An ocean away, King Abdullah of Jordan recently launched an ambitious national initiative to bring computer equipment and basic technology training to the country's schools. Yet Jordan's educational system, much like its U.S. counterpart, has discovered that providing technical support for its new computer systems is an entirely separate challenge.
Enter iEARN, the International Education and Resource Network. A pioneer in online learning and cultural exchange, iEARN has worked in Jordan since 1992. Partnering with MOUSE and U.S. State-Department-accredited exchange program AYUSA, iEARN is bringing the benefits of MOUSE to Jordan this school year through the new Linking Individuals, Knowledge, & Culture (LINC) Program
Funded by the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, this new program will bring much needed technical help to schools in Jordan while building cross-cultural friendships along the way.
Many schools struggle to keep their students up-to-date on the latest technology. Money for computers is hard enough to find, let alone funds for technical support training.
Jordan's King Abdullah, who recently launched an impressive initiative to provide all of its schools with computers and basic technology training, was running into this very problem. A unique solution was to be found -- in far-off New York City.
There, financially strapped schools use MOUSE an innovative program that trains elementary, middle, and high school students to establish and run computer help desks and provides job shadowing opportunities to participants.
Since its inception nearly four years ago, 315 MOUSE members have provided technical support to 52,217 students and 3,675 teachers in 49 New York City and 8 regional schools. The subsequent cost benefits have been enormous: as of June 2004, MOUSE has saved the city's Department of Education an estimated $708,936 in technology support costs.
With a problem and a solution both apparent, all that was needed was a catalyst to bring Jordan and MOUSE together.
That catalyst was iEARN, the International Education and Resource Network. iEARN pioneered the use of technology to facilitate communication and cultural exchange back in 1988 with schools in New York City and Moscow, and has been working in Jordan since 1992.
Together with MOUSE, State Department-accredited exchange program AYUSA, and funding from the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, iEARN has established the U.S.-Jordan Youth Technology Leaders Program to bring the benefits of MOUSE to Jordanian schools.
Dr. Edwin Gragert, executive director of iEARN-USA, says the program enhances Jordan's efforts by empowering students to contribute solutions. "This [program] is basically a way in which students can play a role in this national initiative that the king and the minister of education see as so vital for their own country."
NYC and Jordanian Youth Tech Leaders to host each other
The LINC Program begins in April with the arrival of the Jordanian students for their 3-week visit to New York City and will run through the summer of 2005, when the New York City students will travel to Jordan. As part of their stay in New York City, the Jordanian students and their American host teens will participate in the YouthCaN event at the American Museum of Natural History on April 11th. The LINC program will establish two pilot MOUSE squads in Jordan and use iEARN's expertise in facilitating online learning communities to coordinate a virtual exchange between Jordan's new squads and two in New York City during the school year.
MOUSE's executive director, Carole Wacey, is pleased about the partnership and what it could mean to students on both sides. "[To have] students from New York and students from Jordan coming together around...this common area of technology to support their schools...is really exciting."
Building on iEARN's mission - to build international trust and understanding through shared online classroom projects - participants also will host each other for three-week stays in the spring and summer of 2005 in a physical exchange administered by AYUSA.
Baccalaureate School for Global Education and Freedom School have been chosen for the pilot phase. For New York City participants, the exchange experience will be a first for most. "A lot of these kids we work with have never even been into Manhattan," Wacey explained. The prospect of these same students going to Jordan is a thrilling one for her. "You just know at the outset that these will be life-altering experiences for [them]."
