An Address by David L. Boren on Global Education in the 21st Century: A National Imperative

Back on October 12, 2010, current University of Oklahoma President (and former U.S. Senator and Rhodes Scholar) David L. Boren delivered an address to a Washington, D.C. audience entitled “Global Education in the 21^st Century: A National Imperative”. The event was sponsored by the Institute of International Education, the National Security Education Program and the Language Flagship Group. For more specifics on this speech including a link to pictures of the event, a link to more video and more information about Senator Boren please visit the Boren Awards for International Study website at http://www.borenawards.org/videos.html.

I have embedded parts I and II of Senator Boren’s address here on IHEC Blog for your viewing pleasure:

Following are past IHEC Blog posts related to David L. Boren and the National Security Education Program:

Rep. Dan Boren [D.OK] on the House Floor Speaking on the New NSEP African Language Initiative

Boren Awards – Breaking the Language Barrier

Searching for Literature and Documents from the Very Early Days of the National Security Education Program (NSEP) [related to my dissertation]

A Word About My Schedule...

In an average week I receive approximately 3-5 requests (via e-mail, Twitter, Facebook and sometimes phone) for assistance on a project and/or locating a specific piece of literature and/or requesting to meet in person/talk on the phone about something related to international education.  Some weeks I receive no such messages and other weeks I receive a few more.  I try as hard as possible to reply to each and every message I receive and to help as much as I can.  Please note, however, that I'm not always able to answer in a timely fashion and I must admit that some messages fall through the cracks and they can quickly get lost in the mix.  I currently have between 10-15 messages from the past several weeks that I need to reply to.  If I owe you a reply to a message please know II hope to get to your soon.  I also owe a good colleague a long over due set of questions for an IHEC Blog interview...


Right now my plate is full with family (my wonderful wife and three awesome children ages 9, 5 and 2); my full-time employment as Senior Adviser for International Initiatives in The College at The University of Chicago; serious dissertation research and writing; and, a number of other projects including consulting on the next update of the study abroad research annotated bibliographies.


Photo credit:  http://davidcomp.wordpress.com/

Just How International is IHEC Blog's Facebook Page Anyway?

Back in August of this year I posted "Just How International is IHEC Blog Anyway?" in response to someone(s) who tweeted on two different Twitter accounts "How International is a #HigherEd Consulting Blog @DavidComp if only available in US? [Kindle Edition] http://amzn.to/9R7Qwb".


I thought I would look at the Insights (metrics and other interesting data) for IHEC Blog's Facebook page to see who is visiting.  I started IHEC Blog's Facebook page back on October 19, 2009 and as of this post I currently have 444 page likes from people following along (formerly called fans).  Following is a list of countries (19) these "fans" come from and the languages they speak or at least spoken where they access Facebook (15) [listed in rank order with highest number on top].  I think this is pretty interesting as people from six of the seven continents are following along...there is still hope for Antarctica!


Countries
United States
United Kingdom
Spain
India
Pakistan
Bangladesh
Canada
Australia
Indonesia
Malaysia
France
New Zealand
Japan
South Africa
Bosnia and Herzegovina
United Arab Emirates
Brazil
Germany
Argentina


Languages
English
Spanish
French
Indonesian
German
Arabic
Russian
Italian
Portuguese
Danish
Hungarian
Turkish
Thai
Chinese
Korean


Many thanks to everyone who has followed IHEC Blog's Facebook page!  If you would like to join the fun you can do so at http://tinyurl.com/IHECBlogFacebook.


Random data that has nothing to do with how international IHEC Blog's Facebook page is but I thought I would post:
- 60% Female vs. 36% Male with highest percentages in the 25-34 age range
- Top cities [all in the U.S.]: Denver (22), Austin (14), New York (11) and Washington, D.C. (11)

Signing Ceremony between the University of Cincinnati and Salahaddin University-Hawler

Following is a video snippet of the November 4, 2010 signing ceremony celebrating the new educational partnership between the University of Cincinnati in the U.S. and Salahaddin University-Hawler as well as videos of remarks from University of Cincinnati President Gregory Williams Salahaddin University-Hawler President Ahmed Anwar.  You can read more about this special event via the University of Cincinnati news site here.  Thanks to occasional IHEC Blogger @Frankie_James who posted about this to Twitter!






On a related note, the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program for Iraq has been continued and expanded and proposals are being sought from U.S. universities interested in hosting Iraqi scholars in 2011.  You can learn more at http://www.cies.org/Fulbright/Iraq/

Summary Video from the 2010 U.S. Summit and Initiative for Global Citizen Diplomacy

Following is a nice compilation video from the recent U.S. Summit and Initiative for Global Citizen Diplomacy.  This video was shown at the U.S. Department of State during the final day of the Summit.  

@USCCD and an Effective way to Highlight the Twitter Conversation for Summit Attendees

Two weeks ago I attended the U.S. Summit for Global Citizen Diplomacy in Washington, DC.  It was a great several days of meetings and I'm happy that I was able to attend.  I hope to post more about the Summit here on IHEC Blog in the days and weeks to come as there are several things I want to write about.  


Something that caught my attention was the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy's use of Twitter.  I'm not really talking about their tweets (which I did follow and occasionally retweet).  Specifically, I'm referring to the Center making the Twitter conversation from and about the Summit available to the entire Summit community..  Prior to one of the lunch plenary sessions the Center displayed the Twitter conversation in real time on the large screens (pictured above) for all in attendance to follow.  I saw several people take note and watch the screens for several minutes.

 I also discovered that the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy made available two standing and rather large monitors out in the exhibit hall/coffee break area that also ran the real time Twitter conversation for attendees to follow (two photos in this post).  Again, several people stopped to watch and follow the conversation.


Finally, the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy did something really great (and something quite simple really) to engage participants in the Twitter conversation.  On the back of their Summit program they printed the hashtag (#citizendiplomacy) to be used for the Summit to follow the Twitter conversation as well as the address of their Facebook page as another way to engage Summit attendees (picture below).


I don't know the official/final Summit registration numbers but I think it was between 600-700 attendees.  There was considerable Twitter chatter from and about the Summit and I would say it  rivaled the Twitter conversation during the #nafsa10 conference in Kansas City last May.  


Many conferences don't even create a #hashtag for attendees to use and those not able to attend to follow along.  This, in my opinion, is a [HUGE] missed opportunity as it literally takes 30 seconds to think of a good #hastag for your event and post it to various spaces for people to pick-up and follow.  Organizations never need to post to Twitter during their conferences (although it is nice and a great way to engage attendees and others)...just set a #hashtag and let others do the tweeting for you!


So this is a tip of my hat to the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy for a great way to engage Summit attendees in the Twittersphere and to bring the Twitter conversation from and about the Summit to all in attendance!!


Photo credit:  http://davidcomp.wordpress.com/

Alcohol and U.S. Students Abroad

Back in mid-October, University of Washington researchers released a study about alcohol use by U.S. students while studying abroad.  I wouldn't say they results were surprising but it was really the first major study on this topic (to my knowledge).  As someone who follows international education news I saw that this research study was picked-up my numerous media outlets including some like the LA Times.  My question is, why didn't any of the major international education organizations touch this topic?  Do we only talk about the rosy side of study abroad?  Would it be good for the field to say something like "we welcome such research and we are concerned with the findings and will work hard to better prepare our students for their studies abroad about the dangers of alcohol consumption."  Thoughts?

For the sake of self-disclosure, I certainly consumed a beverage or two during my two high school exchange programs and my university study abroad program.

You can link to the UW press release "When in Rome: Study-abroad students increase alcohol intake" summarizing the research results here.

Photo credit:  mark.watmough