From Cairo2Hanoi Panel Discussion

Posted on March 8, 2011 | Leave a comment

Yesterday I participated in a panel discussion event organized by Viet Tan – an organization that engages in actions that empower the Vietnamese people. Specifically, they seek to roll back existing restrictions against two key human rights: freedom of expression and freedom of association and assembly. These enabling freedoms are the pillars for civil society (Viet Tan).

The event looked at the role of social media in the nonviolent uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt and whether or not there are any relevant connections that can be made between those who engaged in civil resistance and digital activism in Tunisia and Egypt with those who continue to struggle in Vietnam.  I had the pleasure of speaking alongside to amazing activists and organizers.  Continue reading to learn more…

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The Social Revolution

Posted on March 3, 2011 | Leave a comment

This week I gave a couple a couple talks at Rutgers University.  I was invited by Dr. Kurt Shock, who is an associate professor of sociology and global affairs at Rutgers and is one of ICNC’s academic advisors.  I first spoke in his colloquium course, where I gave a presentation titled, The Social Revolution: Digital Media, Cyber-Pragmatism, and Nonviolent Movements, which I will outline in greater detail later in this post.  The second presentation I gave was to his undergraduate class on social movements, where we looked at the role of the internet and social media in social movements more broadly.  In both presentations I used the uprising in Egypt as a case study in exploring these themes.

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Training for Change Workshop – How to Teach Theory

Posted on March 1, 2011 | Leave a comment

From Thursday, Feb 24 – Sunday, Feb 27, I attended the Training for Change workshop, How to Teach Theory.  This is the second TfC workshop in which I have participated.  The first was their Training for Social Action Trainers (TSAT), which I found to be a highly effective, engaging workshop that helped me develop new skills as a trainer and educator in ways that made it more likely that I would actually use these skills in my professional work.  One of the TSAT trainers recommended that I take the How to Teach Theory workshop, considering both my work for ICNC and at AU – two teaching and training settings that require exploring theories and abstract ideas.  The goals of the workshops were: (1) increase your skills at presenting theory and concepts without lecturing, (2) gain confidence and experience in moving a group from stage 2 (reflection) to stage 3 (generalization) to stage 4 (application) in the direct education model/experiential learning cycle, (3) Identify key teaching concepts and theories in your teaching area, and (4) have fun!  Below I have outlined what was covered in the workshop and some thoughts on why I think they are important.

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Key Insights from Clay Shirky’s Book, “Cognitive Surplus”

Posted on February 10, 2011 | Leave a comment

Imagine treating the free time of the world’s educated citizenry as an aggregate, a kind of cognitive surplus…One thing that makes the current age remarkable is that we can now treat free time as a general social asset that can be harnessed for large, communally created projects, rather than as a set of individual minutes to be whiled away one person at a time.

…young populations with access to fast, interactive media are shifting their behavior away from media that presupposes pure consumption.

The social uses of our new media tools have been a big surprise, in part because the possibility of these uses wasn’t implicit in the tools themselves…the use of social technology is much less determined by the tool itself; when we use a network, the most important asset we get is access to one another.  We want to be connected to one another, a desire that the social surrogate of television deflects, but one that our use of social media actually engages.

Access to cheap, flexible tools removes many of the barriers to trying new things.  You don’t need fancy computers to harness cognitive surplus; simple phones are enough.

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2011 Democracy Matters Summit

Posted on February 1, 2011 | Leave a comment

This past weekend I returned to Albany, NY to participate in my fifth consecutive Democracy Matters summit and it never ceases to be an educational and inspiring experience.  A special part of this year’s summit was that DM’s president and founder, Adonal Foyle, was able to attend and give the keynote address.

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Spring 2011 Semester Begins at AU

Posted on January 12, 2011 | Leave a comment

The spring 2011 semester at American University has begin and my dad and I continue to teach EDU285 – Education for International Development.  This semester marks the fourth time we’ve taught this course and we are continuing to find new ways to make the class better – introducing appropriate amounts of content, incorporating a diverse set of activities and exercises, and utilizing new online tools to enhance student learning.  This semester there are three main changes from previous semesters: (1) a Twitter feed (@AUedu285) to follow stories related to education and international development, (2) a website redesign, and (3) more guest speakers.

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Key Insights from George Lakey’s book, “Facilitating Group Learning”

Posted on December 17, 2010 | 1 comment

I recently finished reading George Lakey’s new book, Facilitating Group Learning: Strategies for Success with Diverse Adult Learners.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book because it provides a clear description and examples of what experiential education, or what Lakey calls direct education, is and entails.  Having been an experiential educator for several years now, Lakey and his colleagues at Training for Change, have become a real source of learning for me and my work.  Below are several key insights from the book:

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Civil Resistance and the Dynamics of Nonviolent Conflict

Posted on December 10, 2010 | Leave a comment

This week I finished facilitating ICNC’s  eight-week course, Civil Resistance and the Dynamics of Nonviolent, which is offered in partnership with the United States Institute of Peace.  This is the second iteration of this course – by far the most popular fall 2010 course offered through USIP’s academy – and we’ve made some significant improvements from last time.

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Interview with West Papuan Activist, Herman Wainggai

Posted on November 5, 2010 | Leave a comment

One of the best parts of my job is having the opportunity to meet amazing people who are on the front lines of nonviolent movements across the world.  Earlier this year, I started an online initiative interviewing nonviolent action takers in order to share the stories, experiences, and perspectives of these individuals and their movements so that the rest of the world may be made aware of their struggle.  In this interview I speak with Herman Wainggai, a leader in West Papua’s self-determination struggle.

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Gandhi-King Conference on Peacemaking

Posted on October 25, 2010 | Leave a comment

This past weekend, I attended the Gandhi-King Conference on Peacemaking in Memphis, TN.  This was the second time I have attended and presented at the conference and definitely plan on attending again next year.  The conference brings together a great group of educators, activists, and organizers interested in various topics related to peace, conflict resolution, community organizing, and social justice.  Download the full conference program here.  This year I had a lot more time to meet and learn from all the other amazing participants since I was there for the whole event, as opposed to three years ago, when I missed half the conference because I got lost and ended up roaming the streets of Memphis for five hours.

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