Online Learning: Connecting Students to the World
Connecting Students to the World is an educational program developed
and produced by the Institute of International Studies at the University
of California, Berkeley. The program uses the Internet and the World
Wide Web to further collaboration between the university and other educational
institutions, including California community colleges and K-12 schools
as well as other universities. At the heart of the program is Conversations
with History, which features interviews with distinguished men and
women from all over the world who talk about their lives and their work.
Here are some of the ways that teachers in the Bay Area have used the
Connecting Students to the World 
project to help their students learn
about global issues.
Courses
- Foreign Policy after 911
- Humanities 2: Human Values (Merritt College, Oakland CA)
Curriculum Development
- Interview with San Francisco Teachers
- Case Study: 12th Grade American Democracy Class
- Urban Dreams: CSW Visits the Classroom
To further these collaborations, the Institute has created Research Galleries which collect the thoughts of a wide range of individuals on specific ideas, events, and histories. The galleries include excerpts from interviews in text or video/audio formats as well as texts from e-mail exchanges, biographical information, and other links.
The Institute has also created special pages devoted to themes that cut across the curriculum.
Online Chats/E-mail Exchanges
In order to maximize enrichment provided by the Conversations with History archive, the Institute of International Studies occasionally arranges chats or email exchanges between students and distinguished Berkeley faculty or visitors who have participated in the archive. The basic elements of a chat or email exchange are as follows:
- teachers plan a unit that meets state standards and which incorporates the use of a Conversations with History interview, see San Francisco Unified School District's History/Social Science Standards;
- students prepare by studying the interview and other relevant material, see The Art of Interviewing;
- questions and answers are sent and received electronically between students and guest; and
- the Institute puts the exchange up on the web as part of the Conversations archive.
The Institute has hosted the following chats/e-mail exchanges:
Carolyn
Patty Blum: Immigration
Professor of Law, Boalt Hall School of Law
12/17/97 | Thurgood Marshall Academic High School, San Francisco CA
To the Blum chat
Alan
Cranston: Politics and Nuclear Weapons
former California Senator; President of Global Security Institute
October 2000 | Marin Academy, San Rafael CA
To the Cranston
e-mail exchange
Daniel
Ellsberg: Foreign Policy and Democracy
Strategic Analyst and Anti - Vietnam War Activist
5/14/99 | Wallenberg Academic High School, San Francisco CA; and Marin
Academic High School, San Rafael, CA
To the Ellsberg e-mail exchange
Wendy
Ewald: Children and Photography
Photographer, Author, and Educator
4/3/98 | St. Paul's Episcopal School, Oakland CA
To the Ewald chat
Justice
Richard J. Goldstone: International Justice
Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and former Chief
Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the
former Yugoslavia.
4/14/97 | Thurgood Marshall Academic High School, San Francisco CA
To the Goldstone chat
The
Honorable Thelton Henderson, Jr.: Civil Rights
U.S. District Court Judge
5/20/98 | Thurgood Marshall Academic High School, San Francisco CA
To the Henderson e-mail exchange
Gilles
Peress: Photography and Images
Magnum Photographer
3/18/98 | College Preparatory School, Oakland CA
To the Peress chat
Albie
Sachs: After Apartheid
Freedom Fighter; Justice of the South Africa Constitutional Court
4/14/00 | Marin Academy, San Rafael CA
To the Sachs e-mail exchange
Harley
Shaiken: Labor
Professor of Education, UC Berkeley
2/18/98 | Thurgood Marshall Academic High School, San Francisco CA
To the Shaiken chat
John
Shattuck: Civil Rights
Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
4/30/97 | Thurgood Marshall Academic High School, San Francisco CA
To the Shattuck chat
Sir
Brian Urquhart: The United Nations
Former Undersecretary-General of the United Nations.
3/19/96 | Thurgood Marshall Academic High School, San Francisco CA
March 1999 | Marin Academy High School, Model UN Program at UCB, and
Boalt Hall School of Law
May 2000 | Marin Academy High School
To the 1996 Urquhart chat, the 1999
Urquhart e-mail exchange, and the 2000
Urquhart e-mail exchange.
Harry Kreisler, Executive Producer
© Copyright 1999, Regents of the University of California
Site questions: Email iis_webmgr at berkeley.edu.