Here’s an interesting item from Midlothian Exchange, a local paper in Midlothian, in Chesterfield County, Virginia and a part of the Richmond Metropolitan Area.

Two weeks ago, three men walked into Midlothian High School looking for a better understanding of American culture. Ten days later, they left having changed their own perceptions of U.S. citizens and their students’ perceptions of Arabic culture. Their challenge and that of the students at Midlothian High School is to continue spreading what they learned.

Abdulwahab Albaadani, a teacher at Ibn Majed in Sanaa, Yemen, Amine Slimani, a teacher from the Secondary School of Nedroma in Nedroma, Algeria and his pupil, Mohamed Belmeliami, traveled to the U.S. as a culmination of nearly a year’s worth of video conferencing, cultural lessons, and web logging with social studies classes at Midlothian High School…

Midlothian’s three guests spent a hectic 10 days in Virginia, teaching in business, foreign language, social studies, English and history classes by day and touring the countryside by night. As guests of social studies teachers Cammeron “Cammie” Ward and Jamie Schlais Barnes and the Lesser family, the group visited Monticello, Williamsburg and downtown Richmond, while taking in a synagogue, Tradition of the Temple, a bar mitzvah at Congregation Or Ami and a Catholic mass.

In turn, the three cooked and taught their hosts how to serve traditional Middle Eastern meals and attended the mosque at the Islamic Center of Virginia as a group.
-by Sara Page, April 29, 2010
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This is exactly the kind of initiative that I was thinking of when I wrote “Higher Education, Collaboration, and Education for the 21st Century” a few weeks ago. The visit, hectic though it seems to have been, comes as the culmination of a year of virtual collaboration, and involves multiple institutions. Not only do the visitors to the high school hail from different institutions, but they are from different countries on the opposite extremes of the Arab world. It takes advantage of synchronous and asynchronous technologies including Skype, Elluminate, Wikispaces, and blogs.

Recognizing the fact that protecting our interests abroad over the long term requires more than just force of arms, the current administration has placed a great deal of emphasis on public diplomacy initiatives abroad, particularly in the Muslim world where they are most needed. And because they recognize that this requires more than a cleverly constructed PR campaign, they have channeled resources into the development of civil society, particularly for the development of education and technology.

This particular collaboration, for example, was

part of the Global Connections and Exchange Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State through a grant to American University, connected eight schools in the U.S. with eight schools in the Middle East.

I think it is particularly exciting when the funds dedicated to these public policy initiatives can be used to the mutual benefit of students at home and abroad. I had explored the possibility of taking advantage of such funding to meet proposals often put forth by faculty at Al Musharaka seminars, and it is probably there for the right projects. Moreover, the overseas collaborators are there. The time is finally right for real progress on those fronts. Unfortunately, I am no longer in a position to facilitate them. But for those who wish to move ahead, I am happy to provide whatever information I can. Good luck!