Thu, Jun 30, 2005
U.N. Peacekeeping Missions Timeline 1948-2005
The United Nations has been conducting peacekeeping missions since 1948. This interactive flash-based Peacekeeping Operations Timeline provides a history of the UN’s peacekeeping activities between 1948-2005. It is part of the introductory materials found at the larger UN Peacekeeping website. Also of interest are the various maps available from the UN Cartographic Section website. 
Who Burned Down Barnum’s Museum? - An Interactive Inquiry into 19th Century Social Conflict
Who Burned Down Barnum’s Museum is a flash-based learning activity that guides students through a game-like mystery of who may have burned down P.T. Barnum’s American Museum in July of 1865. Students work in teams, reading background essays on social, political, and cultural conflicts in nineteenth century America, then searching for clues specific to one suspect. Students use an online notebook to assign clues to suspects and determine if they would accuse their suspect. Designed to work in a 90 minute class period, this lesson can be modified to fit shorter class periods by assigning steps as homework. This activity is part of the larger social history project known as The Lost Museum.
The Lost Museum website is composed of four sections:
“Who Burned Down the Museum?,” where you solve a mystery while exploring a 3-D environment;
“Explore the Museum,” where you explore the 3-D environment without the mystery;
“Search the Archive,” a database of primary documents related to museum exhibits; and
“Visit the Classroom,” where you’ll find support materials for teaching and learning.
The Lost Museum site was created by the American Social History Project in collaboration with the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University and produced at the New Media Lab at the City University of New York Graduate Center .
Mon, Jun 27, 2005
The Giant Puppeteers’ Cooperative Homepage
Thinking about planning a protest or celebration? This Puppeteers’ Homepage site supports “a group of artists and puppeteers working in cities around the nation to create giant puppet parades, pageants, and ceremonies of celebration and complaint, using simple materials and movements to build community cardboard extravaganzas.” The site features images of puppets, diagrams for construction of puppets, scripts, information about puppet lending libraries, and links to related sites. 
Flashpoints: A Guide to World Conflicts
Flashpoints is an online resource source providing access to factual information and articles about current major conflicts and flashpoints worldwide. It includes coverage of ethnic conflict, wars, international security and civil wars. All areas of the world are covered including: the Balkans, Afghanistan, the Middle East Peace Process and wars in Africa and Kashmir. Entries are by geographical region or topic. Topics include: globalization, human rights and international terrorism. Each entry provides some background information on the conflict with links to related articles, web sites and Internet news sources. 
Fri, Jun 24, 2005
Doors to Diplomacy Youth Website Contest Winners
This year’s winners of the Doors to Diplomacy contest are quite impressive. I particularly liked the All the World is But One project, one of this year’s platinum award winners. The U. S. Department of State, in cooperation with the Global SchoolNet Foundation, sponsors the “Doors to Diplomacy” educational challenge - to encourage middle school and high school students around the world to produce web projects that teach others about the importance of international affairs and diplomacy. The four main components of the project are noted below.
Collaborative Web Project: Doors to Diplomacy is a collaborative project, where small teams are formed consisting of two to four student members and up to two adult “coaches.” Research can be conducted both online and offline, and then the findings are assembled to produce an educational web project. Students are also encouraged to become spokespersons for their projects.
Project Narrative: Each Doors to Diplomacy project also includes a Project Narrative that explains how the project has been organized, what challenges had to be overcome, and how the project supported local content standards. Many wonderful community building success stories often emerge from these “behind the scenes” narratives.
Peer Review Process: As part of the competition, teams must also participate in a Peer Review activity, in which they evaluate at least four other projects, using a web-based evaluation rubric.
Awards: Each student team member of the winning “Doors to Diplomacy” Award team receives a $2,000 scholarship, and the winning coaches’ schools each receive a $500 cash award. The State Department also sponsors a trip to Washington, DC where the winners receive a private tour of the State Department facilities, meet with key officials, and participate in a special award presentation ceremony. Each team who submits a completed project receives a special Doors to Diplomacy certificate. 
Tue, Jun 21, 2005
Current Law Journal Content
The Washington and Lee Law School library has been building an impressive collection of information feeds on more than 1000 Law Journals. Their collection of table of contents and recent articles is searchable for free at Current Law Journal Content. With an ID, you can also arrange to have your favorite feeds appear on your own website or read the table of contents feeds in a RSS newsreader. Approximately 650 of the journal TOCs are supplied through the generosity of the University of Texas Tarlton Law Library from scans of paper copies received by them, 70 are scanned from paper copies received at W&L, and 280 are gathered from electronic sources such as RSS feeds, e-mail alerts and web sites.
The Forgiveness Project Website
The Forgiveness Project is an innovative effort to support conflict resolution and restorative justice by highlighting stories of reconciliation and forgiveness. Set up by a small team working purely independently with no religious or organisational affiliation, The Forgiveness Project consists of a touring exhibition (The F Word) that builds on an evolving collection of narratives. The Forgiveness Project also aims to raise the profile of, and funds for, relevant grassroots projects. A short promotional video is viewable online in either a high bandwidth or low bandwidth version. 
Video Lecture - From Ralph Bunche to Lakhdar Brahimi: The Future of Peacekeeping and Mediation
“From Ralph Bunche to Lakhdar Brahimi: The Future of Peacekeeping and Mediation”, was held on 20 November 2003 in the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium at City University in New York as part of a series of lectures honoring the birth centenary of Nobel Prize winning diplomat Ralph Bunche. Mr. David Malone, President of International Peace Academy, was the keynote speaker and H.E. Mr. Kishore Mahbubani, Permanent Representative of Singapore, and Dame Margaret Anstee, former Under-Secretary-General, who served as Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Angola and Chief, United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM III), are the discussants. Sir Brian Urquhart, former Under Secretary-General, moderated the event. (Archived as Real Player Video - 1 hour 48 minutes) 
Wed, Jun 15, 2005
Left-of-Center Political Cartoons at In These Times
The political current affairs magazine In These Times keeps an archive of their political cartoons. They provide commentary on current events from a left-of-center perspective. In These Times also sponsors a podcast called Fire on the Prairie that provides downloadable audio commentary. 
Tue, Jun 14, 2005
Bridging the Gap - Conflict Resolution Videos for Middle School Age Youth
Bridging the Gap is a series of twelve 15-minute student video programs designed to help middle and junior high school students develop the knowledge and skills identified by health education and conflict resolution experts as necessary to deal effectively with conflict. 
The video programs take the form of dramas, focusing on target-aged children, which clearly demonstrate or model the skills under consideration in the project. Instructors are also encouraged to record the videos when they are broadcast over educational television in Wisconsin. The creation of these instruction materials is the result of the collaboration between three individual organizations:
- Center for Educational Resources
- The Wisconsin Educational Communications Board
- Phi Delta Kappa International
1. Push Comes to Shove - Skill Area = Walking Away
One of the most difficult solutions to a potentially dangerous situation is to swallow your pride and just walk away.
2. From the Heart - Skill Area = Apologizing
Whether you are right or wrong, if you offer an apology to someone else you can’t help but diffuse and ease the tension in a potentially violent situation
3. Scare Tactics - Skill Area = Getting Help
Is outside help needed to solve a problem? If it is, what help is needed, and where should that help come from?
4. Anybody but You - Skill Area = Anger Management
Anger management is a critical step in preventing/resolving problems.
5. Time Out - Skill Area = Mediation
What is involved in mediation with a neutral third person? How can the process learned be used to negotiate a solution to another problem
6. No Can Do - Skill Area = Refusal Skills
Good refusal skills, a form of assertiveness, enable one to give verbal and nonverbal messages that clearly say “no” and yet do not jeopardize existing relationships.
7. All the Wrong Moves - Skill Area = Identifying and Expressing Feelings
Identifying feelings, exploring feelings, and understanding how they affect behavior.
8. It’s Not What You Think - Skill Area = Active Listening
Using self-talk to gain an understanding of feelings and using active listening to get the perspective of the other person.
9. It’s Show Time - Skill Area = Assertiveness Skills
Assertive vs. aggressive speaking, the idea of “I” statements vs. “You” statements.
10. Translation Please! - Skill Area = Dealing with Diversity
Conflict that arises out of diversity. Often what begins as an “ordinary” problem escalates into racial and ethnic conflict.
11. Get Off My Case! - Skill Area = Dealing with Bullying
Strategies that can be used when bullied or in helping someone being bullied.
12. My So Called Friend - Skill Area = Application of Several Skills
An opportunity for students to apply the skills they have learned in the series.
Sat, Jun 11, 2005
CmapTools - Free concept mapping software for educators
The Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) has developed a freely distributed concept modeling toolkit called CmapTools designed to support both individual and collaborative development of concept maps. The cross-platform toolkit was originally developed to help researchers share their models visually. The Florida based IHMC is now giving the software away free, hoping to support educational uses of the software. A server version is also available for institutions that want to run their own collection of maps and support online collaborative development and critique of maps. 
Thu, Jun 09, 2005
Inventory of Civil Society Resources and Tools from CARE
The Inventory of Civil Society Resources and Tools has been prepared for CARE country office personnel who are concerned with how programs can best enable sustainable capacities within civil society, so that the poor become effective agents of their own development. For CARE a strong civil society means ensuring a dynamic and beneficial relationship among government, business and non-profit sectors. The purpose of this inventory is twofold:
- To provide some background in theory and practice of working with civil society.
- To provide useful tools for designing and evaluating work in this sector.
The inventory is divided into three parts.
Part I sets the stage with readings in both theory and practice. Three concept papers and four case studies were written for CARE.
- A literature review of civil society prepared by Terry Bergdall, a CARE consultant.
- Case studies of CARE’s civil society work in Egypt, Somalia, Zambia and Mali, also prepared by Terry Bergdall.
- A paper by Paul McCarthy, a CARE consultant, to help field practitioners map institutions as they explore and begin to make decisions related to their civil society strengthening interventions.
- A paper on civil society and economic development in Niger, by Daniel Chirot, a consultant commissioned by CARE Niger.
Part II is the inventory of tools, indicators and processes for designing and evaluating civil society activities, collected by the School for International Training on behalf of CARE. Tools are grouped into four sub-sections, representing major thrusts of CARE’s efforts in civil society strengthening:
A. Building or enhancing organizational capacity and strengthening institutions
B. Supporting mechanisms for dialogue and advocacy among these three sectors of society
C. Communication and the media
D. Promoting inclusion of poor, disenfranchised and marginalized citizens in civil society organizations and their relations with government and the private sector.
Part III contains an extensive list of additional readings, websites and institutional resources, pulled together from a variety of sources. 
Community Mediation Research Papers Collection
The National Association for Community Mediation has begun posting the full-text of many studies and articles exploring the state of community mediation at various points in time and at various locations. The articles are available as Word documents here. The collection currently includes more than 40 different documents.
Tue, Jun 07, 2005
UN Peacekeeping Standardized Generic Training Modules (SGTM)
The United Nations SGTM training package has been prepared by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations/Military Division/Training and Evaluation Service as the first part of a comprehensive UN peacekeeping training standardization project. The ‘SGTM Level I’ package aims to provide training guidelines on all aspects identified as “basic universal training requirements” for United Nations peacekeepers. The package (available online) includes powerpoint slides for each unit (tip: click on red dots next to unit titles for the powerpoint slides), and separate speakers notes.
The Modules were developed in 2002/03 based on an extensive effort that resulted in collecting available training material, lessons learned and other training related material from peacekeepers, organizations and Member States. The SGTM level I is intended to serve as a simple, easy to use compilation and standardization of UN peacekeeping training material, supported by a “References Digital Library” and links to related websites, designed to provide trainers direct access to UN documents and publications to enhance the preparedness of the most important element for the success of United Nations peacekeeping: ‘individual peacekeepers’. The SGTM basic level contains 16 modules, grouped into 4 main areas:
- The United Nations - basic information about the United Nations;
- The United Nations’ peacekeeper - issues regulating the behavior of the individual peacekeeper;
- United Nations Issues - universal policies for working in the PK operations;
- United Nations Support - entitlement, logistic and medical support in the missions.
Some of the modules further divided into sub-modules to address the special information needs of the subsequent topic.
Fri, Jun 03, 2005
Systems Practice by Managing Complexity
The Systems Practice - Managing Complexity site developed by the BBC and the Open University provides a way for visitors to explore concepts of systems practice, in part by engaging in a simulation where you try to understand and respond to a situation involving a land development project that has created an environmental conflict. Content covered on the site includes:
THINKING - Perspectives; Boundaries; Models; Emergence
PRACTICE - Peter Checkland interview; Russ Ackoff; Sir Geoffrey Vickers; Pea canning case study; CEO case study
