Welcome to the Collaborators Web Site!!

The Collaborators are:

Marcie Roberts
Janice Glunk
Howard Bullard
I-Shien Lei
Hanan El-Halawany
Bill McClarnon
Dan Kennedy

    This page and it's related links will enable us to focus our direction, comment on each others contributions and serve as the repository for our documents.  We have also included a brief introduction of our process so far.  First though, here are some links to locations of interest that are related to our topic:

• UNESCO
• The UNESCO International Commission on Education for the 21st Century (the Delors Report)
• Conference on Learning: The Knowledge Within, held in Australia earlier this year

   Briefly, the Task Force was charged with 'studying and reflecting on the challenges facing education in the coming years' (Delors, et al., 1996) with the intent of 'providing recommendations and suggestions which can serve as an agenda for policy-makers and officials' (Delors, et al. 1996).  The report, addresses issues related to education not only as a tool for intellectual development, but economic development as well.  In addition to addressing what education can and should strive to acheive, the Commission also identifies areas where education has not fulfilled it's promise or in some cases has possibly cause the divide between citizens of the world to grow even greater.

    Our particular interest in this report arose from our discussions as a group on areas we all believe to be important to ourselves as well as the general public and the global community.  As we persue our studies, and in particular the impact of the readings in this course, we find that  issues of 'community' taken for granted here in the United States, have taken on a more global aspect.  The reality of the 'global community' will continue to be an extremely important issue in the years to come as we face challenges with ensuring in our efforts that we work towards inclusion.  Our initial group discussions centered around brainstorming  to do some type of acitivity and we came up with the following list:

• Study Group for Strategic Planning
• Policy Analysis in Education Today
• Attending a Movie
• A Book Club
• Marketing/Capacity Building for Middle and Upper Administrators
• Issues of Multicultural Differences
• Interpersonal Interactions

    The first step was a review of the hilights fo the report of the Commission.  Copies of this document were available on the World Wide Web and were distributed to the members (the address is listed above).  In addition, follow-up materials were identified from a conference held in Melbourne Austrialia earlier this year (web address also above).  Members of the group were requested to review the hilights and to provide initial written 'think pieces' which will be reviewed among the members (with suggestions being made).  This was done due to the delay in receipt of the actual copy of the full-text report of the Commission.  This has been received and members have selected chapters they wish to more fully explore.  To facilitate copying to group members, permission for copying for non-commercial use has been received from the Director of the Commission (a copy of that message is included in our 'artifacts' and will be included in our folders).

    Last, at least related to this introduction, is the reason for the creation of this web page.  There were several reasons we opted for this type of presentation.  First, with the apparent demise of NiceNet, our ability to trade information had become severely compromised. Second, with this type of presentation, only one original needs to be maintained, all group members can access updates as they occur, wherever they happen to be located.  This is an important issue as we are dealing, at this point, with written documents which, in case they are misplaced, would cause at least a week's delay before a new copy could be obtained.  We are also acheiving another outcome of the class in utilizing technology in our communications between ourselves.

    Dr Victor Ordoñez, Director, UNESCO Principal Regional Office of Asia and the
    Pacific, Bangkok presented a keynote address at the Australian conference.
    The keynote included a poem written by one of his collegues that is titled
    'Schools of Many Colours’.

    In addition, here are links to current 'Think Pieces' produced by group members

• Hanan El-Halawny   Learning Throughout Life
• Bill McClarnon       Thoughts on Restructuring Education for the 21st Century
• Dan Kennedy         Learning to Know (Technology and Advances in Human Interaction)

I-Shien Lei              The United Nations (Its Contradictory and Dilemmatic Role of World Politics)

• Janice Glunk          The Need for Multi cultural Education
• Howard Bullard      Get the Reform Strategies Right
• Marcie Roberts The Role of Secondary and Higher Education in Bridging the Gap to Lifelong Learning

    Our Powerpoint presentation of our group project, presented November 10, 1998.  In addition, we were asked to provide some perspective on our personal group process experience.  We have included both the powerpoint presentation made during that class meeting along with a diagram which  illustrates our process.

    In addition, here are some links to examples of our use of technology to assist in the completion of our project:
 

• email exchange on 'The Jewel'
• email to Andrea Draxler, Director of UNESCO in Paris to obtain copying permission for our project
• email to and from a student at the University of Padua in Italy on his school's use of the Delors text.

Thank you for your time!!!