BRIDGE News, September 2004-December 2004
In
September 2004, the BRIDGE Program entered its third year through a
grant from the US Department of State Bureau for Cultural Affairs, and
matching funds made available from iEARN partners. Focused on
building links between students and teachers around the world, the
continuing funding will allow iEARN to increase the number of
participating countries as well as expand the range of programs offered
within each. Building on the success of the last two years, the
program was expanded support for iEARN programs in Bahrain, Egypt,
India, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan,
Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and the United States through
collaborative online projects, professional development and
international exchange opportunities for students and teachers in these
countries.
Through iEARN's secure Internet-based discussion forums, the BRIDGE III
Program will provide online exchange opportunities for an additional
7,500 students and teachers from over 130 schools. Students will
participate in thematic collaborative online project activities and
have the opportunity to engage in a number of ongoing Internet-based
discussion forums surrounding themes such as Culture, Civil Society,
Globalization, and Language Learning. This virtual exchange
allows educators and youth to collaborate on commonly shared concerns
and develop the tools, skills, knowledge and climate for discussing
differing points of view, overcoming suspicion, dispelling stereotypes,
and resolving conflict. The BRIDGE Program will also continue to
promote academic, cultural, and community exchange through the iEARN
program of continuous training - online professional development
courses, student/teacher exchanges to the US, and individualized
national workshops.
Physical Exchange Component
 iEARN
has developed a strategic partnership with AYUSA to help in
facilitating the physical exchanges that take place as part of BRIDGE.
On November 22, 2004, a BRIDGE planning meeting was held at the iEARN
office in New York. A new BRIDGE student application was created
by AYUSA and distributed to schools. AYUSA worked with school officials
to identify applicants who demonstrated strong leadership skills and
who showed a genuine interest in learning about another culture. Two
schools were identified through the iEARN network to participate in the
BRIDGE program. Metropolitan Learning Center in Bloomfield, CT will
participate in a direct exchange with the Modern Education School in
Katameya (New Cairo), Egypt. The High School for Law and Public Service
in New York City will be participating in a direct exchange with three
schools in Morocco. AYUSA facilitated an in-person training
with the High School for Law and Public Service on February 3, 2005. At
this time, a Pre Departure Orientation took place for the U.S. students
departing for Morocco on February 6, 2005. A meeting was
also arranged between AYUSA and The Metropolitan Learning Center.
This was a preliminary meeting where placement of Egyptian students,
visa processing, and other logistical details was discussed.
Caryn Stedman, organizing teacher, also underwent training to conduct
both the Arrival Orientation for the incoming Egyptian students and the
Pre-Departure Orientation for her students who will travel in March.
Professional Development
Coordinators from the 13 countries sending participants for the April
8-17, 2005 Master Trainer Seminar were given criteria for
participants, publicity materials, and applications. Logistical
preparations are underway for the arrival of the approximately thirty
participants. IEARN-USA has solicited the input from past
attendees through the development of a US teacher cadre who meet
regularly through one of iEARN's online forums: .
Virtual Exchange - Collaborative Project Activities
 Online
project work has remained active this quarteróbuilding on the
foundation of the first two years of the program. Classes
from around the region are working in several forums pertaining to:
Proverbs, Lewin, Child Labour Project, Laws of Life, Breaking
Stereotypes, and the YouthCan Environmental Conference. Students are
also making general introductions and deciding on which projects they
will work in the Youth Forum
Online Course
The third session of Learning Circles for BRIDGE III will begin 7th
March 2005. In addition to iEARN's 5 subject specific online
courses, a recently developed BRIDGE Learning Circle Course gathers
teachers interested in working with countries with significant Muslim
populations and facilitates their ability to work collaboratively on
project-based learning activities. We are currently working with
country coordinators to select educators to participate in this online
professional development opportunity.
Country Summaries
 Egypt - http://www.iearnegypt.org/
iEARN-Egypt has been very active in a number of workshops and
activities this quarter. International Education Week provided an
opportunity for previous participants to work with AMIDEAST in
presenting and sharing their online and physical exchange experiences
over the course of four days. Active Q&A sessions followed each
session and iEARN Egypt distributed materials about iEARN and BRIDGE.
iEARN Egypt also held an introductory workshop at the Modern Education
Language School in Cairo on October 14, 2004 for 10 teachers and
administrators to promote iEARN to private and international schools to
raise awareness and maintain sustainability among these trial schools.
In collaboration with the Integrated Care Society, iEARN Egypt planned
and assisted in the preparations for the annual celebration of iEARN
projects during ìReading for All Festivalî at the Maadi Public Library
on December 3, 2004. This yearís results included a total of 100
students, 30 teachers and 19 projects at 9 public libraries. The event
also gained exposure in two national newspapers. At the end of
November, iEARN Egypt held its National Workshop which included 50 new
teachers from 15 schools. Held at the Mubarak City for Technology, the
workshop was tailored to meet the needs of teachers. Therefore, in
addition to the regular iEARN introductory content, iEARN Egypt added
Research Methods and Ethics and the Emotional Intelligence.
In January, iEARN Egypt will partner with the Center for Adult and
Continuous Education (CACE) at the American University to hold their
EFL Skills Conference. Two follow-up sessions will be scheduled
following the conference.
 India - http://www.iearn-india.org/
IEARN-India has been involved in outreach among the schools to promote
involvement in BRIDGE. IEARN-India Country Coordinator, Sunita Bhagwat,
has sent a series of letters to around 50 schools of the program and
its benefits, encouraging teachers and students to participate.
In addition, a part-time staff member has been appointed to the
iEARN-India office.
In preparation for their first national workshop schedule for the
February 1-3, they have distributed and received applications from
interested teachers, and are currently finalizing logistics and
printing material in preparation for the workshop. IEARN-India has also
begun and finalized their selection process for the Master Trainers
program. To facilitate their work, a meeting has been arranged
with the Deputy Director of the American Cultural Center in Mumbai on
January 19th. Additionally, The Computer Students Association has
invited iEARN-India to present at a yearly conference in which 400
students along with their governing body members (numbering about 10)
will be in attendance. They are preparing to speak on online
collaborative learning projects.
 Indonesia - http://www.iearnindonesia.org/
The iEARN Committee was newly established in Indonesia in this quarter.
Their inaugural activities included the preparation of a leaflet on
iEARN and its programs in Indonesian and English to promote involvement
in iEARN-Indonesia among schools. A training workshop for 18 teachers
was held from December 25-27, 2004. In addition, the recruitment of
school coordinators has begun as well as the selection of participants
for the online professional development course and Master Trainer
Seminar.
 Jordan - http://www.iearnjordan.org/
IEARN-Jordan has welcomed the addition of the Jubaiha Secondary School
for Girls and the Umm Habibah Secondary School for Girls. They have
made weekly visits to the school to train two teachers and work with
students. An iEARN club at the Rosary School-Marj Al Hamam has also
been established. IEARN-Jordan has been meeting with officials at the
Ministry of Education to facilitate and plan programs. In celebration
of International Education Week, iEARN Jordan presented to the U.S.
Embassy and students involved in BRIDGE spoke about their experiences
with their host families and schools during their physical exchange, as
well as the online work they are engaged in.
 Lebanon - http://www.iearnlb.org
School visits and meetings with principals, teachers and students have
been conducted with about 10 schools to promote the Bridge
program. Outreach meetings have also taken place with various
foundations, the Center for Research and Development, and the Ministry
of Education. Bridge students are also actively involved in
preparations for the upcoming YouthCan Med Conference. iEARN
Lebanon has also been working on its organizational development. They
have defined working teams and are meeting regularly to plan online
courses and trainings in participantsí communities. The working teams
have also discussed the iEARN Lebanon web site and changes to update
it. New projects are being studied for sustainability. For the
physical exchange, iEARN Lebanon sent applications to all schools in
October. They conducted follow-up letters and phone calls and set a
November 5, 2004 deadline for applications. Forty-five applications
were received and narrowed down to a list of thirteen to be interviewed
by a panel on December 7th. The panel will consist of: PAO
officer Kenneth Jones and Edith Bitar (PAO assistant), Hala Kaadi from
Amideast, IEARN Lebanon Board member: Karim Abu Haydar and Eliane
Metni, iEARN Lebanon Coordinator. The dates for the physical exchange
have been set as April 1 to 21 for the outbound group and May 1 to 21
for the inbound group.
Malyasia
iEARN-Malyasia has been making the necessary preparations for next
quarterís national workshop as well. They have also been
approaching public and private schools to identify suitable teachers
for attendance at the Master Trainer Seminar as well as the
professional online course.
 Morocco - http://www.mearn.org/
This quarter was marked by the launching of computer labs in BRIDGE
schools in Meknes and Marrakech. Teachers, students, parents, Ministry
of Education officials, Embassy representatives RELO representatives,
and the media attended the launch ceremonies. Several English teachers
also participated in a one-day workshop in Youssef Ben Tachfine High
School in Marrakech. Student recruitment and selection for the next
physical exchange in Abbas Essebti High school in Mararkech has begun.
More than 30 students have completed the application form. English
teachers in Abou Al Abbas Essebti and RELO representatives oversaw the
application process.
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 December 11, 2004. iEARN youth meet with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. For more information, including student reflections on the event, see the US Embassy in Morocco report. As one student shares, "I am Imad Maisari,
one of the IEARN exchange students. I had the great pleasure to
meet Mr. Powell and talk to him. Actually, I never thought I
would meet such an important personality. Mr. Powell was so
patient and so modest. What I liked most about him is his sense
of humor. All the questions we asked were well answered by Mr.
Powell. In fact, he was eager to know about what we liked and
what we disliked about our visit to the US last year. I think that Mr.
Powell's character reflects a great part of the American
values and principles. I'd like to seize this opportunity to thank
IEARN, the US Embassy in Rabat and the people from the Public
Affairs section who made this meeting a great success. It will be
one the unforgettable moments of my life."
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In addition, with the help of the Public Affairs
Section of the U.S. Embassy, students met with the U.S. Secretary of
State accompanied by an English teacher from Abdelkrim Al Khatabi in
Rabat. Local and national media covered these events. Extensive
preparations have also been underway to receive a delegation from the
High School for Law and Public Service from New York on February 6-27,
2005.
Oman
Preparations for the first national workshop in Oman are
underway. The workshop is scheduled for February 19-21,
2005. Country Coordinators Eliane Metni from Lebanon and Farah
Kamal, from Pakistan will conduct the workshop. Issa Khalfan,
Oman Country Coordinator has coordinated it in conjunction with the
Ministry of Education and the US embassy.
 Pakistan - http://www./iearnpk.org/
Recent
activities have focused on action planning and strategizing for BRIDGE
implementation. The iEARN staff and iEARN working committee members met
regularly for seven sessions and finalized the action plan for
2005-2006. They discussed previous iEARN projects, problems faced by
teachers and students, outcomes of projects, possible solutions and
future plans for integrating other projects into curriculum.
iEARN-Pakistan collaborated with the Directorate of Education-Female
Secondary to hold a 3-day training for twenty high school teachers from
nine schools. Two follow-up sessions have been conducted in October and
November. iEARN-Pakistan will continue to provide site based and
focused classroom support to these core educators for effective online
participation and follow-up trainings using the iEARN Internet Resource
Lab that was established in the previous year of Bridge in the
Government Brazil School for Girls.
iEARN-Pakistan also undertook several marketing and sustaining efforts.
They sent the new iEARN Project Description Booklets to 130 schools (75
existing iEARN schools and 55 new) along with a brochure and letter
from the Country Coordinator. The Pakistani Training of Trainers
seminar was held in December to promote the Bridge program to eighteen
new educators, utilizing ìgraduatedî educators who have previously
participated in the Bridge program. Educators learned how to manage
online collaborative projects and developed school implementation plans
for the upcoming year. Moreover, online interaction between students
this quarter has been very active and prolific. More than 60 students
and 3 teachers from six different public schools of Lahore are
participating in online dialogue with students from Delaware and
Georgia, sharing their cultures via discussions based on local history.
Tunisia
iEARN-Tunisia has been making the necessary preparations for next
quarterís national workshop. They have been approaching public
and private schools to identify suitable teachers for attendance.
Moreover, they have begun exploring the possibility of hosting the 2006
Bridge Regional Conference in Tunis.
United Arab Emirates
Preparations have been underway with the US embassy and Ministry of
Education to conduct an information session with personnel from both
offices as well as interested persons we have been approached by
in the past few years. Dalia Khalil, iEARN-Egypt coordinator,
will conduct this session. The purpose is to identify a suitable
coordinator or committee of persons to direct Bridge III activities.
United States - http://www.us.iearn.org
The United States Center has developed
a cadre of US Master Trainers to help develop and deliver training for
US teachers. Most of the cadre has attended previous
CIVICS/BRIDGE Master Trainer Seminars. Additionally,
iEARN-USA continues to outreach to US schools, including recently the
National Council of the Social Studies; Baltimore, MD November 19-20,
2004, and the American Council for Teachers of Foreign Languages;
Chicago, IL. November 19-21, 2004
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