Students in class in Nepal    click to enlarge

Statement of Intent:
The global social network revolution is primarily a youth revolution and educational institutions are a fundamental partner in the development of the next generation of global leadership.

This theme seeks to explore open education systems that use innovative means to engage formal educational structures in bringing educational opportunity to people of all ages and circumstances.

A key part of open education systems is generating peoples’ wisdom, researching on these wisdoms, modernizing them with international inputs and then reaching the wisdom generators with improved understanding. This expands the context of different knowledge including that of vocational development toward critical thinking, social innovation and interior awareness for sustainable development. The theme will also examine the critical role of new media technologies in enabling collaborative approaches to reshaping education for the 21st century.

Want to accomplish:
Establishment of an ongoing global collaborative community dedicated to building the new educational structures of the 21st century. Develop a vision of the new global-local open education system. Outline the curriculum, identify resources, and build a collaborative network. Establish primary objectives and time frame for implementation.

Develop a plan for an open education initiative conference for sharing innovative approaches to open education systems. Lay the technical foundations for a global virtual community focused on reshaping education in the 21st century.

Potential Collaborators:

• Open University of Nepal: Bidya has done much work here.
• University of Maryland University College: Our colleague Clancy Mann, Executive Director of the Global Management graduate program and John Epps, adjunct faculty, are connected with UMUC. It is the largest online university in the US with more than 90,000 students around the world.,
• International Assembly: colleague of Doug Druckenmiller, Dr. Frederick C. Isele, works with the International Assembly, an international collaboration of social science educators. Fred has expressed interest in the conference and is a potential collaborator. (http://www.ncssia.org/pages/about.html)
• Initiatives of Change International (http://www.iofc.org/home) Melbourne ICA colleague
• Global Studio – Dr Krishna Shrestha

Coordinating Team:

• Dr. Bidya Nath Koirala Tribhuvan University
• Dr. Douglas A. Druckenmiller Western Illinois University
• Mrs Robyn Hutchinson
  Principal, Ashfield Public School,
  Sydney Australia
• Dr. Krishna Shrestha
  University of Sydney, University of
  NSW
• Dr. David Scott
  Flathead Valley Community College
  

Resources:
Click here to view a full listing of resource
websites for this conference theme.

Theme Coordinators:
Douglas Druckenmiller
DA-Druckenmiller@wiu.edu
Robyn Hutchinson
rjhutchinson@optusnet.com.au
Bidhya Nath Koirala
sambedan@yahoo.com

See the conference website for further details at:  www.humandevelopmentconference.com