• Bridges to the World Distance Learning

CCWA will make a number of its major lecturers, international visitors and other experts available for conversations with 8 to 10 classrooms at a time through the distance learning facilities operated by WVIZ/ideastream at Idea Center in Playhouse Square. Students in their classrooms will not only see a live presentation but also will be able to ask questions and exchange ideas both with the guest presenter and with students in the other participating schools.

The classes will be selected from history, political science, economics, foreign language, and others in the 18 Greater Cleveland high schools that are paying members of the North Ohio Technology Association created by WVIZ/ideastream. In addition, classes in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, whose membership is supported by a foundation grant, are included as well. (A list of participating schools is attached.)

While a maximum of 10 classes can participate in the 2-way discussions, an unlimited number can view the proceedings.

Distance learning sessions that have already occurred are: 

2011-2012

September 14, 2011: Dr. J. Winston Porter, President of Environment Strategies on Changing World, Changing Landscape: Middle East & the United States
To view this program click here 

September 27, 2011: Terry Roberts, Former Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence on Securing the World Online
To view this program click here 

November 7, 2011: Joseph Ngonyo, Founder and Director of the Africa Network for Animal Welfare on Africa: Wildlife and the Environment
To view this program click here 

2010-2011

September 30, 2010: John Bolton, Foreign Policy Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Former US Ambassador to the UN on Middle East as Priority and Emerging Trouble Spots in the World
To view this program click here  

November 2, 2010: International Visitors' Group of Legislative Fellows on Perceptions and Relations” (Between the United States and India, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal and Pakistan)
To view this program click here

January 20, 2011: Brazilian High School Students on Brazil and Volunteerism 
To view this program click here

January 26, 2011: Steven Weisman, editorial director and public policy fellow at Peterson Institute for International Economics on United States: Maintaining Economic Leadership in the Next Decade
To view this program click here

February 22, 2011: Carolyn Nordstrom, Notre Dame University Faculty on Piracy in the Waters of Globalization
To view this program click here

March 15, 2011: Peter B. Doran, Senior Policy Analyst at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) in Washington D.C. on “The Big Triangle: Russia, EU and the US” 
To view this progam click here

March 21, 2011: Henry Precht, Former Deputy Ambassador to Egypt and Former President of the Cleveland Council of World Affairs on EGYPT: From Pharaoh to the Future of the Middle East
To view this program click here

April 5, 2011: Dr. Arya Amirie, Founder and First Executive Director of the Iranian Institute for International Political and Economic Studies in Teheran on Nuclear Weapons- Iran and the United States
To view this program click here

May 9, 2011: Peter Hiscocks, Senior Broadcasting Consultant for the Thomson Foundation on Training the Global Watchdogs: Journalism for Social Development in Myanmar/Burma and Other Countries
To view this program click here

2008-2009

October 27, 2009: Clare Lopez, Professor, Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies and formerly with the CIO on Iranian Intelligence
To view Clare Lopez's presentation click here

November 17, 2009: Michael Green, Ph.D. Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Associate Professor, Georgetown University, on Ideas and Power in Asia

Bridges to the World Professional Development Series for Teachers
This year's program will consist of four, day-long sessions on the topic of The Atlantic Wolrd. This professional development institute will provide a comparative examination, in terms of geography as well as themes, of the five century processin which the Atlantic Ocean served as the connector of four continents supporting the spread of people, ideas, religions, diseases, and goods. ese are critical forces that many teachers are hesitant to address in the classroom because of the potential controversial content, but are essential to understanding international relations and global issues today.

The sessions are tentativley scheduled as follows:

January 24:     Constructing the Atlantic World: the Mgration of Peoples, Diseases, Foods and Ideas;
The Quadrangular Trade: Joining the Points

February 21:    The South Atlantic World: Africa and Brazil Africa in North America

March 20: The Caribbean as Melting Pot Art in the Atlantic

April 17: Music: Past and Present  Bringing It All Together: Religion

The curriculum is being developed by a committee headed by Don Ramos, history professor emeritus but still teaching at CSU. Faculty will be drawn from Cleveland area institutions, such as Baldwin Wallace College, Case Western Reserve University, and John Carroll University. Some experienced classroom teachers may also be involved.

All sessions are to include exercises in the use of the Internet to find background materials on the topics under study.

The sessions are planned for 20 teachers and will be offered at the modest fee of $125 for the series. Participants will receive complementary copies of John Thornton's Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, Philip Curtin's The Rise and Fall of the Plantation Complex: Essays in Atlantic History,  and Atlantic History: A Critical Appraisal edited by Jack Greene and Philip Morgan.

The series is being developed as collaboration between CCWA, the Center for Educational Leadership at CSU and the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. The sessions will be held at the Barbara Byrd Bennett Professional Developmet Center.