Learn more about the Upcoming Forum on Education Abroad Annual Conference and Register #ForumEA21

Learn more about the upcoming Forum on Education Abroad annual conference and register at https://forumea.org/training-events/annual-conference/general-info-2/ #ForumEA21

Note: I've been invited to attend the Forum on Education Abroad annual conference and will be tweeting and posting to IHEC Blog's Facebook page during the conference as well as doing an end of conference summary blog post.

My Thoughts on the Forum on Education Abroad's 5th European Conference #EuroForum2020

 

It's been three weeks since I attended the Forum on Education Abroad's 5th European Conference. I'm delayed in posting my thoughts due to some personal/family obligations and matters as well as a busy work schedule and I thought posting during International Education Week seems appropriate!

I attended the first five Forum on Education Abroad conferences (Santa Fe, Miami, Austin, Boston & Portland), the 2013 conference in Chicago and their 4th European conference in Prague and now their 5th European conference originally scheduled in Milan but moved to a virtual platform due to the Coronavirus.

Like many, I've attended many virtual events in the field from webinars to conferences and I'm starting to experience "virtual/zoom fatigue." That said, I really enjoyed the Forum's European Conference and I am extremely happy that I registered! There were times when my day job at Columbia College Chicago and parenting and monitoring the remote learning of my children overlapped with sessions and to problem solve I did not join the breakout discussions during some sessions as I had to multi-task...the downside of a virtual event I guess as I would have eagerly participated in all session discussions had the event been held in person and I found myself in Milan!

Congrats are due to the Forum on Education Abroad staff and to our colleagues who served on the conference committee to provide a wide selection of great sessions. It was a typical Forum conference with two or more sessions per time slot that I wanted to attend so tough choices needed to be made. I also think the Forum staff and colleagues at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (conference host) did a great job in finding a virtual conference event platform that was functional and easy to navigate and use as I'm not the most tech savvy person despite my blogging and tweeting! The hard work of everyone involved made for a great conference! I really can't highlight a favorite conference session as each one I joined held different professional and personal needs and interests for me. To be sure, I missed out on great discussions with colleagues when I didn't join the breakout parts of sessions to attend to work matters or assist my 12 year old son with his math. I always appreciate interacting with and the perspectives of my colleagues. These discussions have always been a hallmark of Forum on Education Abroad conference sessions and I was pleased that they continued in this virtual format!

In many ways, the Forum on Education Abroad's 5th European Conference was perfectly timed for me and the work I'm doing at Columbia College Chicago. Beyond the great conference sessions it was great to see and connect again with long time friends and colleagues but also to meet new people and to learn from them! The conference fully met my needs and expectations and I'm very glad I attended! We don't know how long the Coronavirus will last and the impact it will have not only on sending students abroad but on how we as professionals interact, connect and learn from each other. If you are able to attend the next Forum on Education Abroad conference or their other training and events I fully recommend working them into your budget and calendar! Their 17th Annual Conference will be a virtual event and is scheduled for March 1-5, 2021 and you can learn more here.

You can see the Twitter backchannel conversation and posts from the conference via #EuroForum2020.

I Will be Attending and Blogging about the Forum on Education Abroad's 5th European Conference #EuroForum2020

Two years ago I attended my first Forum on Education Abroad European Conference in Prague. It was a great conference and I'm really glad that I attended. This year I will be able to attend much of the Forum's 5th European Conference virtually on a press pass and I'm looking forward to posting my thoughts about the conference.  In addition to posting here on IHEC Blog I will be posting to Twitter and to IHEC Blog's Facebook page.

Follow the Twitter Backchannel from the 2018 Forum on Education Abroad Annual Conference from March 21-23 in Boston #forumea18

#forumea18 Tweets

Follow the Twitter Backchannel from the 2017 Forum on Education Abroad Conference - March 29-31st in Seattle, Washington #ForumEA17

#ForumEA17 Tweets

Follow the Twitter Backchannel from the Forum on Education Abroad's 3rd European Conference in Athens, Greece - October 5-7, 2016 #EuroForum16

#EuroForum16 Tweets

Follow the Twitter Backchannel from the 2016 Forum on Education Abroad Conference in Atlanta, GA from Aril 6-8, 2016 #ForumEA16

#forumea16 Tweets

Follow the Twitter Backchannel from the 2015 Forum on Education Abroad Conference #ForumEA15

#ForumEA15 Tweets

Lily von Klemperer on Standards of Good Practice for Education Abroad

As many IHEC Blog readers know, I enjoy learning and writing about the history of international educational and cultural exchange and I'm quite excited about the formation last year of the AIFS/AIFS Foundation Education Abroad Special Collection which is a project of the Forum on Education Abroad in partnership with Dickinson College, the American Institute For Study Abroad (AIFS) and the AIFS Foundation.  I enjoy the history of the field so much that several years ago I created the Bury Book Internaitonal Education Library & Archive and have received donated materials from some of the biggest names in the field and get several requests a year about visiting for research (it's currently in my home office which adds some challenges to have visitors).

This week the Forum on Education Abroad held a celebration at the Special Collection at Dickinson to honor the establishment of the center and to showcase some of the donations made thus far.  You can see photos from the event on the Forum's Facebook page and Twitter account.

In the May 23, 2014 Forum News, a note about an interview from 1988 by Tom Roberts with Lily von Klemperer was released on the Forum's YouTube Channel.  Both are pioneers in the field and I'm honored to have met Tom and to have shared a beverage (or more) with him but I never met Lily.  I'm a huge fan of her work and to watch this brief video made my day!

Forum on Education Abroad 2013 Annual Conference #Hashtag

In honor of the Forum on Education Abroad officially setting their own annual conference #hashtag of #ForumEA13 thought I would post a Twitter search widget so those not in attendance nor on Twitter can follow the back channel from the conference.  For those of you attending I look forward to our paths crossing!

Tweets about "#ForumEA13"

My Declining Presence at International Education Conferences

Over the past few years my attendance at international education conferences has dwindled.  I have missed the past three Forum on Education Abroad conferences (my last one was Portland in 2009) and the past two NAFSA: Association of International Educators conferences (my last one was Kansas City in 2010) and the past four CIEE conferences (my last one was Toronto in 2007).  I did manage to make it to the CIES conference in Chicago in 2010 to present but my time at this conference consisted of arriving 30 minutes before my presentation and leaving 30 minutes after my presentation ended so I really can’t say I attended the conference (my only CIES conference I have seen) as I only presented at the Chicago CIES conference.  This also sums up the amount of time I spent at the 2011 NAFSA Region V conference in Champaign, Illinois (my last NAFSA Region V conference was in 2004 in Ann Arbor, Michigan) as I was also in and out of the conference venue only to present and say hello to a few friends and colleagues.  I did attend the entire 2010 U.S. Summit for Global Citizen Diplomacy in Washington, D.C. and it was a worthwhile event.

There are several reasons for this decline such as dissertation conflicts, lack of funds (almost all of my previous conference participation was self-funded) or lack of support.

I do hope to attend the 2013 Forum on Education Abroad conference as it will be in Chicago and perhaps the NAFSA conference in St. Louis in 2013.  CIEE 2012 in Shanghai is definitely out for me but who knows about 2013 in Minneapolis!?!?!

I will attend the annual conference of the Partnership in International Management (PIM) in Lima, Peru in late October (in many ways PIM has become my new NAFSA) and next week I will attend the Peer Schools International Educators [group of top business schools in the U.S.]  meeting at Stanford Graduate School of Business for a couple of days (in many ways Peer Schools has become my new Forum although on a much, much smaller scale] so I’m not totally out of the conference/meeting circuit…it’s just changing!  Last month I attended my first Chicago NAFSA Roundtable meeting since I worked in the Office of International Affairs at The University of Chicago seven years ago.

Originally posted to my International Higher Education Consulting website on June 11, 2012.

Future Conference Sites of U.S. Based International Education Organizations

Should you be an advanced planner I thought I would put these future conference sites for AIEA, CIEE, The Forum on Education Abroad and NAFSA on your radar:

AIEA
2012 – Washington, DC
2013 – New Orleans
2014 – Washington, DC
2015 – Washington, DC
2016 – Montreal
2017 – Washington, DC

CIEE
2012 – Shanghai
2013 – Minneapolis

Forum on Education Abroad
2012 – Denver
2013 – Chicago
2014 – San Diego
2015 – New Orleans

NAFSA
2012 – Houston
2013 – St. Louis (I believe this was originally scheduled for Louisville)
2014 – San Diego
2015 – Boston
2016 – Denver
2017 – San Francisco

Follow the Twitter conversation from the 2011 Forum on Education Abroad conference

The seventh annual conference of the Forum on Education Abroad is taking place tomorrow through Friday (April 6-8, 2011) in Boston.  I attended the first five Forum conferences but missed last year in Charlotte and will not be attending the conference this year.  I hope to return in 2012 to Denver!  There has been some discussion in the Twittersphere (and a little over on IHEC Blog's Facebook page) about what should be the appropriate #hashtag.  It seems that #ForumEA is the favorite and is being used most despite my lobbying for #forumoneducationabroadseventhannualconference2011inboston.  


To that end, I have added a Twitter search widget to this post so one can follow the discussion from and about the conference and hoping that those in attendance are able to post some photos and maybe a video or more to Twitter!  I wish all conference attendees a safe and productive conference!

Those of You Interested in the History of Standards of Good Practice in Education Abroad

Very busy week for me this week with the Fulbright U.S. Student Program 2011-2012 competition in full swing and revision work on my dissertation survey instrument so I thought I would embed this bibliography I compiled and host over on Scribd.  The following bibliography is just over two years old and was compiled for publication in the Standards of Good Practice of The Forum on Education Abroad, 3rd edition (2008) which you can download here.  There are some great resources here and some historical documents for those of you, like me, that enjoy the history of international education.History of Standards of Good Practice in Education Abroad Bibliography by Comp, 2008

#Hashtags and other New Media Tools at the Forum on Education Abroad Conference

This week the Forum on Education Abroad annual conference will take place in Charlotte, North Carolina and I'm sad to say that I am no longer able to attend.  I have attended every Forum on Education Abroad conference and I was scheduled to present but due to a required meeting about my dissertation proposal that overlaps the conference I had to withdraw from my session.  Now that I have a phone that is smarter than me I was planning on a heavy social media presence at the Forum conference that included posts to Twitter and IHEC Blog's Facebook page as well as video uploads (perhaps interviews) for IHEC Blog's YouTube channel.  Additionally, I planned to blog frequently from the conference.  I guess this will all happen at the upcoming NAFSA conference (more on this as the NAFSA conference approaches). 

I encourage everyone who will be attending the Forum conference and who are using social media tools to actively use them to commnicate and inform others in attendance and those of us who are not in attendance.  I've been following the "back channel" conversation of several recent and upcoming conferences on Twitter such as the Comparative and International Education Society (#CIES2010 on Twitter), NASPA (#NASPA2010 on Twitter), ACPA (#ACPA2010 on Twitter) and NAFSA (#nafsa10 on Twitter) as well as NAFSA's Advocacy Day (#nafsaAD) and I have found the dialogue to be quite interesting and informative.  Will anyone be posting to Twitter from the Forum conference and if so do you have thoughts on a #hashtag to follow?  Last week I started asking in various new media spaces on what the #hashtag should be for the Forum conference and some suggestions from colleagues have been:  #FORUMX, #FEA10, #Forum2010 and #2010Forum.  What are your thoughts?  Last week I also argued (in 140 characters on Twitter) that conferences should set their own #hashtags for people to follow.  Thanks @NAFSA for setting your own #hashtag for the 2010 annual conference a few weeks back and for making the Twitter feeds visible in the Conference Connection!  Whatever the #hashtag used for the Forum conference I will be following from Chicago!  All this #hashtag talk is probably confusing to most people because you may not be on Twitter and are thinking "What?" or you have seen me post to Twitter and other spaces about my dislike for the #hashtag!  I like #hashtags with &purpose...but that is an entirely different conversation I'm having with some great colleagues!
 
If you plan to be using any new media tools from the Forum conference (aside from Twitter as we hopefully can all agree on a #hashtag to use), please let me know and I'll update this post to include links to your blog, YouTube channel, Facebook page or to all three!  I do know that Missy Gluckman over at Melibee Global will be blogging frequently from the Forum conference.  You can read more about Missy's plans here.

On a related note, I found the following two articles on social media use at conferences to be quite interesting and think that they can be very helpful for colleagues in field of international education to read:

“Conference Humiliation: They're Tweeting Behind Your Back” from the November 17, 2009 The Chronicle of Higher Education
“An Open Letter from the People with Cell Phones out (for a purpose) during Sessions” from the March 9, 2010 NASPA 2010 Annual Conference Blog

Two New Publications by The Forum on Education Abroad

The Forum on Education Abroad has made available two new publications for download in their Standards Toolbox. The two new publications are:

Alignment and Accountability in Education Abroad: A Handbook for the Effective Design and Implementation of Qualitative Assessment Based on Student Evaluations (2010) was developed and written by Lilli Engle and Patricia C. Martin.

Strategies for Education Abroad Advocacy on Campuses (2010) was prepared by the Forum on Education Abroad Advocacy Committee.

I have read most of these two new publications and think they are excellent contributions to the field. To access the Standards Toolbox you must be a member of the Forum on Education Abroad.

If you or your institution/organization are not currently members of the Forum on Education Abroad you might want to consider joining. You can learn more about Forum membership here.

Photo credit:  vinmarshall.  For the curious, this photo is of a book binding machine

Call for Pilot Participants: The Forum Education Abroad Incident Database

A new and interesting development in the area of health and safety in education abroad has been created by a Task Force the Forum on Education Abroad. The Forum’s Data Committee announced that Forum member institutions (and I’m guessing organizations as well) are encouraged to submit applications to participate in a project (Education Abroad Incident Database) that will pilot an education abroad database designed to track various types of incidents that happen on educational programs abroad. The results of the pilot project will be discussed at the Forum’s Standards of Good Practice Institute “Beyond the Basics of Health, Safety and Security” in conjunction with the next annual conference in Charlotte, North Carolina on March 24, 2010.

Special recognition should be given to the members of the Forum’s Education Abroad Incident Database Task Force:
Bill Frederick, School for Field Studies, Chair
Brian Brubaker, Dickinson College
Regine Lambrech, Columbia University
Natalie Mello, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Chris Powers, IIE
Gary Rhodes, SAFETI
Adam Rubin, CIEE
Arlene Snyder, Arcadia University
John Tansey, Dartmouth College

You can learn more Forum Education Abroad Incident Database pilot project here.

Call for Proposals for Forum on Education Abroad Standards of Good Practice Institute

The Forum on Education Abroad has announced on their website a call for session proposals for their inaugural Standards of Good Practice Institute, "Beyond the Basics of Health, Safety and Security," to be held March 24, 2010 in conjunction with their annual conference. The deadline for submitting proposals is July 31, 2009.

A detailed description from the Forum’s website follows:

The primary purpose of the Standards Institutes is to offer participants the opportunity to broaden and deepen their knowledge and understanding of the Forum Standards of Good Practice and hone their skills in implementing them. The first Institute, Beyond the Basics of Health, Safety and Security, will be dedicated to the education abroad risk management issues with which organizations and institutions struggle. The practical, hands-on focus for this day will include multiple concurrent and plenary sessions that will assist participants to improve their institutional and organizational strategies for risk mitigation, incident prevention and response. The goals of the Institute are to:

- Deepen knowledge and understanding of Standard 7, Health, Safety and Security;
- Enhance the knowledge and skills necessary to meet this Standard by analyzing what the Standard requires and sharing examples of best practices;
- Discuss and make suggestions for improvement of the Health, Safety and Security Standard;

- Explore approaches to and implementation of risk management best practices for education abroad;
- Discuss the outcomes of and suggest improvements to the Forum’s incident reporting pilot database;
- Enhance the overall safety and security of participants’ education abroad programs for the benefit of the students who participate in them.

The Institute will be designed to address the needs of experienced practitioners in the area of risk management in education abroad. Institute participants will be expected to have more than a basic knowledge of the topics involved and therefore proposals should not be geared to entry-level concerns. While a number of sessions will be led by invited experts both from within and from outside the education abroad field, some sessions will be chosen through a competitive selection process. Questions of interest to the Institute include:

- What are the best practices in emergency planning, training, and the development and testing of crisis management plans?
- How do organizations establish and implement successful risk management communications protocols?
- What are the legal and liability concerns that are most serious for education abroad and how should they be understood?
- What is acceptable risk in an education abroad context?
- What critical incidents should the field be reporting and how should it best compile the information?
- How do organizations and institutions best prepare for and deal with the death of a student?
- What are the cross-cultural dimensions of health care that are essential to understand?
- What can education abroad learn from the experience and knowledge of travel medicine?
- What reasonable accommodations should programs make under the Americans with Disabilities Act?
- What factors need to be considered, and what decision-making processes need to be put in place, for deciding when to close (and re-open) a program due to safety concerns?
- How can organizations best assess and determine adequate insurance coverage for all areas of education abroad programming?
- What are strategies for providing access to effective medical care?
- How does the psychological development of late adolescents and their cognitive abilities impact students’ ability to understand risk?

Session Format and Proposals
The majority of sessions are expected to follow the Forum’s distinctive roundtable format; however, the Institute Planning Committee will consider session proposals that utilize other formats, including panel presentations. Successful proposals will describe in detail how the proposed session will broaden and deepen participants’ knowledge and understanding of the Forum Standard on "Health, Safety, and Security” and hone their skills in implementing it. Those submitting a successful proposal may be invited to submit a white paper for a post-Institute publication.

You can learn more about the Standards of Good Practice Institute and access the Standards Institute Proposal Form here.

Undergraduate International Studies and Research while Studying Abroad

I’m posting today about two excellent examples of journals published by undergraduate students on issues related to international studies.

First is Undergraduate Journal of International Studies, co-sponsored by The Center for the Study of Global Change at Indiana University Bloomington. You can access Undergraduate Journal of International Studies here.[1]

The second is Sojourn, sponsored by the International Studies program in the undergraduate College at The University of Chicago. You can access information on Sojourn here.

I imagine that undergraduate students at other institutions across the United States (as well as across the globe) are producing similar top quality publications. If you know of similar publications/efforts by undergraduates at any college or university in the world please leave details such as institution, name of publication and link in the comments section.

On a related note, I encourage any institutions/organizations who are members of the Forum on Education Abroad to consider nominating their students for the annual Forum Undergraduate Research Award. This is an excellent way to further engage undergraduate scholars in their international research efforts and a way for top nominees to get their work published in Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad and for winners an additional opportunity to present their research at a conference. You can learn more about the Forum on Education Abroad Undergraduate Research Award here. The next deadline for nominations is June 26, 2009!

You can access past Frontiers issues featuring articles in PDF format by undergraduate study abroad students here:

Volume XII: November 2005
Volume XIV: March 2007
Volume XVI: Spring 2008

Additionally, you may be very interested in reading the introduction to Frontiers volume XVI by Bernhard Streitwieser and Neal Sobania entitled “Overseeing Study Abroad Research: Challenges, Responsibilities and the Institutional Review Board” here.

[1] A special word of thanks to my colleague Kathleen Sideli, Associate Vice President for Overseas Study at Indiana University, for information on Undergraduate Journal of International Studies.

Forum on Education Abroad Conference Presentation Materials Available Online

The Forum on Education Abroad has now posted all submitted session materials from their recent conference in Portland, Oregon. The Forum is still accepting session materials from presenters and will post them to their website as they receive them.

You can access the session materials here.