405 USA Telephone: (812) 856-8113   AED Focus Issue: Basic Education http://www.aed.org/edu_basic.html There is a growing recognition among policymakers that education is the foundation for successful development. Data demonstrate a powerful connection between increases in educational attainment, particularly literacy and numeracy, and increases in development indicators across the board. This relationship between education and economic and social development has been the focus of of many multinational summits and conferences, including the World Conference on Education for All, held in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990,and the follow-up conference held in Dakar, Senegal in 2000. Since Jomtien, stakeholders have continued to push for universal basic (primary) education to occupy the highest priority on the agendas of governments, donors, and partners in development. In Dakar, participants set 2015 as the goal for ensuring all children have access to basic primary education. Notable Feature(s): Proceedings from Symposium on Girls' Education. Contact Information: International Basic Education Academy of Educational Development 1825 Connecticut Ave., NW Washington, DC   20009-5721 USA Telephone: 202.884.8198   Fax: 202.884.8408 Email: admindc@aed.org sba@aed.org America's Story from America's Library - The Library of Congress http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/index.html "America's Story from America's Library" wants the visitor to have fun with history while learning at the same time. Primarily designed for young people and their families, this site from the Library of Congress wants to put the story back in history and show you some things that you've never heard or seen before. Children can log on and view the library's immense collection of books, letters, diaries, records and tapes, films, sheet music, maps, prints, photographs and digital materials from the comfort of their own homes, without being intimidated by the process. The idea behind the site is to get school-age children more involved in self-education, to help them learn on their own by making the process fun. The Library offers many resources, though finding exactly what you are looking for will take some digging and persistence. The "American Memory" collections offer millions of items on more than 70 topics. Notable Feature(s): Learning Page for searching the collections for desired materials, educators' programs, research tools, lesson ideas, activities and more; questions and answers to the Reference Librarian: ndlpedu@loc.gov Contact Information: Email: americaslibrary@loc.gov Ask ERIC http://ericir.syr.edu/About/ The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) is a federally-funded national information system that provides, through an enormous network of subject-specific clearinghouses, a variety of services and products on a broad range of education-related issues. The ERIC Internet-based service provides this information to teachers, librarians, counselors, administrators, parents and others throughout the United States and the World. Barefoot College - promoting productive employment for youth http://www.unesco.org/most/bpik16.htm This site provides a best practice description of the Barefoot College founded in 1972 in India. A hundred years ago, when villages in India had no urban-trained professionals with impressive paper qualifications, what did the villagers do? They developed their own knowledge, skills and wisdom to solve their basic problems of drinking water, health, education and employment. The Barefoot College has been reviving and giving more respect and dignity to knowledge, skills and wisdom that have been devalued and discarded by modern-day planners and ‘experts'. The idea is to apply traditional, indigenous knowledge and skills to solving these basic problems, and thus to reduce villagers' dependency on the expertise from outside which is so often inappropriate and irrelevant. Villagers are encouraged to depend more on their own common sense, on their indigenous institutions, and on their own practical skills and ability to judge what is possible. Notable Feature(s): Technology, Tradition and the Barefoot College - a paper by Bunker Roy. Contact Information: Bunker Roy Social Work and Research Centre (SWRC) Barefoot College Tilonia 305816 Madanganj District Ajmer, Rajasthan India Email: bunker@slt1.unv.ernet.in Basic Education Coalition On April 16, 2002, U.S. Representatives Mark Green (R-Wis.) and Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) joined the Brookings Institution's Gene Sperling and the Basic Education Coalition to encourage greater U.S. support for expanding access to education for the world's children. They, along with Coalition Chair Stephen F. Moseley (president and CEO, Academy for Educational Development), Vice Chair Charles MacCormack (president and CEO, Save the Children), and member Ritu Sharma (Executive Director, Women's EDGE) are calling on the United States to launch a global initiative on education for all. The Basic Education Coalition, a group of 16 development organizations that advocates for greater priority to early childhood and primary education in foreign assistance programs, is urging the United States to assert its leadership in education and move toward a global strategy that will “leave no child behind.” It calls for a phased increase in U.S. funding for basic education—to at least $1 billion by 2006 with an initial increase of $100 million in fiscal year 2003—and for the Administration to encourage other donors to make proportional increases in assistance for basic education. Essentially, the Coalition proposes a global security initiative on education for all. Contact Information: George Ingram,Executive Director Academy for Educational Development (AED) Telephone: 202.884.8364   Email: gingram@aed.org Beyond Grey Pinstripes http://www.beyondgreypinstripes.org/ Beyond Grey Pinstripes, a biennial survey and ranking of business schools, spotlights innovative full-time MBA programs and faculty that lead the way in integrating issues of social and environmental stewardship into business school curricula and research. These programs and pioneering faculty are preparing students for the reality of tomorrow's markets, equipping them with an understanding of the social, environmental, and economic perspectives required for business success in a competitive global economy. Center for Artistry in Teaching (CAT) http://www.artistryinteaching.org/ Founded by Aleta Margolis, an Ashoka Fellow, the Center for Artistry in Teaching (CAT) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of teaching and learning in our schools, with a strong focus on the Washington, D.C. Public Schools. The organization was founded in 1995 to address the dire need for America's school children to master academic skills in a stimulating instructional environment. CAT's mission is to work with teachers to make school a place where every child is engaged, valued, and challenged. CAT's teacher development programs utilize the arts to strengthen teachers' ability to communicate effectively with students and identify and meet students' academic and emotional needs. CAT's youth development programs engage students in meaningful academic and social interactions with teachers, parents, and peers toward the goal of becoming productive, imaginative, and healthy citizens. Notable Feature(s): Excellent set of links of innovative and effective teaching programs; Reading Works! volunteer opportunities; CAT professional development academy; newsletter. Contact Information: Aleta Margolis, Executive Director Center for Artistry in Teaching 1421 22nd St., N.W. Washington, DC   20037 USA Telephone: 202.822.8081   Fax: 202.822.0088 Email: aleta@artistryinteaching.org Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) http://cds.aas.duke.edu/ The Center for Documentary Studies, founded in 1989 at Duke University, stands at a crossroads where the university meets the larger community. The Center is dedicated to a new vision of documentary work, one that connects the documentary process to education and community building. Duke University's CDS is a resource center for documentary education at all levels using photography, oral history, and written narrative. The site offers curriculum ideas and projects for literacy through photography. CDS sponsors the Bridges Programs to connect diverse peoples and communities through photography, creative writing, oral history, narrative, biography, and video as tools for education and community building. Contact Information: Center for Documentary Studies 1317 W. Pettigrew St. Durham, NC   27705 USA Telephone: 919.660.3663   Fax: 919.681.7600 Email: wtower@acpub.duke.edu CIVNET http://www.civnet.org/index.htm Civnet, published by CIVITAS, is a Web site for civic education practitioners (teachers, teacher trainers, curriculum designers), as well as scholars, policymakers, civic-minded journalists, and NGOs promoting civil society all over the world. Notable Feature(s): Curriculum materials for teachers; resource room of links; an on-line newspaper written by and for students. Classroom resources - Environment http://eelink.net/classroomresources-directories.html Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) http://www.essentialschools.org/ The Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) is a national network of schools, regional centers, and a national office, working to create schools where intellectual excitement animates every child's face, where teachers work together to get better at their craft, and where all children flourish, regardless of their gender, race, or class. Notable Feature(s): Common Principles of schooling and practice; vast resource database of tools, school design, leadership, community connections, and classroom practice. Contact Information: CES National 1814 Franklin St., Suite 700 Oakland, CA   94612 USA Telephone: 510.433.1451   Fax: 510.433.1455 Email: info@essentialschools.org Community Building, Human Rights and Participatory Pedagogy - Paul O'Brien http://www.echoinggreen.org/newsroom/feature_articles.html Contact Information: echoing green foundation 198 Madison Avenue - 8th floor NY, NY   10016 USA Telephone: (212) 689-1165   Fax: (212) 689-9010 Email: general@echoinggreen.org Connect for Kids http://www.connectforkids.org/ http://www.connectforkids.org/usr_doc/communitiesj.html This Benton Foundation program provides a vast array of materials useful to making the world safer for children and providing them with better opportunities in their communities. Notable Feature(s): Articles and resources show the many ways adults are working to educate children at home, in the community and as partners in schools; free e-mail monthly bulletin highlights original articles, profiles and interviews. Contact Information: Larry Kirkman, Publisher, Connect for Kids President, The Benton Foundation 950 18th Street, N.W. Washington, DC   20006 USA Fax: 202.638.5771 Email: larryk@benton.org Connecting Students to the World http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/Peress/peress-chat1.html A chat with Gilles Peress, Magnum Photographer. Conversations with History - UC Berkeley project of the Institute of International Studies http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/conversations/ http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/PubEd/ In these lively and unedited interviews, distinguished men and women from all over the world talk about their lives and their work. They reminisce about their participation in great events, and they share their perspectives on the past and reflect on what the future may hold. Guests include diplomats, statesmen, and soldiers; economists and political analysts; scientists and historians; writers and foreign correspondents; activists and artists. The interviews span the globe and include discussion of political, economic, military, legal, cultural, and social issues shaping our world. At the heart of each interview is a focus on individuals and ideas that make a difference. Notable Feature(s): Site provides ways for students and others to connect to the world through various forums and e-mail exchanges, research galleries, lectures and foreign policy news clips from 1979-1990. Contact Information: The Institute of International Studies University of California at Berkeley 215 Moses Hall #2308 Berkeley, CA   94720-2308 USA Telephone: 510-642-2472   Cool Planet http://www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/index.htm An initiative of Oxfam, an organization that has made elimination of poverty its mission around the world. Notable Feature(s): Educational materials, teachers' pages, personal testimonies, project information. Contact Information: Email: coolplanet@oxfam.org.uk Council on International Educational Exchange http://www.ciee.org Cultural Heritage Sites: Teaching About Architecture and Art http://www.artsednet.getty.edu/ArtsEdNet/Resources/Maps/Sites/index.html Contact Information: Email: artsednet@getty.edu Deepalaya http://www.deepalaya.org/ In New Delhi, India, since 1979, Deepalaya has been committed to: Continue to identify with and work along the economically and socially deprived, the physically and mentally challenged – starting with children, so that they become educated, skilled and aware; Enable them to be self-reliant and enjoy a healthy, dignified and sustainable quality of life; Act as a resource to and collaborate with other agencies - governmental or nongovernmental, as well as suitably intervene in policy formulation. Notable Feature(s): Reports, newsletters, project descriptions and testimonials; work in education, computers, health, disability, street children, sanitation, women's rights, environment, AIDS awareness, literacy, savings and credit, gender equity, institutional care, and more; case study of the effectiveness of Deepalaya's work with slum children and ICTs. Contact Information: Deepalaya 46, Institutional Area, D Block Janakpuri New Delhi - 110 058 India Telephone: 91-11-25548263   Fax: 91-11-25540546 Email: info@deepalaya.org Dev-Zone http://www.dev-zone.org/index.html http://www.globaled.org.nz/ The Development Resource Centre (DRC) is a specialist information and education centre in Aotearoa New Zealand focused on development and global issues. The DRC's vision statement is "Change for a just world" and its mission is to "inform and educate people to empower them to take action to create a just world." Dev-Zone provides information services on development and global issues to NGOs, consultants, universities, community groups, Information Services, government departments, libraries, and businesses operating in the field of overseas aid and development. Dev-Zone has an extensive range of up-to-date electronic and hard copy resources, operates a public access library, manages a comprehensive web site on development issues, provides email updates on a variety of development topics, and draws on a range of expertise in development practice and education. The Global Education Centre (GEC) provides services to the formal and informal education sectors, and the community sector, on Global Education. GEC provides training and resources to teachers, teacher trainees, students, youth workers and community groups, and builds their capacity to include global awareness into their programmes. Through its Youth Advocate, GEC also works directly with young people, facilitating their participation in youth-led global youth work. Notable Feature(s): Community Youth Program, which views young people as key protagonists in developing solutions to the issues facing them; all activities are developed in partnership with young people who have an interest in global issues; the program centers around a participatory people-centred approach, which sees young people defining the priorities, methods and modes of delivery appropriate for young people. Contact Information: Dev-Zone (The Development Resource Centre) P.O. Box 12440 Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand Telephone: +64 4 472 9549   Fax: +64 4 496 9599 Email: info@dev-zone.org Directory of Films on Education http://www.frif.com/subjects/educatio.html First Run / Icarus Films hosts a large selection of innovative films on educational topics and issues, as well as on using film for real social change. Contact Information: First Run / Icarus Films 153 Waverly Place New York, NY   10014 USA Telephone: 212.727.1711   Fax: 212.989.7649 Email: info@frif.com Doing Documentary Work - by Robert Coles http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/doingdocumentarywork.htm Robert Coles, the famed child psychiatrist and the James Agee Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard, is also a founding member of the Center of Documentary Studies at Duke University. This Web site presents the first chapter of his insightful book on documentary: its roles, methods, intentions, themes, possibilities, and constraints. The book is based on a series of lectures delivered at The New York Public Library. It utilizes the documentaries of writers, photographers, and others to show how their prose and pictures are influenced by the observer's frame of reference. Coles examines literary documentaries: James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men and George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier; photographs by Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange; and personal portraits of poet William Carlos Williams; Robert Moses, one of the leaders of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee during the 1960s; Erik H. Erikson, biographer of Gandhi and Martin Luther; and others. Contact Information: The Washington Post 1150 15th St. NW Washington, DC   20071 USA Email: webpost@washpost.com dropping knowledge http://www.droppingknowledge.org/presentation_01.php http://www.droppingknowledge.org/ dropping knowledge is an initiative based in Berlin and San Fransisco that believes asking questions improves the world. dropping knowledge is a fully independent, sustainable nonprofit organization committed to open, inclusive debate; an international community of users who are constantly refining, expanding and prioritizing content; a tool that allows the user to draw on the wisdom of other users to create and refine new ideas and practices. "dropping knowledge" means dropping the assumption that we know all the answers. It means questioning the conventional wisdom. It means figuring out which questions are the most important to ask, sharing answers and then challenging those answers. The project calls the practice of asking questions and sharing wisdom, dropping knowledge. However one defines knowledge, by dropping it freely to others, we all gain wisdom to improve the world. dropping knowledge is an educational resource and online network that connects people around the globe seeking to exchange ideas and solutions to the most pressing issues of our day. dropping knowledge believes that as our challenges become global, so must our communications and actions. Our activities create collective wisdom for social change. A unique combination of interactive and audio-visual technology allows the user to engage a web archive of content from a wide variety of individuals and organizations. Notable Feature(s): A "living library" will grow out of a global meeting in 2006 where 112 leading, invited thinkers and practitioners will answer critical questions posed by dropping knowledge's site visitors. Through sustainable interaction between technology and human participation, the living library offers a globally accessible and globally managed forum of inspiration. This powerful portal will offer facilities for adding comments, alternative answers, new questions, new voices of future round table events, and links to other knowledge sources in numerous languages. The living library is positioned for sustainable and exponential growth. It will amplify the thought-provoking nature of dropping knowledge and its content. A core feature of the living library will be its inclusion and user-rated prioritization of thousands of links to references around the world. All web links will be rated by dropping knowledge users, so that the most relevant to the most users will rise in the hierarchy. This will allow the "wisdom of crowds" to determine which links are the most accessible, and the most helpful. Under the watchful eye of acclaimed director Ralf Schmerberg, dropping knowledge will create a feature-length film based on the table of free voices event. The film will be distributed world-wide for theatrical release, for television, and in a variety of digital formats for individual, educational and community use. The central element of the film will be the participants dropping their knowledge for the audience. Recorded answers will be edited for the feature-length film which will show the set up of the table, the arrival of the participants, and the collective response to the questions. Contact Information: dropping knowledge Swinemünderstr. 121 10435 Berlin Germany Telephone: 49 (0) 30 28 48 97 1   Fax: 49 (0) 30 28 38 83 5 Email: nadine@droppingknowledge.org Economic Development Institute of the World Bank http://www.worldbank.org/depweb/index.htm The World Bank site devoted to education in the classroom provides numerous resources on sustainable development and the best ways to engage students in the economic, environmental, and population issues surrounding such development. Notable Feature(s): Curriculum materials for teachers; resource room of links; an on-line newspaper written by and for students. Ecosage http://www.ecosage.org/ http://solarquest.com/schoolintro.htm EcoSage is a Vermont-based private educational services company, creating experience-based environmental education programs in America's schools, with a curriculum structured around students' relationships to people in their community. The program emphasizes solar energy education. The SolarQuest™ Virtual SchoolHouse is a system to communicate and maintain information about all aspects of solar energy technology and development. The information is created by school administrators, teachers and students around the world -- in order to share their experience in an open format with others who are committed to the Quest for Sustainability. Notable Feature(s): Solar SchoolHouse; Mobile Solar Education Stations; Solar Quest's iNetNews Service, a multi-media, project-based, experiential learning program for students. Serving as iNetNews Team correspondents, students with a demonstrated interest in sustainable development participate in and report on local, national, and international events. Contact Information: Allan E. Baer, President and Co-Founder EcoSage, Inc. P O Box 274 Chester, Vermont   05038 USA Telephone: 802.685.3450   Fax: 802.685.3450 Email: aeb@ecosage.com webmaster@inetnews.org Education International Worldwide http://www.eiworldwide.com/ EI Academic publishes a series of guides and a network of websites dedicated to providing students with the latest and most detailed information on educational institutions across North America. Contact Information: EI Education International Inc. (USA) PTSGE Corp. 5000 Columbia Center 701 5th Avenue Seattle, WA   98104-7078 USA Telephone: 888.633.1111   Fax: 250.658.6285 Email: info@theeigroup.com Education World http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson025.shtml Kids Helping Kids, UNICEF Kit Teaches Kids about Child Labor, a free teaching kit from UNICEF builds student awareness about the worldwide problem of child labor. Included: Information about UNICEF's Kids Speak Up for Kids Essay Contest. Notable Feature(s): Educational materials available for download . Contact Information: Telephone: 800.FOR.KIDS   Email: webmaster@educationworld.com Educational Video Center (EVC) http://www.evc.org/ The Educational Video Center (EVC) is a nonprofit, media arts center that teaches documentary video production and media analysis to youth, educators, and community organizers. EVC's mission is dedicated to the creative and community-based use of video and multi-media as a means to develop the literary, research, public speaking and work preparation skills of at-risk youth, Notable Feature(s): Programs for high school students, for parents, for community orgainzers, teacher development and more; publications on media education; links; Screening Room and tape catalog. Contact Information: Steve Goodman, Executive Director Educational Video Center 120 W 30th Street, 7th Floor New York, NY   10001 USA Telephone: 212.465.9366   Fax: 212.465.9369 Email: goodman_steve99@hotmail.com English School on the Internet http://www.study.com/ English for Internet (EFI) is a free on-line course of instruction, reading, and listening. EFI grew out of an experiment to determine the educational potential of teaching through the Internet with volunteer teachers for students from around the world. Notable Feature(s): Opportunities for on-line volunteer teaching (including teacher training, if necessary); English language instruction at different levels; chat rooms Environmental Education on the Internet http://eelink.net/ee-linkintroduction.html With support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EE-Link offers teachers, students and professionals an important and useful resource. Contact Information: 1825 Connecticut Ave., NW 8th Floor Washington, DC   20009-5708 USA Telephone: 202-884-8912   Fax: 202-884-8455 ESL Study Hall http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gwvcusas/ This George Washington University Web site offers help with English as a second language (ESL). Notable Feature(s): Reading, writing, grammar, idioms, listening, vocabulary, conversation. Contact Information: Email: cfmeloni@hotmail.com European Network of Innovative Schools http://www.en.eun.org/enis/set-enis.html Find Schools Worldwide http://www.worldwide.edu/ First Book http://www.firstbook.org/ First Book is a national nonprofit organization with a single mission: to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. The primary goal of First Book is to work with existing literacy programs to distribute new books to children who, for economic reasons, have little or no access to books. In the last two years alone, First Book has provided almost 15 million new books to children in need in hundreds of communities nationwide. In the years since First Book's founding, educators and policymakers have become acutely aware of the need to develop strong community-based resource programs for low-income children, which is precisely the focus of First Book at the local level. One recent report funded by the Packard and MacArthur Foundations found that the average child growing up in a middle class family has been exposed to 1,000 to 1,700 hours of one-on-one picture book reading before entering school. The average child growing up in a low-income family, however, has only been exposed to 25 hours of one-on-one reading during this same time period. All books distributed by First Book are provided at no cost to the child or program. With the support of First Book, these programs are able-often for the first time-to develop a curriculum around the books they select, share these books with participating children, and enable these children to share the magic of their new books with siblings and other family members at home. A key strategy for implementation success is harnessing the First Book model to the strength of the business community. Notable Feature(s): Newsletter reporting on First Book initiatives and partnerships around the country and plans to launch internationally. Contact Information: Kyle Zimmer, President & Co-Founder First Book National Office 1319 F Street, NW Suite 1000 Washington, DC   20004-1155 USA Telephone: 202.393.1222   Fax: 202.628.1258 Email: staff@firstbook.org Getty Education Institute for the Arts http://www.artsednet.getty.edu/ The Getty provides a rich site full of teaching materials, lesson plans, philosophical inquiry, curriculum ideas, A Browsing Room (with announcements, publications, students' galleries, and featured topics, e.g., Navajo Art: A Way of Life. Notable Feature(s): ArtsEdNet Talk, is an online community of teachers and learners that allows one to take part in a variety of conversations about art education with others from across the United States and even around the world through E-mail. Contact Information: Email: artsednet@getty.edu Global Campaign for Education (GCE) http://www.campaignforeducation.org/_html/home/welcome/frameset.shtml At the dawn of a new millennium, development NGOs and teachers unions operating in 180 countries have joined forces to launch the Global Campaign for Education (GCE). GCE seeks to make governments liable for the fact that 125 million children world-wide are denied access to basic education and that moreover, one adult in every three - representing an additional 880 million people - is illiterate. Notable Feature(s): A Global Action Plan for Education; resources for media; contact directory of organizations involved; Spanish and French versions of the site. Contact Information: Global Campaign for Education c/o Education International Bld. Du Roi Albert II, 5 (8th floor) 1210 Brussels Belgium Telephone: 32 (2) 224 06 11   Fax: +32 2 224 06 06 Email: anne@campaignforeducation.org webeditor@campaignforeducation.org Global Education Partnership (GEP) http://www.geponline.org/ Global Education Partnership (G.E.P.) believes that all young people, regardless of their economic or social background, have the right to a productive, goal-oriented education. Each child deserves to attend a school with an adequate number of books and desks. Every youth deserves a chance to enter the workforce with marketable business and technology skills. Working in partnership with low-income communities and concerned donors, G.E.P. coordinates youth employment and computer training, school resource projects, and capacity-building workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area, Kenya, Guatemala, Tanzania and Indonesia. G.E.P.'s students learn how to start their own businesses, compete for high-wage employment, and become socially conscious participants in local development. Notable Feature(s): Entrepreneurship and employment training programs. Contact Information: Tony Silard, founder Global Education Partnership 1411 K Street, NW, Suite 602 Washington, DC   20005 USA Telephone: 202.347.0130   Fax: 202.347.4471 Email: info@geponline.org Global Information Network In Education (GINIE) http://www.ginie.org/ GINIE contributes to providing educational services to citizens of or refugees from nations in emergency or post-emergency transition. GINIE assists governments, international organizations, and NGOs with on-line information, both current and historical, on crisis- and change-oriented educational services and materials. GINIE is an on-line repository of information on education in nations in crisis and in transition, preserving high quality materials, tools and plans developed in one situation that may be adapted for use in other situations. Notable Feature(s): Reference Desk; program description. Contact Information: GINIE Institute for International Studies in Education University of Pittsburgh 5K01 Forbes Quadrangle Pittsburgh, PA   15260 USA Telephone: 412.624.1775   Fax: 412.624.2609 Email: ginie-response@ginie1.sched.pitt.edu Global Volunteer Network http://www.volunteer.org.nz/ The Global Volunteer Network (GVN) was launched in December 2000 by Colin Salisbury, founder and executive director, after spending time volunteering in Ghana, West Africa. While he was there, he saw the contribution volunteers could make in helping local organizations achieve their goals. Upon returning to New Zealand, he researched the different volunteer organizations around the world and discovered how expensive some and limiting many programs were in terms of volunteer opportunities. To help change that profile GVN aims to provide challenging and affordable volunteer opportunities around the globe. In 2003 the organization has volunteer positions available through partner organizations in China, Ecuador, Ghana, Nepal, Romania and Uganda. The GVN network continues to expand with new programs under consideration. Notable Feature(s): Program descriptions; monthly email newsletter, also archived; craft store. Contact Information: Global Volunteer Network Ltd. P O Box 2231 Wellington New Zealand Telephone: ++64 4 569 9080   Email: info@volunteer.org.nz H-Net Initiative in Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences http://www.h-net.msu.edu/ H-Net is an interdisciplinary organization of scholars dedicated to developing the enormous educational potential of the Internet and the World Wide Web. The computing heart of H-Net resides at Michigan State University, but H-Net officers, editors and subscribers come from all over the globe. An international consortium of scholars and teachers, H-Net creates and coordinates Internet networks with the common objective of advancing teaching and research in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. H-Net is committed to pioneering the use of new communication technology to facilitate the free exchange of academic ideas and scholarly resources. Notable Feature(s): Among H-Net's most important activities is its sponsorship of over 100 free electronic, interactive newsletters ("lists") edited by scholars in North America, Europe, Africa, and the Pacific. Contact Information: H-Net 310 Auditorium Building Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan   48824 USA Telephone: 517.355.9300   Fax: 517.355.8363 Email: webstaff@mail.h-net.msu.edu Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) http://www.hrea.org/ Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) is an a-political, non-profit organisation headquartered in The Netherlands whose main mission is to support efforts aimed at introducing human rights concepts and values into educational curricula and teaching practices. HREA is dedicated to quality education and training to promote understanding, attitudes and actions to protect human rights, and to foster the development of peaceable, free and just communities. Notable Feature(s): Comprehensive collection of Web materials, international organizations and networks, training programs, human rights education funders, audio-visual tools, and more in the Human Rights Education Resourcebook; distance learning courses; the HRE Library containing more than 600 full-text guides, curricula, textbooks and other documents that can be used for both formal and non-formal education in human rights. Contact Information: Felisa Tibbitts, Executive Director Human Rights Education Associates - USA Office PO Box 382396 Cambridge, Massachusetts   02238 USA Telephone: 617.625.0278   Fax: 617.249.0278 Email: info@hrea.org ftibbitts@hrea.org I*EARN http://www.iearn.org/ I*EARN provides links with some 3000 schools and youth organizations in more than 50 countries. Notable Feature(s): A massive database system with which members can find each other by areas of interest and activity; teacher discussion groups; student discussion groups. Contact Information: Lisa Jobson I*Earn 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 540 New York, New York   10115 USA Telephone: 212.870.2693   Fax: 212.870.2672 Email: iearn@us.iearn.org ID21 Education http://www.id21.org/education/ http://www.id21.org/ ID21 is a fast-track research reporting service backed by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). It aims to make policymakers and on-the-ground development managers aware of the latest and best in British development research findings. Online, in print and through the Southern media, ID21 showcases fresh and unusual research angles on social and economic issues that animate today's development thinking. More, it offers intelligent lessons for all who strive to make development succeed in future. This site offers a close look at innovative programs in education. Notable Feature(s): Broad access to global research; link to the Oxfam Education Report; email subscriptions to Education News. Contact Information: Email: id21@ids.ac.uk Institute for International Education (IIE) http://www.iie.org/ IIE, founded in 1919, is an US-based not-for-profit educational exchange organization. IIE works to further international cooperation and economic development through professional and academic exchanges, training, publications, and other services. Each year, 10,000 men and women from 160 countries receive training through programs that IIE administers for over 200 clients and sponsors. Notable Feature(s): Fulbright program information on educational exchange; other IIE-administered programs that provide funding and development assistance through the agency of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development, foundations, corporations, government agencies, international organizations and development assistance agencies in the United States and abroad. Contact Information: Institute of International Education 809 United Nations Plaza New York, NY   10017-3580 USA Telephone: 212.883.8200   Fax: 212.984.5452 Email: iieonline@iie.org International Education Links http://www.ibe.unesco.org/Links/linkhome.htm http://www.ibe.unesco.org/International/Publications/pubhome.htm This is a huge UN directory of worldwide educational organizations and resources for planning and policy-making. Notable Feature(s): Access to on-line articles from the UN's International Bureau of Education publication PROSPECTS : "Children's Rights in Eduation" and "Economic globalization and educational policies" and "100 Thinkers on education" presenting profiles of famous educators from around the world." Other publications free on request. Contact Information: International Bureau of Education P.O. Box 199 1211 Geneva 20 Switzerland Email: j.fox@ibe.unesco.org International Environmental Education http://eelink.net/eeorganizationsandprojects-international.html International environmental education projects and resources include those that address environmental issues outside of the United States, either for U.S. students involved in other countries, or for groups actually based in other countries. Notable Feature(s): Organizations and projects accessible by topic, including forests, marine, air and climate, population, solid waste, urban and built environment, toxic waste, wildlife and biodiversity. Itrainonline http://www.itrainonline.org/ ItrainOnline is a joint initiative of six global organizations with exceptional expertise in computer and Internet training in the South. ItrainOnline is committed to the free and fair sharing of development information. The information and annotations on the site are free, and can be reproduced, translated, and disseminated without restriction. Most of the material described in the collection is free. Notable Feature(s): Materials and annotated links to high-quality resources in English, Spanish, French (coming soon), and many other languages, on topics ranging from computer and Internet basics to highly technical areas and the ways that civil society and development organizations can increase their impact using these tools. Contact Information: Email: itrain@bellanet.org Jiva Institute http://www.jiva.org Jiva Institute is a research and development institute that designs and deploys innovative products, services, technologies, and models that foster sustainable development. Founded in 1992, the institute works to promote sustainability in four areas: Education, Health, Culture, and Outreach. Jiva has offices in India and the United States. For example, Jiva Culture, which operates from Vrindavan (UP, India), is committed to researching the traditional Indian knowledge systems and finding ways for applying these in modern social settings for cultural enrichment and meeting the goals of sustainability. To this end, scholars from around the world are engaged in distilling the wisdom of ancient and rare Sanskrit works at the Vrindaban-based Jiva Institute of Vedic Science and Culture. And Jiva Enterprise works toward sustainable development of underserved communities in urban and rural India. It carries out projects that provide technology and information access to the rural residents of the country, and which generates opportunities for education, employment, and entrepreneurship. Notable Feature(s): Newsletters on Jiva's principal program areas: education, ayurveda health practices, culture; articles; links to community learning IT centers in India; sustainable development educational materials; courses offered by Jiva for nonprofits moving from NGO to social enterprise, tackling technology, youth in action, rural digital ecology, surviving through innovation, and more. Contact Information: Steve Rudolph Jiva Institute Jiva Marg, Sector-21B Faridabad- HY   121001 India Telephone: 91-129-2429640   Fax: 91-129-5295547 Email: info@jiva.org Journeys in Film (JIF) http://www.journeysinfilm.org/index.html The purpose of Journeys in Film is to teach cross-cultural understanding and media literacy to middle school students nation-wide through an integrated program based on quality films from leading filmmakers around the world and supporting curricula. Journeys in Film, a nonprofit organization, uses a collection of 12 films and corresponding curricula constituting a three-year, multi-disciplinary program in cross-cultural understanding. Films are selected from existing age-appropriate domestic, foreign, art and documentary films. Prominent educators, filmmakers, and film critics are consulted in the creation of educational packages distributed to schools and school districts throughout the United States. A lesson plan, significant resource materials, and additional tools to facilitate dialogue accompany each film chosen by Journeys in Film. Program goals are for students to: Explore their own cultural structures and beliefs; Learn the social, historical, geographical, and cultural aspects of the country depicted in each film; Improve their media literacy and their ability to critically view films; Examine how their own "filters" influence their perceptions of others; Develop their intercultural understanding and communication skills. Notable Feature(s): The films selected for use with the JIF curriculum; useful collection of links and resources for teaching with film; Journeys in Cultural Awareness by Marcus Robinson, and other articles on JIF. Contact Information: Joanne Ashe, founder and chairman Journeys in Film 50 Sandia Lane Albuquerque, New Mexico   87043 U.S.A. Telephone: 505.867.4666   Fax: 505.771.1090 Email: joanne@journeysinfilm.org Learning and the Arts: Crossing Boundaries http://www.naea-reston.org/Crossing%20Boundaries.pdf This report documents a year 2000 meeting of educators discussing the place of arts in education. Worldwide, every post-industrialized nation is considering major reforms in education, and with these changes are opening real opportunities for the arts to make distinctive contributions to learning and development. Qualitative new practice in arts education is trickling into our schools—practice that not only opens the world of the arts to children, but also opens the world to children through the arts. And it does so at a time when research is showing substantial cognitive, social and emotional benefits to kids who participate deeply in the arts, regardless of socioeconomic status. Contact Information: Email: artsedinfo@grdodge.org Learning Channel http://www.learningchannel.org/ LearningChannel.org is a OneWorld themed portal, which brings together organisations and audiences involved in the challenges around education today. Education is crucial to sustainable development. No country has been able to fight poverty, raise living standards or lower mortality rates without it. Yet it does not receive the importance, or the resources, it deserves - despite repeated pledges made by the international community. The mission of LearningChannel.org is to promote quality education for all. It does this by using the Internet to highlight the best initiatives and programmes in education worldwide. Notable Feature(s): News and headlines about education programs around the world; success stories and contact information of initiatives that work. Contact Information: Geeta Sharma, Editor, Learning Channel Email: learning@oneworld.net Marpa Center for Business and Economics http://www.naropa.edu/marpa/ The mission of the Marpa Center is to educate, empower, and transform the leadership and the environment of business and commerce by creating and sustaining an education, training, research, and consulting center within an accredited university that employs the teaching and learning methodologies of reflection, dialogue, engagement, integration, and assessment. “The Marpa Center intends to bring Naropa's contemplative educational approach into the world of business and economics.” said John Cobb, President of Naropa. This kind of learning is infused with the experience of awareness and insight, and participants deepen their knowledge of themselves and their place in the world. “To ‘Know thyself' is not new to human culture, but the scientific revolution has focused so exclusively, and seemingly successfully, on what's ‘out there,' that it has left us with little in the way of incentive and methodologies to investigate our inner world,” said Mark Wilding, Director of the Marpa Center. The new leadership must be grounded in fundamentally new understandings of how the world works. The sixteenth-century Newtonian mechanical view of the universe, which still guides our thinking, has become increasingly dysfunctional in these times of interdependence and change. The critical shifts required to guarantee a healthy world for our children and our children's children will not be achieved by doing more of the same. ‘The world we have created is a product of our way of thinking,' said Einstein. Nothing will change in the future without fundamentally new ways of thinking. This is the real work of leadership. — Peter Senge Contact Information: Marpa Center for Business and Economics Naropa University 909 14th Street Boulder, Colorado   80302 USA Telephone: 303.245.4800   Fax: 303.245.4819 Email: extend@naropa.edu National Youth Leadership Council http://www.nylc.org/ For more than two decades, NYLC has led a movement linking youths, educators, and communities to redefine the role of young people in society. That movement is service-learning, and it empowers youths to transform themselves from recipients of information and resources into valuable, contributing members of a democracy. Notable Feature(s): Projects, Initiatives, Awards; Publications Contact Information: James Kielsmeier, President & Chief Executive Officer NYLC 1667 Snelling Ave. Suite D300 St. Paul, Minnesota   55108 U.S.A. Telephone: 651.999.7352   Fax: 651.631.2955 New Horizons for Learning (NHL) http://newhorizons.org/index.html http://newhorizons.org/newslarchive.html NHL is an international network of people, programs, and products dedicated to successful, innovative learning. NHL sponsors The Building, which is an on-line community of educational practice located on the Internet. Notable Feature(s): Excellent on-line journal of articles on a wide variety of topics useful to educators, parents, administrators. Contact Information: New Horizons for Learning - The Building P O Box 15329 Seattle, WA   98115 USA Email: building@newhorizons.org New York Times on the Web Learning Network http://www.nytimes.com/learning/ http://www.nytimes.com/learning/parents/athome/index.html The New York Times Learning Network supplies students, teachers, and parents with a daily-updated collection of history, current events, information, inquiry, projects, assignments, and global perspective designed to engage everyone in highly interactive and innovative educational activities. Notable Feature(s): Special section on Learning at Home; education news; daily lesson plans; discussion topics; crossword puzzles; science Q&A; weekly news quiz; Student Letters to the Editor on Web articles and topics; Web links. OneWorld's Campaign for Education http://www.oneworld.net/campaigns/education/ Ten years ago world governments meeting in Jomtien, Thailand, promised to give every child an education by 2000. They've failed. Today 150 million children are still out of school. OneWorld.net and its partners are taking up the cause of tackling the global education crisis - and these pages will track progress and give individuals the chance to get involved in achieving the elusive goal of 'education for all'. Notable Feature(s): Exhaustive and timely coverage of issues and developments related to education for all; important documents; links to other organizations involved in the campaign. Contact Information: Geeta Sharma OneWorld International, (S. Asia) 17, Panchsheel Community Centre Panchsheel New Delhi   110017 India Telephone: 91-116498791/93/94/9   Email: geeta@oneworld.net Partnering Young People from Different Worlds http://www.changemakers.net/library/fieldlink.cfm?field=Partnering+Young+People Press Freedom in the Schools http://www.wan-press.org The World Association of Newspapers has created a package of classroom exercises to help children understand how freedom of expression -- or the lack of it -- affects their lives. The materials, which are part of a major campaign to encourage newspapers to promote World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, are intended for use in Newspapers in Education programmes world-wide on or around that day. The kit contains exercises linked to newspapers which illustrate issues related to press freedom and, more generally, freedom of expression. One, for example, asks children to identify which freedoms are involved in a series of photographs. Another exercise asks children to study and discuss a map showing the state of freedom around the world. A third proposes that they should monitor freedom of expression stories in their local newspapers and create their own "freedom" front page. The materials (in English, French, German and Spanish) can be downloaded from special World Press Freedom Day pages on the WAN web site (www.wan-press.org/3may). They are also available by e-mail on request to pcarsten@wan.asso.fr. The Paris-based WAN and the World Editors Forum are providing a package of editorial and advertising materials to thousands of newspapers world-wide for publication on 3 May . The materials include political cartoons, essays by journalists and writers on press freedom at the turn of the century, information and infographics on murdered and jailed journalists, as well as a selection of public service advertisements about press freedom (these materials are also available from the WAN web site and by e-mail). "WAN has had great success in raising awareness about the lack of press freedom in many countries through such materials. We think we can be even more effective if we extend the campaign to young readers. The future of press freedom is their future," said Aralynn McMane, Director of Educational Programmes at WAN. "These materials have been designed with World Press Freedom Day in mind, but they can also be used in classrooms independently of this campaign," she said. "They can be used throughout the year." Contact Information: Larry Kilman World Association of Newspapers 25, rue d'Astorg Paris   75008 France Telephone: 33 1 47 42 85 00   Fax: 33 1 47 42 49 48 Email: lkilman@wan.asso.fr Public Education Network (PEN) http://www.publiceducation.org/ PEN's mission is to create systems of public education that result in high achievement for every child. PEN works to educate the nation about the relationship between school quality and the quality of community and public life. The fundamental belief is that equal opportunity, access to quality public schools, and an informed citizenry are all critical components of a democratic society. The PEN goal is to ensure that the availability of high-quality public education is every child's right and not a privilege. Notable Feature(s): Excellent source of links on school reform; news; local education strategies; publications; events; discussion forums on community-based innovations in education and public engagement. Contact Information: The Public Education Network 601 13th Street, N.W. Suite 900 North Washington, DC   20005 USA Telephone: 202.628.7460   Fax: 202.628.1893 Email: pen@publiceducation.org Roots of Empathy (ROE) http://www.rootsofempathy.org/Home.html Roots of Empathy's mission is to build caring, civil and peaceful societies through the development of empathy in children and adults. The focus of ROE in the long term is to build the parenting capacity of the next generation of parents. In the short term, ROE focuses on raising levels of empathy, which results in more respectful and caring relationships and reduced levels of bullying and aggression. Roots of Empathy strives to break the intergenerational transmission of poor parenting and violence. The program is offered to more than 10,000 students in 400 classrooms across Canada. Contact Information: Mary Gorder, founder and president Roots of Empathy 401 Richmond Street West Suite 205 Toronto, Ontario   M5V 3A8 Canada Telephone: 416.944.3001   Fax: 416.944.9295 Email: mail@rootsofempathy.org Set for Success: Building a Strong Foundation for School Readiness http://www.emkf.org/pdf/eex_brochure.pdf Contact Information: Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation 4801 Rockhill Road Kansas City,, MO   64110-2046 USA Telephone: 816.932.1000   Email: info@emkf.org Shikshantar - The Peoples' Institute for Rethinking Education and Development http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/ After fifty years of so-called development efforts, and despite great scientific advancements, India (and the rest of the world) finds itself mired in a paralyzing socio-cultural, environmental and spiritual crisis - overwhelming in its scale, intensity and rate of growth. Around the world, education systems have become commercialized 'businesses' which serve to stratify society, glorify militarism, devalue local knowledge systems and languages, manufacture unsustainable wants, breed discontent and frustration, stifle creativity, motivation and expression, and dehumanize communities. Shikshantar's goal is to help communities engage in new modes of lifelong societal learning which grow from a larger understanding of and respect for human potential and human dignity, dynamic learning processes and relationships, pluralistic identities and cultural contexts, the human spirit and its connection to the web of life. Notable Feature(s): Learning Resources; a message board; four-month minimum internship in Udaipur. Contact Information: Manish Jain Shikshantar 21-Fatehpura Udaipur, Rajasthan   313004 India Telephone: 91.294.451.303   Fax: 91.294.451.941 Email: shikshantar@yahoo.com manish@swaraj.org Silvia Mejia: An Ashoka Fellow Silvia Mejia is training young communications graduates and other motivated professionals to become transformers," who use the video camera creatively as an empowerment tool for vulnerable and disadvantaged groups." Mejia has worked with video cameras for the past 25 years and has witnessed their power in changing people's attitudes about themselves. She is working towards breaking down stereotypes seen on television, and the common belief that television is only for celebrities and "important" people. With her technical skills, she has created a program in which she trains a strategically selected group of social workers, communications students, teachers and psychologists to use video cameras to help disadvantaged groups overcome problems of low self-esteem which prevent them from being productive members of society. Those whom she trains will in turn train others in the implementation of video as a transforming tool. Those who do consider entering the field of social development have mostly worked in the area of social documentaries, and have not used their capacities with video equipment to address the social, psychological, and creative requirements of the neediest sectors. Mejia is encouraging these students to become-transformers, utilizing television and images as a true instrument of change. While many non-governmental organizations have incorporated video cameras to document the social problems and successes of their clientele, in Mejia's model the importance of the camera work is not the end-product, but rather the therapeutic process of filming itself, which transforms the self-image and self-esteem of its subjects, allowing them to deepen their understanding of themselves and unlocking their creative capacity. Prisoners, sexual workers, street children, abused women, HIV patients, and other marginalized groups not only get filmed, but also do the filming. They often come to learn that they have certain skills in managing the camera equipment or conducting interviews, and become interested in pursuing further activities with the camera. Many of these subjects will eventually receive training to replicate their experiences with other disadvantaged groups, providing them with the opportunity to help others, while simultaneously increasing their own self-esteem. Contact Information: Email: FSS@ashoka.org Small Schools Project http://smallschoolsproject.org/ The Small Schools Project, housed at the University of Washington College of Education, provides support to the many new small schools being established in Washington State and throughout the United States. The project, supported by a generous gift from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, provides a range of services to new and emerging small schools that have an organizational structure and philosophical commitment compatible with the attributes of high achieving schools. Notable Feature(s): Information about the National Small Schools Campaign. Contact Information: Small Schools Project 7900 East Greenlake Drive North Suite 212 Seattle, WA   98103 USA Telephone: 206.616.0303   Fax: 206.543.8250 Email: info@smallschoolsproject.org STRIVE - Support and Training Result in Valuable Employees http://www.strivenewyork.org/strive.html Among STRIVE's principal activities is the intensive four-week , attitudinal training program emphasizing the development of soft skills necessary to obtain and retain jobs. Through a simulated work environment, participants learn how to dress and speak appropriately for the workplace, how to follow instructions, accept criticism, and functin as team members. STRIVE exists in the real world where there are rarely one-to-one correlations between events and outcomes. When the economy is prosperous, STRIVE faces challenges of recruiting participants and filling higher skilled jobs. When the economy weakens, more people come for sTRIVE services, and placements for even lowskill positions become consequently more challenging... Regardless of the economic landscape, there is a need for what STRIVE offers program participants and employers. Contact Information: STRIVE New York 240 East 123rd Street 3rd Floor New York, NT USA Telephone: 212.360.1100   Fax: 212.360.5634 Email: info@StriveNewYork.org Teaching Tolerance http://www.splcenter.org/teachingtolerance/tt-index.html http://www.tolerance.org/ In response to an alarming increase in hate crime among youth, the Southern Poverty Law Center began the Teaching Tolerance project in 1991 as an extension of the Center's legal and educational efforts. Through the generous support of Center donors, Teaching Tolerance offers free or low-cost resources to educators at all levels. Notable Feature(s): Teaching Tolerance magazine spotlights educators, schools and curriculum resources dedicated to promoting respect for differences in the classroom and beyond. Sent to more than 600,000 teachers twice a year, in January and September, the 64-page full-color magazine provides a national forum for sharing techniques and exploring new ideas in the areas of tolerance, diversity and justice. Each issue of Teaching Tolerance includes in-depth features on such topics as race relations, homophobia, religious diversity, anti-Semitism and building classroom community, along with classroom activities and resource recommendations. Contact Information: Teaching Tolerance 400 Washington Avenue Montgomery, AL   36104 USA Fax: 334.956.8486 Technology: Possibilities and Impacts http://www.changemakers.net/library/fieldlink.cfm?field=Technology:+Possibilities+and+Impacts This is an extensive collection of articles and Web sites pertaining to technology and innovation in education, communications, and community development. The Commonwealth of Learning http://www.col.org/ The Commonwealth of Learning is an intergovernmental organisation created by Commonwealth Heads of Government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning/distance education knowledge, resources and technologies. COL is helping developing nations improve access to quality education and training. Since 1990, COL has helped introduce, or enhance, teaching/training programmes in more than 40 countries; conducted seminars and studies on specific educational needs and established an extensive network of education and technology specialists around the world. They are now contributing to many varied educational programmes, often using low-cost and innovative technologies, throughout the Commonwealth and also to other non-Commonwealth countries. Notable Feature(s): A vast source of information, including Models of Sucess: education and training programs around the world; news, publications, videos, newsletters, and links. Contact Information: Krishna Alluri, Project Co-ordinator THE COMMONWEALTH of LEARNING 1285 West Broadway, Suite 600 Vancouver, British Columbia   V6H 3X8 Canada Telephone: +1.604.775.8200   Fax: +1.604.775.8210 Email: info@col.org The Human Rights Video Project http://www.humanrightsproject.org/index.php http://dev.humanrightsproject.org/index.php The Human Rights Video Project is dedicated to increasing the public's awareness of human rights issues through the medium of documentary films. The program also aims to build a broad community of filmmakers, librarians, activists, teachers and other citizens interested in using independent video to effect social change in their communities. The Human Rights Video Project is a national library project created to increase the public's awareness of human rights issues through the medium of documentary films. To that end, the project has curated a collection of 12 documentary films on human rights issues. The project also encourages collaborations between public libraries and human rights advocacy organizations to present film screenings and discussion programs. The project was developed by National Video Resources in partnership with the American Library Association Public Programs Office. Major funding is provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Ford Foundation. The Human Rights Video Project also provides resources for organizations that wish to create effective discussion programs around human rights issues through documentary film screenings. Five essays suggest how to use the Human Rights Video Collection to present programs on specific human rights issues. Notable Feature(s): Resources for thematic programming; the 12 films used in the project. Contact Information: Human Rights Video Project National Video Resources 73 Spring Street, Suite 403 New York, NY   10012 U.S.A. Telephone: 212.274.8080   Fax: 212.274.8081 Email: info@nvr.org The Teacher's Place - Education for Development (EDEV) http://www.unicef.org/voy/research/reshome.html http://www.unicef.org/voy/ The Teachers' Place provides resources, discussion forums, and networking opportunities for those involved in Education for Development (EDEV). EDEV is an approach to learning about interdependence, peace, social justice and the rights of young people as described in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It promotes active learning processes that encourage children and young people to take action on global issues. Notable Feature(s): Access to Voices of Youth on-line classrooms; French and Spanish available. Also visit The Meeting Place and The Learning Place for active global discussions. Contact Information: Email: on-line guest book Ubuntu - A South African Peace Lesson for schools and community groups http://www.ivow.net/ubuntu.html This lesson presents the concept of Ubuntu, both in order to appreciate its wisdom as philosophy, and to provide perspective for studying the remarkable changes in South Africa as a foundation of peaceful transformation. The lesson can be a stand alone presentation of Ubuntu, or contribute to units on South African history and geography. Ubuntu is a Zulu word. It articulates a world view, or vision of humanity. Ubuntu regards humanity as an integral part of eco-systems that lead to a communal responsibility to sustain life. Human value is based on social, cultural and spiritual criteria. Natural resources are shared on principle of equity among and between generations. At its heart Ubuntu rests on the phrase "I am what I am because of you." Fundamentally, this phrase communicates a basic respect, empathy, and compassion for others. It describes a person as "being-with-others" and prescribes what "being-with-others" should be all about. UN Cyber School Bus http://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/ The United Nations Cyberschoolbus was created in 1996 as the online education component of the Global Teaching and Learning Project, whose mission is to promote education about international issues and the United Nations. The Global Teaching and Learning Project produces high quality teaching materials and activities designed for educational use (at primary, intermediate and secondary school levels) and for training teachers. The vision of this Project is to provide exceptional educational resources (both online and in print) to students growing up in a world undergoing increased globalization. Notable Feature(s): Teaching modules, classroom activities, and on-going events on global issues: poverty, health, human rights, environment, women, land mines; quizzes; Book of the Month; country statistics; newsletter; GlobalBytes. Contact Information: Telephone: 212.963.8589   Email: cyberschoolbus@un.org UNESCO International Bureau of Education http://www.ibe.unesco.org/index.htm Utilizing Families as Resource for Change http://www.changemakers.net/library/fieldlink.cfm?field=Families A large collection of global resources focused on programs and possibilities for using families to lead social change and improve lives. Waldorf Homeschoolers http://www.waldorfhomeschoolers.com/ http://www.waldorfhomeschoolers.com/sitemap.htm Founded in Europe in 1919, Waldorf education now includes schools on every continent and a rapidly growing home schooling movement. It has grown to become the world's largest independent, non-denominational educational system that goes through all of the grades. The aim of Waldorf Homeschoolers is to encourage and further Waldorf and Rudolf Steiner inspired ideals and philosophies in both home education and in parenting. Based on ideas that Rudolf Steiner put forth, Waldorf Homeschoolers encourages the development of each child's sense of truth, beauty, and goodness. The standard Waldorf grades curriculum is designed to meet a child at his level of readiness to learn and understand. Waldorf is experiential - children are introduced to subjects through experience rather than concept. After the initial experience, children are guided to explore a subject. Only then is the concept discussed. Children record their experiences, thoughts, experiments and conclusions in their own Main Lesson books, using drawing and painting daily to illuminate their work. Notable Feature(s): Curriculum guides for every grade; family support information and networking. Contact Information: Waldorf Homeschoolers 6822 - 22nd Ave N. Suite 345 St. Petersburg, FL   33710-3918 FL Email: info@waldorfhomeschoolers.com Wendy Ewald http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/Ewald/ http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/jan-june02/ewald/ Wendy Ewald is a writer, photographer, and teacher dedicated to social change and children's issues. Ewald has taught in Appalachia, Colombia, on Canadian Native reservations, and in Mexico and South Africa, as well as in various communities in the United States. Some of her work is featured at various Web sites. A number of the most interesting are listed here. Photo Realism - by Samantha Stainburn "It's to help them develop a sense of self-confidence," the 50-year-old photographer explains. "When kids make pictures of things, they give value to those things." ... Ewald, who has been producing pieces with her students for 30 years, never tells anyone exactly how to create an image. Instead, she asks questions designed to facilitate her collaborators' self-expression.... The steps involved in Ewald's art-making process, which she has officially titled "Literacy Through Photography," are straightforward. Typically, supported by grant money, she moves into a community for several months or longer, teaches her collaborators how to use cameras—mostly 35mm, with fixed-focus lenses—and shows them how to develop and print film. Then she guides participants through a series of assignments that hit close to home: "self-portrait," "family," "community," and "dreams." Before shooting the photos, students write about each theme; afterward, they pen pieces about what their images reveal. Creating a Visual Spanish Alphabet The Alphabet Project was created out of an interest to find ways that photographs could be used to teach language. It was designed for ESL classes at the elementary school level with an schedule of one half hour per day for each grade. Since all the students but one in the ESL classes at Bethesda Elementary School were Spanish speaking, the teachers decided to make a Spanish language alphabet. The students would then be able to explore the concepts in their own language and assign visual representation from their own culture. Eventually they would exhibit the alphabet in the school and share with English speaking students their language and culture. I Dreamed I Had a Girl in My Pocket Stories and Photographs by Wendy Ewald and the Children of Vichya, India. Wendy Ewald: Retratos y Suenos/Portraits and Dreams Photographs by Mexican Children. Children's education in visual literacy The Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities and The Institute of International Studies at the University of California at Berkeley have established a comprehensive Web site spotlighting Wendy Ewald's work in this particular field. Secret Games with Children Wendy Ewald: Children and Photography BlackSelfWhiteSelf Wendy Ewald biography and project profile Notable Feature(s): NewsHour interview and portfolio of Ewald's collaborative work with children in India, the United States, the Middle East and Latin America. Working Films http://www.workingfilms.org/index2.html Working Films opened full-time in February 2000. Its unique initiatives link filmmakers with community organizers to support social, economic and civil justice. Projects range from high profile national programs, including HBO and PBS broadcasts, to regional and local grassroots efforts. The goal is to create dynamic opportunities for independent media to address the issues of our times - in the classroom, in the workplace, and in our communities. Working Films is a community-based organization that supports filmmakers, organizers and educators. It works with filmmakers to use their work in coordinated grassroots community education and classroom projects; works with organizers to incorporate film and media into their grassroots campaigns; and works with educators to incorporate relevant independent media into their classroom instruction. Statewide efforts developed "on the ground" in North Carolina provide strategic pilots for national campaigns. Notable Feature(s): Article profiling the social change potential of documentary work that motivates Working Films. Contact Information: Robert West Working Films 602 South Fifth Avenue Wilmington, NC   28401 USA Telephone: 910.342.9000   Email: rwest@workingfilms.org WorkingAbroad/VWIS (Voluntary Work Information Service) http://www.workingabroad.com/ WorkingAbroad - VWIS (Voluntary Work Information Service) is an international networking service for volunteers, workers and travellers on volunteer projects in over 150 countries worldwide. Projects can be short term, long term, paid, unpaid, skilled, unskilled - it all depends on an individual's needs, qualifications and personal interests. VWIS provides a personalised service - by which one can select a particular field of work (environmental, farming, archaeological, cultural or social, teaching, or health care), individual countries, and time periods. Contact Information: Andreas Kornevall WorkingAbroad 2nd Floor Office Suite 59 Lansdowne Place Hove BN3 1FL, East Sussex UK Telephone: 44 1273 711 406   Fax: 44 1273 711 406 Email: Andreas.Kornevall@workingabroad.com info@workingabroad.com World Education http://www.worlded.org/ World Education is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of the poor through economic and social development programs. World Education provides training and technical assistance in nonformal education for adults and children, with special emphasis on income generation, small enterprise development, literacy, education for the workplace, environmental education, reproductive health, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS education, and refugee orientation. Projects are designed to contribute to individual growth, as well as to community and national development. There is special emphasis on linking health to literacy and on cultivating environmentally conscious farmers. Notable Feature(s): Web site links to specific World Education projects in literacy, health, and adult learning. Contact Information: World Education Headquarters 44 Farnsworth St Boston, MA   02210 USA Telephone: 617.482.9485   Fax: 617.482.0617 Email: wei@worlded.org Youth Voice: A Guide for Engaging Youth in Leadership and Decision-Making in Service-Learning Programs http://www.servicelearning.org/filemanager/download/7/ The purpose of this guide is to provide service-learning practitioners with basic information on youth voice, how to engage youth in leadership, and decision-making in programs. This guide highlights what youth voice is, the reasons it is important, and various models of youth voice that have been implemented by service-learning practitioners. The guide is meant to be a catalyst to help programs in engaging youth leadership and making decision-making more effective. Contact Information: Department of Service -Learning 1201 New York Ave, NW Washington, D.C.   20525 U.S.A. Telephone: 202.606.5000   Fax: 202.565.2781 Email: Lsaabout@cns.gov