Newsletter June 2003

 

Global Education Tele-Community Initiative: Moving On

 

In our last issue of UNITE! we announced that AUD had become one of 14 International Education HUBs of the Global Education Tele-community Initiative (GEI), an international model project whose mission is to end education, gender, and cultural divides. GEI’s objectives are to increase the economic base of youth and family in economically disadvantaged communities and to foster global collaboration. Both objectives are accomplished through increased access to real-world, project-based education programs using advanced multimedia and communication technologies.

 

GEI now operates through a global learning community of 24-30 networked International Education hubs across the United States and in developing countries.

 

Using modern telecommunication technology, GEI will direct and manage this global learning enterprise by connecting youth and adults in each hub with one another and with professional mentors located at leading educational institutions, science and history museums, and major corporations. The telecommunication technology includes interactive video-conferencing and computer to computer web-casting. It enables distance learning through live video, voice and data interaction among youth, adults, leading educators, scientists, engineers, and executives worldwide who team teach with local site teachers and facilitators. Internet Technology serves as the linchpin to inter-connect GEI’s 5 core components: International Education HUBs; project-based training programs; advanced multimedia network; local consortia of instructors, mentoring teams, education institutions, museums, corporations, public-, private-, and independent-sector entities; and an evaluation infrastructure.

 

Each International HUB establishes local partnerships comprised of one or more local education agencies; schools serving grades pre-K to 12, consortia of universities and colleges, museums, and corporations.

 

AUD has already negotiated partnerships with the Smithsonian Institution as well as the Consortium of Universities of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. In turn, GEI’s multimedia network and real-world-based education programs will connect the International Education HUBs and their local partnerships with one another.

 

GEI’s curricula and pedagogy focuses primarily on real-world science, engineering, and technology projects. In Washington, D.C., AUD will first act as a facilitator between educational institutions and students worldwide. In the future, we will design and implement courses on democracy and peace issues.