Sun, Nov 27, 2005

MomResponds Offers Advice on Techniques of Conflict Resolution

You can get homey advice on conflict resolution from Luise at MomResponds.com. Luise is a retired grandmother of four teenager grandchildren who is open to sharing her wisdom with you. She draws on both common sense and experience from diverse careers in nursing, teaching pre-school, interior design, Real Estate sales, insurance adjusting and dairy herd testing. Techniques of Conflict Resolution is just one of her many categories of advice, but as the site explains, “Luise Addresses Your Interests With Wisdom and Love”.

Thu, Nov 24, 2005

Cross-cultural Negotiation Quiz

This Negotiation Quiz from Leadership Crossroads, a cross-cultural consulting firm, provides an opportunity to assess your cross-cultural experience and skills as relates to negotiation. Twenty questions cover all aspects of the negotiation process, from proper preparation to relationship building, from information gathering to bargaining, and from decision-making to agreement and closure, each related to a country that is one of the U.S.’ most relevant business partners.

Tue, Nov 22, 2005

Small Group Communication Online Exercises

These Small Group Communication Online Exercises were developed by Tim Borchers of Moorhead State University to support an Allyn and Bacon communication textbook. The various units are designed to help students better understand group communication. Each unit offers instructional notes and then gives one the opportunity to further investigate each concept by engaging in an interactive activity or a quick quiz. Topics covered include the list below. Note the item on Conflict in Groups.
TOPICS
Why People Join Groups
Types of Groups
Group Development
Decision Making
Groupthink
Leadership
Roles in Groups
Conflict in Groups
Mediated Groups
Group Meetings

Sun, Nov 20, 2005

The Cost of War Interactive Site from Newsday

The Cost of War is an engaging presentation on the Iraq war from New York’s daily newspaper Newsday. Users who burrow into its interactive layers find Flash graphics on civilian and soldier casualties, weapons and equipment, key moments, and the impact on the U.S. and Iraq. Included is a point and click search tool that can find pictures and biographies of U.S. Soldiers killed in the war based on their home state.

Fri, Nov 18, 2005

Chimpanzee Conflict Video Clips with Narration by Frans De Waal

The Yerkes Primate Center is the nation’s oldest and largest primate research center. This six minute video clip produced by the Yerkes Living Links project shows various chimpanzee conflict behaviors. The video requires Real Player.

Thu, Nov 17, 2005

Association of American Law Schools 2003 Dispute Resolution Conference Materials

The Association of American Law Schools has a strong Dispute Resolution section and in 2003 they hosted a series of sessions on dispute resolution topics. The materials from the workshop entitled Annual Meeting Workshop on Dispute Resolution: Raising the Bar and Enlarging the Canon are now available online and as one large PDF.

The impressive group of presenters is as follows:
Abramson, Harold I., Touro College
Ackerman, Robert M., The Pennsylvania State University
Alfini, James J., Northern Illinois University
Barkai, John L., University of Hawaii
Brown, Jennifer Gerarda, Quinnipiac Center on Dispute Resolution
Chew, Pat K., University of Pittsburgh
Coben, James R., Hamline University
Cohn, Lynn P., Northwestern University
Cole, Sara Rudolph, The Ohio State University
Conner, Roger, Search-USA, Search for Common Ground
Daicoff, Susan, Florida Coastal School of Law
Dominguez, David, Brigham Young University
Fox, Kenneth H., Hamline University
Freshman, Clark J., University of Miami
Gadlin, Howard, Center for Cooperative Resolution, National Institutes of Health
Golann, Dwight, Suffolk University
Gordon, Jane H., University of Oregon
Gunning, Isabelle R., Southwestern University
Harges, Bobby Marzine, Loyola University, New Orleans
Honeyman, Christopher, Convenor Dispute Resolute
Hyman, Jonathan, Rutgers, Newark
Kovach, Kimberlee, The University of Texas
La Rue, Homer C., Howard University
Lee, Brant T., University of Akron (PDF file)
Lee, Ilhyung, University of Missouri-Columbia
Lewis, Michael K., ADR Associates
Love, Lela Porter, Yeshiva University
Lowry, L. Randolph, Pepperdine University
Macfarlane, Julie M., University of Windsor
McAdoo, Bobbi, Hamline University
Menkel-Meadow, Carrie, Georgetown University
Nadler, Janice, Northwestern University
Nolan-Haley, Jacqueline, Fordham University
Peppet, Scott, University of Colorado
Pervere, Maude H., Stanford Law School
Reuben, Richard C., University of Missouri-Columbia
Riskin, Leonard L., University of Missouri-Columbia
Robbennolt, Jennifer K., University of Missouri-Columbia
Robinson, Peter R., Pepperdine University
Schmitz, Suzanne J., Southern Illinois University
Schneider, Andrea Kupfer, Marquette University
Senger, Jeffrey M., U.S. Department of Jsutice, Office of Dispute Resolution
Shapiro, Daniel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Medical School
Singer, Linda R., ADR Associates
Stulberg, Joseph B., The Ohio State University
Ware, Stephen J., Samford University
Welsh, Nancy, The Pennsylvania State University

Wed, Nov 16, 2005

Films of Conflict and Resolution at the Hamptons International Film Festival

This past October marked the seventh annual Films of Conflict and Resolution program at the Hamptons International Film Festival. The focus is on films that are unique in their multi-faceted portrayals of conflict around the world. Festival hosts have a mission to utilize the power of cinema to increase awareness and understanding of the human realities of war and conflict. They seek to present current and archival work made by filmmakers from around the globe, who in the face of intense conflict, strive to illuminate the realities of the world around them—and thus foster the process of peace and conflict resolution through their vision and their art.

The Hamptons International Film Festival, now 13 years old, was founded to celebrate the American Independent film - long, short, fiction and documentary - and to introduce a unique and varied spectrum of international films and filmmakers to our audiences. The festival is committed to exhibiting films that express fresh voices and differing global perspectives, with the hope that these programs will enlighten audiences, provide invaluable exposure for filmmakers and present inspired entertainment for all.

Here’s the films that were shown in 2005:
(Summaries of each film are available at the film festival web site).

IN COMPETITION
Amu
Asylum
At The Green Line
David and Layla
Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action
Sisters in Law

OUT OF COMPETITION
Fall of Fujimori
Favela Rising
My Land Zion
No More Tears Sister
Off To War
Only Human

SHORT
Azadi
West Bank Story

Tue, Nov 15, 2005

Conflict Resolution Lesson Plan for Spanish Language Speakers

The Texas LOTE Center for Educator Development offers a series of learning scenarios designed to teach core language concepts to speakers whose first language is not English. Included in their collection is a Scenario on Conflict Resolution for Spanish Speakers. Developed by Ginger Cline and Ricci Hatten, the scenario is described as follows: “Using a variety of Web sites and a video clip, students are introduced to the topic of conflict resolution both as a social and a personal issue. They consider risk and protective factors and discuss different responses to conflict or stress in some Spanish-speaking countries. They also discover how conflict resolution skills are marketable professionally and enormously useful personally. Finally, students create posters and produce a skit illustrating what they have learned about conflict resolution issues.”

IM, Blogs, and Student Conflict

The Kept-up Librarian spotted an interesting article in the Baltimore Sun on roommate conflicts. While I can no longer find it online, essentially it reports that roommates are more likely to blog about each other than to talk. Students and college officials say that the passive-aggressive communication fueled by the Internet - along with several other trends - make it harder than ever for students to navigate the roommate relationship, one of the central rites of passage in higher education. Instead of talking students use IM, blogs, and web sites to vent their frustration. Sounds like time for IM mediation tools to me.

Here’s an excerpt from the article -
“A 2004 survey of 31,000 freshmen across the country by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California Los Angeles found that 29 percent reported having problems with their roommates. Female students were slightly more likely than their male counterparts to have conflicts.

Learning to live with a roommate has long been one of the challenges of college. But now 80 to 90 percent of incoming freshmen have never shared a room before they get to campus, housing officials say, compared with about 50 percent a generation ago. With active parents whose involvement often extends into their college lives, today’s students are used to having many of their problems solved for them.

And they’re used to talking online and in text messages - making it that much harder to look a roommate in the face and ask him to take out the trash.”

Sat, Nov 12, 2005

From Dictatorship to Democracy

Nonviolence theorist Gene Sharp’s book From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation is fully available online as part of the Bringing Down a Dictator movie site at PBS.org. The movie tells the story of the people’s efforts to remove Slobodan Milosevic from power in Serbia in 2000 and the book spells out the role of noncooperatiion in ending oppression. The site includes an In the Classroom section with information and a instructors guide on teaching using the film and some interesting learning items such as the interactive map exploring the history of ethnic tensions in the Balkans.

Thu, Nov 10, 2005

Job and Compensation Negotiations Skill Site

Way back in 1996 Mary Rowe and colleagues at MIT developed a website providing tips and advice for managing Job and Compensation Negotiations. While I’m not sure if the interactive “post a question” sections still work (and I didn’t want to spam it to find out…), there is plenty of good albeit brief content here divided up into a number of different sections as noted below.
Negotiation Techniques - An Introduction
- The Negotiation Sequence
- Negotiation Basics
- Difficult Situations
Prepare, Prepare, Prepare
- Deciding When and What to Negotiate
- Your Interests
- Your Sources of Power and Lack of Power
- Understanding Your Potential Employer
Frequently Asked Questions

Tue, Nov 08, 2005

Learning Module on Distinguishing Between Positions and Interests

A new learning object exploring positions and interests in the context of interest-based negotiation has been posted by the Public Dispute Resolution Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The learning module, developed by John Stephens, provides series of linked pages helping the reader to understand the concepts of positions and interests. The site illustrates how to distinguish between statements that contain positions and interests, and tests the reader for competence in understanding and applying the key ideas. Creative use of pop-up answer keys and increasing levels of complexity in tasks helps keep the reader engaged.

Sun, Nov 06, 2005

Exploring Conflict Cartography using Compendium

Concept mapping is a tool for visualizing and organizing ideas. Compendium is a free cross-platform tool designed for concept mapping that is being applied in some very interesting ways. The developers of Compendium describe it this way “Compendium has three key elements: a shared visual space where ideas can be generated and analyzed, a methodology that allows the exploration of different points of view, and a set of tools for quickly and easily sharing data both within and beyond the boundaries of the group. The process enables people to negotiate collective understanding ‘on the fly,’ capture the discussions, and share representations of their knowledge digitally across communities of practice—an approach crucial in keeping collaborative efforts on track and on time.” Of particular interest to our readers is the application of Compendium as a tool for understanding social conflicts. A white paper produced by consulting firm ViewCraft provides a more indepth use of Compendium in the field as a key tool in a process they call Conflict Cartography. Here’s the link to the paper as a PDF

High-Tech Tools Used in Dialogue and Deliberation Programs

The National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation has put together a very helpful collection of information on various High-Tech Tools Used in D&D Programs. Topics covered include:
Introduction to Collaborative Technology
Key Terms for High-Tech Collaboration
Technology for Online (and sometimes face-to-face) Collaboration
Discussion Mapping Tools & Resources
Polling and Survey Tools
High-Tech and Online Dialogue & Deliberation Programs
High-Tech and Online Experiments in Public Participation
Resources on Building Online Communities

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