MIDDLEBURY, Vt.—Middlebury College and the Monterey Institute of International Studies will host a three-day conference on global education, January 22-24, 2008, in Monterey, California.
The ConnectEd Conference will focus on the changes in education brought about by globalization and technology: how institutions adapt to change, what changes are anticipated, and how to harness change to promote and improve education throughout the world.
“The conference is designed to be a global brainstorming session on the factors that promote and inhibit cross-institutional cooperation and intellectual resource-sharing,” explains Michael Geisler, Middlebury’s vice president and professor of German. “We seek to engender dialogue on the future of higher education through the interactions at the conference and afterward.”
This latest collaboration between Middlebury College and its West Coast affiliate, the Monterey Institute, will include talks by:
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Scott McNealy, the chairman of Sun Microsystems, on “Education in the Participation Age,”
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Jorge Castañeda, Mexico’s former secretary of foreign affairs, on “Global Education: An Unequal Environment,”
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Hassan Nadir Kheirallah, the president of Alexandria (Egypt) University, on International University Competitiveness,”
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David Rothkopf, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, on his latest book, “The Superclass,” and
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Robert Kaplan, writer and editor for The Atlantic Monthly, on “The Challenge of Global Anarchy.”
Between 300 and 400 educators, students, planners, government officials, representatives from NGOs, and business executives will gather to assess the state of global education. Twenty eight panels will be held and about 100 presenters will participate at the three-day conference. Topics include: “Global Outreach Through Web-Based Instruction,” “Responding to International Crises: Problem Solving and Conflict Resolution on an International Scale,” “Using Online Technology to Teach the Global Curriculum,” and “English: World Language or Cultural Imperialism?"
Registration is required to take part in the conference, but the address given by Jorge Castañeda is open to the general public. He will speak on January 22 at 7:30 p.m. in the Serra Grand Ballroom I at the Monterey Conference Center.
As many as 14 Monterey and six Middlebury faculty and staff are scheduled to present their research at the conference. The two institutions are hosting the three-day conference in partnership with the City of Monterey and the Salzburg Global Seminar.
More details about the conference and the complete schedule of events are available at http://www.connectedconference.org.