"Educational Diplomacy" via the Internet: A Transatlantic Citizens' Dialogue for Kosovo/a
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TISK 2000 Seminar March 22d, Berlin
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"Educational Diplomacy" via the Internet: A Transatlantic Citizens' Dialogue for Kosovo/a
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Colette Mazzucelli
Senior Research Fellow, EastWest Institute, New York, Chair, Transatlantic
Internet Seminar Kosovo/a (TISK2000), Sciences Po, Paris and Bosch Policy
Fellow, The American Academy in Berlin
Remarks by Dr. Wim van Meurs, Center for Applied Policy Research, Munich
and Mr. Armand Burguet, EducWeb, Brussels
The Kosovo crisis demonstrates the need for a transatlantic engagement in
conflict prevention in southeastern Europe. The transatlantic Internet seminar
Kosovo/a is a response to this requirement in its rationale, implementation and
evolution. This presentation explores the way in which TISK2000 serves as an
example of "educational diplomacy" for prevention through its
aim to educate students and citizens on several Continents about the situation
in Kosovo/a and its relevance for an emerging global society. We shall see
through the use of Internet video conferencing how an Internet classroom for the
21st century may be created to facilitate action and open dialogue among seminar
participants regardless of geographical origin. This creative process sheds
light on our strategic aim to develop an Internet pedagogy which may be useful
as states adapt their foreign policy interests in multilateral negotiating fora.
It is also our intention to explore the extent to which this pedagogy may be
inclusive and effective to foster an ethical approach to prevention via
education in post-conflict situations.
Colette Mazzucelli, MALD, PhD Co-President, 1999-2000, Robert Bosch
Foundation Alumni Association, is writing a book about Internet pedagogy while
at the Academy. Her recent paper, "Conflict Prevention for Kosovo/a in an
Era of 'Illiberal Democracy' Contributions and Challenges in the
Transatlantic Experience Discovering Education's 'Fourth Wave'" is being
excerpted in the UN Chronicle this summer. Colette organizes and teaches
"Contending Approaches to International Peace and Conflict Resolution: The
Kosovo/a Conflict" in cooperation with Dr. Wim van Meurs at the University
of Munich. This seminar, funded by the Bosch Foundation, is the first distance
learning offering at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. Colette is the
author of France and Germany at Maastricht Politics and Negotiations to
Create the European Union (Taylor & Francis Group, 2nd edition paperback,
1999). She is also a contributor to Redefining European Security (Garland, 1999)
and assistant editor, with Reinhardt Rummel, of The Evolution of an
International Actor: Western Europe's New Assertiveness (Westview, 1990).
Dr. Wim van Meurs is Co-ordinator for Southeastern Europe and the Baltic
Sea Region, Center for Applied Policy Research (CAP), Munich, http://www.cap.uni-muenchen.de
Mr. Armand Burguet, Belgium, is the founder of EducWeb,a global
Internet initiative for education in Kosovo/a, http://www.educweb.com
The Transatlantic Internet Seminar Kosovo/a (TISK2000)
TISK2000 is implemented in cooperation with Mr. Roger Boston, Rockwell
Chair Instructor and Creativity Consultant, Houston Community College
System (HCCS). Its students in Fall 2000 included 26 at Sciences Po, Paris,
and 12 at the University of Munich in association with the Center for
Applied Policy Research. Five students at the University of Costa Rica
also participate with the guidance of Jose Brenes Andre, M.Eng.P., a former
President of the Fulbright Association of Costa Rica. Several auditors at
the Monterey Institute for International Studies may also consider the
option to re-join the Internet seminar in Fall 2001 once technical difficulties
are resolved.
In addition to its academic partners, TISK2000 involves non-profit organizations
and think tanks in its work: EastWest Institute in New York, the American
Institute for Contemporary German Studies, John Hopkins University, in
Washington, DC and the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International
Affairs in New York. These are all active partners hosting weekly seminar
sessions and suggesting guest speakers with field experience in Kosovo/a and the
Balkans.
The seminar's structure and organization are meant to demonstrate the advantages
of Internet teaching in an inclusive manner. Some of its specific features
include:
working with products that operate effectively at modem speeds which is necessary to include our friends in Kosovo/a in our weekly proceedings. The Internet tools used in TISK2000 to date are: POTS or Plain Old Telephone System; Real Player, http://www.realplayer.com, an audio and video tool that streams voice and images to multiple sites; Microsoft's NetMeeting, http://www.microsoft.com, a point-to-point audio and video tool connecting two sites with chat and whiteboard access; FIRETALK, http://www.firetalk.com, an audio tool connecting multiple sites; and CU-SeeMe PRO, http://cuseemeworld.com/, a multi-point audio and video tool that brings together numerous sites for real time text and verbal exchanges;
adding tools that allow us to enlarge the regular class of students in Paris and Munich to include auditors in San Jose and Monterey thereby enhancing the global dimension of the seminar and forging links to existing transatlantic networks like the Robert Bosch Foundation Alumni Association (RBFAA), http://www.boschalumni.org. These tools are the Nice Net forum, http://www.nicenet.org, an Internet classroom that allows those with a user name and a password to sign in and participate in a number of on-going discussions about various conference topics like educational initiatives in Kosovo/a and TISK2000@yahoogroups.com, the email address for the seminar's list serv which now contains over 180 persons on 5 continents. This list serv, which may be joined via the web at http://www.rboston.com/bosch, is used to disseminate information about the seminar on a daily basis in a digest form, i.e. one email containing several messages;
linking students in our seminar directly with people in Kosovo/a taking into account that while preventive diplomacy initiatives in the Balkans, like the Stability Pact, must also be concerned with institution building, education programs place the individual citizen, and the traumas he or she has experienced, at the heart of prevention in post-conflict situations. The approach here is a holistic one with roots in social psychology. Peace education efforts are hopeful about the capacity of human nature to evolve and pragmatic in the content focus of their programs that may enable participants to learn from the tragedy of conflict.
Dir. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Colette
Mazzucelli
Bosch Policy Fellow, The American Academy & Aspen Institute Berlin
Senior Research Fellow, EastWest Institute, New York
Chair, Transatlantic Internet Seminar Kosovo/a, Sciences Po, Paris
Co-President, 1999-2000, Robert Bosch Foundation Alumni Association
c.mazzucelli@americanacademy.de
http://www.boschalumni.org/alumni/mazzucelli
http://www.rboston.com/bosch