Format: Videoconferencing and Web-Based support, including Blackboard.Com, for teacher and student preparations.

This spring Global Education Motivators (GEM) at Chestnut Hill College, will initiate a global videoconferencing series entitled "Globalization and Democracy". Collaborating with GEM in coordinating this series is the Association to Unite Democracies (AUD), based in Washington D.C., the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development based in Dominican Republic, the Anglo American College, based in the Czech Republic, and the Camden County Educational, Technology and Training Center in Sicklerville, NJ. Rick Grier-Reynolds, a seasoned and well recognized teacher in the area of Global Studies, will help the GEM staff coordinate the curricular elements of the program.

The purpose of this four part series is to connect high school students and teachers from around the world in an interactive discussion on topics facing today's interdependent world. Each of the four sessions will be formatted around a short presentation from either a panel of experts on the topic or a case study relevant to the topic. Student participants will then have the opportunity to question the presenters in an open forum. To get ready for each session, teacher and students will have access to on line teaching resources via the Blackboard.com site hosted by Chestnut Hill College.

These teaching materials are informed by the pedagogical work of Grant Wiggins and the "Planning Backwards" model. In this model, "Essential Understandings" are clearly defined for each of the topical sessions. From these are derived "Essential Questions" that frame the path to understanding. The various readings, videos, Internet sources, and activities found on the site will provide resources to help answer some of the questions, with the panels of experts also providing real world anecdotes and answers.

The goal of this series is to prepare students to be intelligently engaged in diagnostic analysis and discussion on selected topics and to become empowered and prescriptive problem solvers on some of the challenges facing their world.

The topics and dates for the "Globalization and Democracy" series are:

• Friday, March 19th - Session One: " Globalization: Threat or Opportunity "
• Monday, March 29th -Session Two: " Building Sustainable Democracies"
• Friday, April 23rd - Session Three: " The Global Marketplace: Winners and Losers"
• Friday, May 7th - Session Four: " Prescriptions for the New Millennium"

Each session is scheduled from 10:30 AM to 12:00 PM (EST).

Our ultimate goal is to develop this into a three credit undergraduate course for high school students that would be available sometime during the 2004-2005 school year.

Nuts and Bolts

1) In designing this series there were a number of assumptions that impacted the final model.

They are:

• Each 90 minutes session have a panel of "experts" on the topic who would briefly introduce the topic and them spend the majority of the time answering student questions. The focus of each session would be students interacting with other students and the panel as they sought answers to the "Essential Understandings". This means that teachers need to have students prepared with questions on the session topic to maximize the learning for all participants.
• All of these session topics directly impact all students from every country. One of the interesting elements of this program will be to see the similarities and differences in perspectives.
• The materials are teacher and student friendly to enable ease of preparation for each session. A Blackboard.com site through Chestnut Hill College will host all of the program materials for teachers and students to access. In addition, we will email to you the same materials that will be posted.
• The treatment of each topic will be both diagnostic and prescriptive in order to empower students to the positive possibilities of each session topic.
• The interaction of the teachers will inform and improve the series as we go along. We welcome input from any teacher to specific curriculum or course related ideas.

2) The dates for the series are:

• Session One: " Globalization: Threat or Opportunity " Friday, March 19
• Session Two: " Building Sustainable Democracies" Monday, March 29
• Session Three: " The Global Marketplace: Winners and Losers" Friday, April 23
• Session Four: "Prescriptions for the New Millennium" Friday, May 7

For more information on this series for the 2004-2005 school year contact:

Wayne Jacoby
GEM/Chestnut Hill College
9601 Germantown Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19118