Sun, Oct 30, 2005
Storytelling for Peace
The International Storytelling Center has prepared a set of materials entitled Storytelling for Peace explaining the use of storytelling as a tool for peacebuilding. Included are seven selected stories for peace and conflict resolution.
Tales include:
Not Our Problem: A Tale from Burma and Thailand
The Monk and the Samurai
The Farmer and the Angel
The Cycle
The Master of the Tea Ceremony
Why Bat Hangs Upside Down: A Story from Sudan
Water Not Wine: A Tale from Africa and China
War and Refugees - Frontline Connection
The 2004 Global Education Program hosted by World Vision Australia includes a nice collection of resources on War and Refugees entitled the Frontline Connection. The resources, often including helpful illustrations or case examples, focus on the nature of conflict, its impact and the positive difference people can make. Materials include a case study on Rwanda and stories of children affected by war from around the world. The funzone section of the site includes mazes and a conflict crossword puzzle to reinforce learning. The site was designed to equip and inspire young people to achieve their potential as true global citizens. 
Wed, Oct 26, 2005
Checklist for Evaluating Consensus Decision Making Practices
This printable Checklist for Evaluating Consensus Decision Making Practices, developed by the Quaker Foundations of Leadership program at Earlham College, can help observers and participants evaluate a group’s effectiveness by observing how frequently they use specific behaviors that are essential to consensus building.
Interview with John Helie, ODR Pioneer and Winner of Mary Parker Follet Award
In this inaugural Pioneers of ODR Podcast, Colin Rule, head of ODR (Online Dispute Resolution) at eBay interviews John Helie, ODR pioneer and most recent recipient of the Association for Conflict Resolution’s Mary Parker Follet Award for his work with technological innovation in the field. The interview, conducted over Skype, was presented as part of the annual ODR Cyberweek.
Tue, Oct 25, 2005
Waging Peace: Practical Approaches to a Violent World
Stanford University’s Aurora Forum hosted a summer symposium entitled Waging Peace: Practical Approaches to a Violent World. Audio clips of the speakers are available via the website and also free from the iTunes Music store (which will open with this next link if you have iTunes installed) in the Stanford University podcasts section. Presenters and topics included:
James Gilligan - “Preconditions for a Peaceful World” via real audio
Michael Nagler - “Saving the World, One Thought at a Time” via real audio
Frances Moore Lappe - “Choosing Courage in a Culture of Fear” via real audio
Arun Gandhi - “My Education in the Path of Nonviolence” via real audio
Fri, Oct 21, 2005
Understanding Prejudice Site
The purpose of the Understanding Prejudice site is to offer educational resources and information on prejudice, discrimination, multiculturalism, and diversity, with the ultimate goal of reducing the level of intolerance and bias in contemporary society. The site includes a range of interactive exercises including a baseline attitudes survey, a slide tour of prejudice in advertising, and more. 
The Teacher’s Corner area of the site provides sample exercises and classroom activities for different educational levels, as well as sample writing assignments. UnderstandingPrejudice.org was established in 2002 with funding from the National Science Foundation (Grant Number 9950517) and McGraw-Hill Higher Education. The site was developed by Professor Scott Plous of Wesleyan University, manager of the Social Psychology Network also based at Wesleyan.
Thu, Oct 20, 2005
Virtual Volunteering Resources
The Service Leader website has developed a useful collection of resources focused on engaging volunteers who do their work in whole or in part, via the Internet and a home or work or university computer. While somewhat dated due to its year 2000 publication date, you’ll probably appreciate the good ideas and interactivity built into the Virtual Volunteering Guidebook offered by the site as a pdf file. Also of interest are the various examples of online mentoring projects now active.
Tue, Oct 18, 2005
Religion, Terrorism and the Future of Peacemaking - Podcast of Marc Gopin Lecture
Here is a podcast of Marc Gopin, the James H. Laue Professor of Religion, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University. He spoke on Religion, Terrorism and the Future of Peacemaking. 
Gopin is a leading expert on the role of religion in international relations and conflict resolution.
The lecture was sponsored by The Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict at Arizona State University, and rebroadcast as a podcast by the ASU Digital Media and Instructional Technologies center.
The Conflict Management Toolkit from Johns Hopkins SAIS
The Conflict Management Toolkit is a project created and run entirely by students in the Conflict Management Program at The Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Their goal is to enhance the understanding of the challenges that face scholars and practitioners engaged in conflict management today by identifying the tools available for mitigating and managing conflict and the ways they should be effectively used.
The Toolkit identifies five key devices or strategies of conflict management and provides information about them:
Conflict Prevention
Peacemaking
Peacekeeping
Peacebuilding
Statebuilding
Perhaps the quickest way into the growing wealth of materials here is to view their sitemap. Educators may be particularly interested in the sample university syllabi and the 80+ page PeaceKidz curriculum manual developed at SAIS for 6th graders and now provided free as a pdf.
Sun, Oct 16, 2005
Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - World conflict coverage by a solo journalist
Solo journalist Kevin Sites has teamed up with Yahoo News to present a year long look at conflict hotspots around the globe. The coverage is available as an RSS feed or in multimedia at the Yahoo Hot Zone site. 
The project mission - “To cover every armed conflict in the world within one year, and in doing so to provide a clear idea of the combatants, victims, causes, and costs of each of these struggles - and their global impact. With honest, thoughtful reporting we’ll strive to establish Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone as a forum for information and involvement. Users will not only learn about the scope of world conflict, but will find ways to be part of the solutions- through dialogue, debate, and avenues for action…Veteran war correspondent Kevin Sites will travel solo to these conflict zones, aided by a U.S.-based “mission control” team: Producer Robert Padavick (NBC News, CNN) and Researcher Lisa Liu (Radio Free Asia, International Medical Corps)...Using the latest technology, including high-definition digital cameras and satellite modems, Kevin will deliver stories via a five-fingered multimedia platform of text, photography, video, audio, and interactive chat - all available on one website (http://hotzone.yahoo.com).”
A Training of Trainers Source Book Based on the Principles of Participatory Methods and Approaches
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) sponsored the development of this online and pdf downloadable trainer’s manual subtitled A Training of Trainers Source Book Based on the Principles of Participatory Methods and Approaches. While the full title is a bit overwhelming, the content of the manual is quite accessible, with helpful drawings and detailed specifics for various exercises to try with groups. The pdf version (248 kb) gave my Safari browser some problems downloading (worked fine with the Firefox browser). You may want to review the online version first to see if you are interested in the full volume. Module IV may be of most immediate interest, given it’s focus on Dealing with Conflict in Resource Management.
Here’s a bit more description of the resource from the home page for the document.
“The consolidated sourcebook provides guidance how participatory processes in co-management of natural resources might be encouraged and promoted at the field level. Building on the specific and organic experience of introducing participatory processes in an environment previously inexperienced in these contemporary concepts, the sourcebook outlines a progressive and sequential set of skills which proved to be useful in promoting both technical and sociological skills required to enhance a participatory process. The approach described combines the introduction of different sets of techniques and exercises (related to participatory attitudes, PRA methods and tools, planning skills, facilitation, forming groups, and managing conflict) with the idea of process guidance and coaching of project staff in their daily work of creating a process of participatory and collaborative management of natural resources.”
Negotiating Tip of the Week Podcast site
The Negotiating Tip of the Week podcast provides a series of short (about 5 minutes in length is typical) bits of advice based on negotiation theory. The podcast has been created by Josh Weiss, Associate Director of Harvard’s Program on Negotiation in affiliation with the Ottergroup. The homepage for the podcast provides an online flash player if you want to listen to an individual episode, or you can subscribe to the podcast using your “podcatcher” of choice, including iTunes.
Wed, Oct 12, 2005
Realizing the Dream: Nonviolence or Nonexistence
Realizing the Dream: Nonviolence or Nonexistence provides a flash-based exploration of Nonviolence for youth 8 - 17 yrs. old, following Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream. The site includes a gallery of pictures, three interactive learning modules (Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, Kingian Nonviolence: Six Principles and Six Steps, and Kingian Nonviolence as a Way of Life), and two flash overviews filed under the fun zone, one on the civil rights movement and one on bullying in schools. The project is sponsored by the King Center and Dennys Restaurants. 
FRONTLINE World Fellows Case Studies
The FRONTLINE/World Fellowship program is designed to nurture new voices in international reporting and widen the spectrum of stories available to the public, using a PBS web site and interactive media formats as a publishing platform for outstanding work from a new generation of journalists. The project is cosponsored by Frontline and the U.C. Berkeley graduate school of journalism and Columbia University’s journalism program. The project is supported by Carnegie Corporation of New York and The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. A limited number of fellowships are awarded to current students and recent graduates of leading journalism schools who show exceptional promise and propose detailed plans to report on an international story not currently covered in the mainstream media. The multimedia stories, many of them exploring conflict, posted so far include:
Guatemala, TOWARD JUSTICE
A village tale of war and reconciliation
Kashmir, THE ROAD TO PEACE?
A journey across a divided land
Afghanistan, WITHOUT WARLORDS
Can the ballot replace the bullet?
Haiti, THE STRUGGLE FOR WATER
Searching for water on a troubled island
Europe, THE RE-ORIENT EXPRESS
From Istanbul to Paris, exploring a rapidly changing continent
Israel, TRACING BORDERS
There’s nothing simple about drawing the lines
Peru, A GAMBLE IN THE JUNGLE
When energy lies beneath the rain forest
Mexico, THE DEADLY STANDOFF
Chiapas caught between war and peace
Venezuela, A CRITICAL TURNING POINT
One reporter’s journey home
Brazil, CURITIBA’S URBAN EXPERIMENT
A city planning for the future
Rwanda, AFTER THE GENOCIDE
Truth, lies and reconciliation
Egypt, INSIDE CAIRO’S LIVING ROOM
Exploring city streets and café culture
Sicily, A BRIDGE TOO FAR?
Trying to cross an old divide
The Fire Next Time - POV Film on Community Conflict Fueled by Shock Jock Radio
The recently released (July 2005) P.O.V. film The Fire Next Time explores conflict and polarization in a Montana town. As described in the synopsis, “Over a stormy two-year period, ‘The Fire Next Time’ follows a deeply divided group of Flathead Valley, Montana citizens caught in a web of conflicts intensified by rapid growth and the power of talk radio.” The film website provides a variety of interactive features including a podcast (Filesize: 4.8MB) of an interview with director Patrice O’Neill, case studies on conflicts involving shock radio, an interview with conflict resolution specialist Melinda Smith about resolving community conflicts and video clip from a community meeting she held to discuss and debrief the film. The American Library Association provides a “Delve Deeper” listing of books and resources and PBS provides a Lesson Plan that draws on the film exploring “Free Speech or Hate Speech?.”
You can view the trailer for the film and after registering you can download a discussion guide to accompany it. Viewers are invited to consider screening “The Fire Next Time” in their own communities. The filmmakers and P.O.V. note that they are happy to send out a tape or DVD for just that purpose.