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ABSTRACTS FOR PANEL 1: INNOVATIVE RESOURCES AND SERVICES

“Exploring History and Literature with K-12 Teachers through On-line Book Groups”
Roberta Martin, Director, Asia for Educators, Columbia University — Weatherhead East Asian Institute

The Asia for Educators (AFE) program at Columbia has been very successful in attracting teachers to on-line programs that are couched as “book groups” rather than “courses.” These are offered through the Nat Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA), and provide professional development hours and eligibility for subsidized travel to Asia.

“The South Asia Book Award: Fostering Partnerships between NRCs and K-12 Educators”
Emera Bridger Wilson, Associate Director and Outreach Coordinator, South Asia Center, Syracuse University

In 2009, seven South Asia NRCs came together with the goal of impacting outreach on a national level. The flagship program of the South Asia National Outreach Consortium (SANOC) is the South Asia Book Award (SABA), which recognizes high quality children’s and young adult literature, which accurately and creatively represents South Asia and the experiences of South Asians. Since 2012, there have been eight awards given as well as commendations for dozens more, and hundreds of educators and students have learned about these books, their authors, and the context of the stories they tell. In this presentation, I will discuss the ways in which this initiative has 1) improved collaboration among the participating NRCs; 2) raised awareness about the need for more diversity in publishing; and 3) engaged educators and community members through our outreach efforts.

“Publishing in Regional & National Media”
Barbara Brown, Director of the Outreach Program, African Studies Center, Boston University

Publishing in the print and online media can bring us large audiences, including ones that may be unfamiliar with key events/ resources in our world regions. The focus will be on how to identify interested media sources and then work with them again and again. 

“Opening Digital Access: Designing Outreach Platforms”
Lily Herbert, Program Assistant, Center for European Studies | A Jean Monnet Center of Excellence, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

As online platforms have become a key channel for area studies centers to reach K-14 educators, effective website design has become critical to engage teachers and connect them with resources and opportunities. This presentation will share an overview of the Center for European Studies’ redesigned K-14 outreach platform, and walk participants through best practices concerning website design for outreach purposes. This interactive session will discuss how best practices in design shaped the platform, including methods of streamlining content and increasing visual appeal in order to guide educators quickly and effectively to the resources that best fit their needs. Examples will be shown from the Center’s K-12 Teaching the EU Toolkits (lesson plans), and K-14 Business Briefs, microsites, references to external resources, and PD opportunities to illustrate the importance of cohesive, consistent platforms for teacher resources and learning.

 “Incorporating Digital Resources for K-16 Teacher Development”
Sarah Brown, Outreach Assistant, Carolina Asia Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Interested in utilizing the new digital era? For Title VI outreach programs, it is imperative to use technological resources to support teachers for many reasons, among them being that web-based resources can reach a wider audience and alleviate monetary and location strains. In this talk, I will demonstrate how the Carolina Asia Center has centered its digital resources around educator preferences and authenticity; authenticity that should follow the guidelines of having a real-world application and a legitimate source. The Carolina Asia Center’s book database was built around teacher recommendations, while utilizing University resources to verify its credibility. We promote our relationships with other Title VI centers through advertising their resources in our lesson plans and professional development databases. These lists create a range of options for educators to choose from. Web-based resources are a useful tool in beginning to build a new outreach program. The Carolina Asia Center has started to create online lesson plans that are developed around standards for teachers’ appeal and authenticated by UNC-CH faculty.

“Transformative Journeys: Challenges and rewards of internationalizing faculty experience”
Thamora Fishel, Associate Director, Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University

While partnerships with schools of education and community colleges, often rely on connections with faculty who already have international experience in at least one part of the world, engaging faculty for whom overseas experience is unfamiliar terrain poses particular challenges. It also has transformative potential that may extend far beyond the immediate outreach project, with lasting (but difficult to measure) impact on students and curriculum. This presentation tells the story of an education faculty member with no prior international experience and his trip to Myanmar to prepare for a new course that involved a cross- cultural, online student exchange. As most of us know, transformation is rarely painless or instantaneous, and the discomfort that was evident at many points in the project provide clues to deeper changes taking place. Using this case study as a guide, we explore ways we can balance the compulsion to show immediate, quantifiable outcomes with planting seeds and tapping into the potential latent in the individual teachers we work with.