“Engaging with Change” Workshops Resume

A reminder for staff participating in the “Engaging with Change” workshop series with Dr. Paul Porter:  the third session will take place on Tuesday, December 2, and the final workshop will take place on Monday, December 15. Location: Board Room.

Last Friday TLC offered a digital storytelling workshop in which participants created a “superhero” based on the strengths they identified in the first two workshops.  Check this out.

MIIS.edu Redesign Project Launched

The Monterey Institute is collaborating with Middlebury College colleagues to give web sites on both campuses a makeover.  You can read about the Middlebury project on their web makeover blog.  We hope to leverage Middlebury’s expertise to help us make innovative and cost-effective decisions about design, information architecture and delivery.

We’ve also assembled a team of volunteers to guide the planning process on our end. You can follow our progress here.  As a first step, we’re reaching out to everyone on campus for input. Help us build a site that reflects our commitment to excellence, innovation, and appreciation!

You can start by taking our brief survey.

In December and January, we’ll conduct a series of focus groups to further explore what we learn from the survey. To volunteer for a focus group, contact Lynn McDonald.

Why Wii?

The unveiling of the Wii in the Digital Media Commons last Friday added a dimension of hilarity, energy, and friendly competition to a successful Institutional Advancement and TLC sponsored event that was designed to blend learning with play and build community among MIIS staff.

It also raised questions for some: why are we buying toys when we need (you fill in the blank)…?

Here are some things to think about:

(1) Generally,  “play” unleashes creativity and enhances learning. To explore this idea, check out Tim Brown’s TED Talk.

(2) Specifically, the Wii controller makes possible a particular kind of activity that invokes our kinesthetic learning ability.  There is a great deal of interest in using this new tool to enhance learning in virtual spaces.  For example:

Lane Kuhlman, a graduate student at Ohio State, is studying gesture based interaction and its role in educational multimedia.  This kind of research could have major implications for the design of simulations for intercultural communication, negotiation, or conflict resolution.

MIT Research Fellow David Stone was featured in a recent Wired article for his work building Wiimote-controlled simulations in Second Life. To the already information-rich experiences available in this virtual world, one can now add the ability to take your hands off the keyboard and speak, gesture, and move naturally through virtual environments ranging from your favorite international city to an exhibition of the latest green building technologies.

The Educause Learning Initiative is encouraging its members to investigate the potential of the Wii. See their white paper, “7 Things You Should Know about Wii.”

Finally, in another TED talk, Johnny Lee demonstrates how he turned $40 Wii controllers into a multitouch display, and into a close approximation of a $2000 interactive whiteboard, increasing access to these technologies for schools and organizations with limited resources.

(3) We would like for MIIS be at the forefront of thinking about how people learn and experimenting with ways to enhance the quality of our education.  Our limited resources have, in the past, caused us to bypass many of the technologies that our peer institutions were adopting at great cost.  Now we are in a position of competitive advantage, in that we can leapfrog some of the less versatile earlier tools for learning, and focus on tools and strategies that match our pedagogical commitment through Monterey Way 2.0 to immersive learning, high performance thinking, and open architecture.

Agree? Disagree?  Join the conversation with your comments!

MIIS Team Develops Programs for Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy

Patricia Szasz of the Institute’s Intensive English Programs, Karen Hamilton, a current MA TESOL student, and Lisa Donohoe of the Center for Non-Proliferation Studies (left to right in photo) visited Baku, Azerbaijan this past week. The purpose of their trip was to perform a curriculum needs assessment for the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. ADA currently runs the Advanced Foreign Service Program (AFSP) to train in-service diplomats in the areas of international law, politics and organizations, economic affairs, and public diplomacy. Kenley Butler from CNS was a guest lecturer for AFSP in May 2008. The curriculum team met with ADA administrators as well as current students to determine their English language training requirements. With diplomatic posts expected to triple in the coming years, the Azerbaijan Ministry of Foreign Affairs plans to ramp up their human resource capacity quickly.

ADA will also be launching a master’s degree in Diplomacy and International Affairs in the Fall of 2009. ADA hopes to attract international students from neighboring Georgia, Russia, and Turkey as well as students from Azerbaijan, and the medium of instruction will be English.  MIIS will be designing both a pre-academic summer intensive English program as well as specialized language courses in support of the master’s program.

The collaboration between the Monterey Institute seems like a natural fit, as the MA program will include specializations in International Security & Conflict Resolution, Energy & the Environment, International Business & Finance, and Caspian Basin Studies. Both institutions look forward to continued cooperation between Monterey and Baku.Patricia, Karen, Lisa

Beryl Levinger Visits Banda Aceh

IPS Distinguished Professor Beryl Levinger went to Banda Aceh for two weeks in October 2008 to work w/ Pete LaRaus, MPA ’04, deputy director of Save the Children in Banda Aceh.  The assignment was to help Save the Children develop a three-year strategic plan.  The primary challenge Save the Children faces is how to redirect the organization away from post-tsunami relief toward longer-term development programs that serve conflict-affected populations.  There was a long war for independence that has claimed many lives in the Banda Aceh region.

Beryl has been a consultant for Save the Children since 1977.  Notable among her numerous assignments is the annual State of the World’s Mothers Report.  The Report is a standard resource used by the US government and international organizations in setting policy and aid budgets for programs serving families in developing nations.  Beryl includes students and former students in her work on this major initiative.

Beryl says the biggest thrill of this latest project was the opportunity to work with Pete, her former student.  Prior to his current assignment, Pete was country director for Save the Children in Nicaragua.  Beryl  was also excited about two new collaborative technologies that she uses in her teaching, ZohoWiki and ZohoProject.  The assignment gave her the opportunity to bring to Indonesia tools and approaches she is teaching on campus and to bring back to campus real stories about how these technologies make a difference in the world of professional development practice.

MIIS Reorganization Planning Information Published

As promised by President Designate Sunder Ramaswamy at last week’s series of meetings, here is a presentation on the administrative reorganization of the Monterey Institute’s academic programs. It provides guiding principles for the reorganization, an overview of key elements and rationale, timelines, and a preview of the process for community engagement.  Also attached is a document that describes the key leadership positions within the restructured administration and invites expressions of interest in these roles between now and December 15.

Stay tuned for further details regarding faculty and staff participation in the February retreats (dates, times, locations, how to sign up).

What’s all the yammering about?

Yammer?  What’s that?  Sounds like nonsense…

Yammer is a new tool that is currently being used by some staff, faculty and students to stay more connected.  It’s a website, just for folks with a miis.edu email account, that asks you to answer the question “What are you working on?”.  This is a simple and quick way to share what you’re doing, send out interesting articles/resources or ask questions of the MIIS community.  It can be compared to twitter or the status update from facebook, but just for the MIIS community.  Yammer started as an experiment initiated by the TLC and has now grown to include 56 members and 297 messages. 

Interesting…how do I sign up?

Simply go to www.yammer.com and put in your miis.edu email address.  You will be sent a confirmation email and redirected to our miis.edu yammer site. 

Then what?

Once on the site, please post messages to the community!  You can tag your messages, follow certain people or tags, and make work groups on specific topics.  You can also download yammer for your desktop so you don’t have to use it only on the web or install a yammer application for your iphone or blackberry.  It is simple to use and they provide a clear guide to help you learn the ropes.

See you on yammer! 

Graduate Writing Center Receives Grant

The MIIS Graduate Writing Center has received a $50,000 grant from the Monterey Peninsula Foundation to expand and improve its services.

The center offers writing workshops to students to prepare them for academic and professional assignments, such as cover letters, resumes, CVs, policy memos, and op-eds..

With increased funding, the center will be able to:
•    Support French, Spanish, and Arabic tutoring sessions that began this fall;
•    Offer workshops on giving and receiving effective peer feedback;
•    Provide professional development opportunities for its tutors;
•    Develop print and online resources for students seeking help from the center.

The center is directed by Kelley Calvert.

MIIS, DLI Sponsor Panel Discussion

The Monterey Institute of International Studies and the Defense Language
Institute cordially invite you to attend a panel discussion, titled
“Leadership in a Time of War”, on Wednesday, November 19 from 6:30PM –
8:00PM in the Irvine Auditorium, featuring:

* LTC Danial Pick, former Army Attaché, U.S. Embassy, Amman, Jordan and
Iraq Policy Officer, Office of the Secretary of Defense.

* Bill Murphy Jr., author of In a Time of War: The Proud and Perilous
Journey of West Point’s Class of 2002
and a former Army JAG office who
reported from Iraq for The Washington Post.

* Mike Cerre, an Emmy-award winning journlist for ABC News in Iraq who
served as an USMC officer in Vietnam.

* CPT Fergal O’Reilly, a former platoon leader with the 82nd Airborne in
Afghanistan and Iraq, who is now assigned to the Defense Language
Institute.

The discussion will be moderated by Capt DJ Skelton, who was wounded
during U.S. combat operations in Fallujah, Iraq in Nov 2004.  He is one of
the leading U.S. Army advocates for Wounded Warriors, playing a key role
in strategic policy development and analysis regarding care for wounded
servicemen and who currently serves at the Defense Language Institute.
Bios for all of the participants (except O’Reilly) are attached.

Join these Iraq war veterans and the author of an important new book on
the sacrifices of young American Army officers for a discussion about
country, service, and leadership in a time of war.

There will be a light reception in the McCone Atrium immediately following
the panel discussion.

MIIS Delegation Attends Beijing Trade Conference

Last week Tate Miller and former MIIS president Robert Gard returned from a successful whirlwind trip to Beijing.  The centerpiece of the trip was participation in an invitation-only, two-day conference on China’s world trade opportunities and relationship with the World Trade Organization.

The conference, sponsored by the Beijing-based WTO Affairs Center, was attended by 350-400 senior and mid-level Chinese government officials.

Dawei Cheng, a 2000 graduate of the commercial diplomacy program, arranged for the Institute’s participation.  Ms. Cheng is chief expert at the WTO Affairs Center.  The Monterey Institute was the sole educational institution invited.  Other international dignitaries included senior officials from the WTO headquarters in Geneva.  President Gard’s opening plenary address, on the topic of the US development of special zones for business such Silicon Valley, was well-received, and the WTO Center has commenced discussions with the Institute regarding future cooperation on trade research and training. While in Beijing, Tate and Bob also held an alumni dinner at a restaurant owned and operated by alum Clayton Noack in an historic ‘hutong’ neighborhood in the center of the city.

Holiday Food Drive Begins December 1

The Institute’s 4th annual Holiday Food Drive, benefiting the Monterey County Food Bank, begins Monday, December 1st.  Barrels will be located in the main lobby of the McCone building from Dec 1-10.
The campus goal is to raise 1 lb/0.45kg for every student, staff and faculty member, so approximately 100lbs/45kg per day for ten business days.  The donations will be weighed daily!

In 2007 we raised over 800 lbs during the ten day drive.  I hope our campus will continue to be generous with their donations (rice, beans, pasta, flour, peanut butter, etc are all great items to donate).  If you would like to make a cash donation, please contact Leah Gowron (ext. 3558).

Thank you for your support.

Grant Writing Workshop for Faculty, Staff

The offices of the Provost & Institutional Advancement have teamed up to offer a special workshop for faculty and staff interested in grant funding opportunities.

The workshop will consist of two, two-hour grant writing overview sessions, to be
taught by Jonathan Berkey, Adjunct Professor, GSIPS, on February 24th & 26th from 12-2 PM. (Note: The second session will build on the first.)

Learn about:
•       Foundation and corporate database searches
•       Proposal writing techniques
•       Strategies for writing successful proposals
•       Project management
•       Developing good relationships with funders

Please register with Susan Wolfe no later than Monday, December 1 as space in these session will be limited to 15 participants.

Once registered, you will be contacted in early February concerning your interests and needs related to specific information that will be presented in the sessions.

A free lunch will be provided for participants.

Website Changes

Our website is the main source of information on our programs for prospective students. Recruitment for these new students starts earlier and earlier each year.  Considering that our new students in Fall 2009 will be attending MIIS under a new administrative structure, it is important that our website best represent both our current programs and the future changes.  Beginning immediately, we will replace references to specific schools and their acronyms with program references and institute references where applicable.  In most situations, this is an improvement to our site, since prospective students rarely understand our alphabet soup.

The website will retain its structure and the content will remain the same, we’re just changing some titles.  This is quick fix to a website that is in need of facelift.  A more extensive re-design is currently planned to take place during the spring and summer of 2009.

We need your help! If you are adding content to the website, please refrain from specific school references.  When updating documents or PDF’s on the website, please scan the pages for graduate school names and make changes where appropriate.

If you have any questions, please contact Lynn McDonald or Jill Stoffers.

New Media Development Specialist Joins MIIS Staff

Please join us in welcoming Kristen Byers to the MIIS staff. Kristen will be working with TLC/DMC as a new media development specialist.  Her job is to help MIIS faculty, staff and students tell their stories using digital media. In keeping with the philosophy of TLC/DMC, her role is to work with members of the community to define a project and acquire the necessary skills and tools to achieve the desired outcomes.  She’ll be working closely with the admissions staff to help us make better use of community generated digital media in our marketing efforts.

Kristen graduated from Michigan State University with a BA in professional writing, minors in French and journalism, and specializations in editing and publishing, digital design & technical writing.  She has used her exceptional digital media and design skills in a variety of jobs involving web development, communications, marketing, and online learning.

Stop in at Kade, introduce yourself to Kristen, and bring her your project ideas!  After this week, she’ll be in her own office—Morse A105.