Nner International Connection Bath And Repman

An International Connection Made Easy

Dianne Bath, Director, Georgia Center for Educational Renewal, Georgia Southern University

Judi Repman, Director, Center for International Schooling, Georgia Southern University

NNER 2008Arlington, TX

A Level Global Playing Field:The 10 Flatteners

• Fall of the Berlin Wall• Netscape• Workflow software• Open sourcing• Outsourcing• Offshoring• Supply chaining• Insourcing• In-forming• The “Steroids”

2003: The Year of Triple Convergence

• All the flatteners converged with one another. Each enhanced the other flatteners; the more one flattener developed, the more level the global playing field became.

• A new business model was required to succeed. Instead of collaborating vertically (the top-down method of collaboration, where innovation comes from the top), businesses needed to begin collaborating horizontally: companies and people collaborate with other departments or companies to add value creation or innovation. Friedman's Convergence II occurs when horizontalization and the ten flatteners begin to reinforce each other.

• After the fall of the Berlin Wall, countries that had followed the Soviet economic model began to open up their economies to the world. When these new players converged with the rest of the globalized marketplace, they added new brain power to the whole playing field and enhanced horizontal collaboration across the globe.

Convergence III is the most important force shaping politics and

economics in the early 21st century.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Is_Flat

Conceptualizing a 21st Century Education Response to These

Challenges

Global-Ready Students

Two Competency Areas

Intercultural Competence

The ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in intercultural

situations based on one’s intercultural knowledge, skills and

attitudes. “Educating Global-Ready Graduates” by Deardorff and

Hunter

Global Competence

• Having an open mind while actively seeking to understand cultural norms and expectations of others

• Leveraging knowledge to interact, communicate and work effectively outside one’s environment

Knowledge Level

• Cultural self-awareness

• Deep understanding of culture including contexts, role and impact of culture, and other’s world views

• Culture specific information

• Sociolinguistic awareness

Skill Level

Being able to:

listen

observe

interpret

analyze

evaluate

relate

Attitude Requisites

Respect: valuing other cultures; cultural diversity

Openness: to intercultural learning; to people from other cultures

Curiosity and discovery: seeking to understand

Recommendations

• Institutes of higher education provide training on international options.

• Schools, colleges, and Departments of Education add globalization components to standards and academic advising components.

• Higher education expose all students with international interests to the challenges and satisfactions of teaching careers.

• Higher education foster internationally-oriented curricula

• Sate and local governments add an endorsement for K-6 language instruction.

• Add more requirements for foreign language training.Schneider, 2007

From Curriculum Through Practice

• International educational renewal groups– iNet

– International Learning Community

– Global Gateway

– Sino-American Education Consortium

• General internationalization resources– Global Education Collaborative

– Globalization 101

• Student/faculty exchange options– Consortium for Overseas Student Teaching

– Educators Abroad

Groups Focusing on International Educational

Renewal

The International Network For Educational Transformation (iNet)

Formally established in 2004 by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT)

The iNet Mission

• International arm of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust

• To create powerful and innovative networks of schools that have achieved or have committed themselves to achieving systematic, significant and sustained change that ensures outstanding outcomes for all students in all settings.

Membership

Open to any school or institution of higher education

Also open to individuals or other organizations involved in educational transformation

Current country networks in Australia, Chile, China, Europe, Hong Kong, Mauritius, South Africa, United States (Georgia and Boston)

Access to International Expertise

International Learning Community

• College of Education initiative

• Built on partnerships with UK colleges

• Faculty and student exchange

• Exchange of expertise

Sino-American Education Consortium

• Now hosted by Georgia Southern University

• Faculty-student exchanges

• Conferences

• Dialog and sharing of expertise

Internationalization Resources

Ning: A platform to create a social networking site (ning.com)

Contact Us

Judi Repman

jrepman@georgiasouthern.edu

Dianne Bath

dbath@georgiasouthern.edu