M2M :: A Scalable Model for Global Issues Learning?

[lars hasselblad torres]

Hi folks :: As I've reported previously on this list, I had the 
extraordinary opportunity to travel to the Intercontinental Youth Camp and 
the World Social Forum in Mumbai, India (January 14-25, 2004).  Images and 
a blog archive are available at <http://tagstudio.net/mumbai>.  This "knowledge trek" and other learning activities were part of an 
out of school effort--"Montpelier to Mumbai" or M2M--to introduce young 
people in Vermont to critical issues facing the globe in the next 20 
years.

Of course, actually getting up to speed on many of the issues and 
perspectives that would be present at IYC and WSF was a challenge, as was 
the fundraising and logistics.  I wanted to share a few of the details of 
the program, and then invite your comments on whether, from where you sit 
in education, this seems like the kind of program a) that would add value 
to your work or the work of others you know of) and b) whether you could 
could see yourself giving something like this a go next year.  Finally, 
I'd also like to know whether the effort is lacking a novel feature that 
you think would work well.

This is a somewhat lengthy email, and I apologize in advance to any on 
this list who are disposed only to short communiquées.

Part 1 :: A few background details
The Intercontinental Youth Camp (IYC) is an annual event organized 
alongside the World Social Forum.  IYC is a place for youth from around 
the world to discuss critical issues they face, in their region and shared 
around the world.  This year, the IYC was able to spotlight issues of 
particular concern in India, from land displacement, political corruption, 
casteism, "profit over people," and much more.  This year, about 5,000 
students participated, and I would guess about 20% of the participants 
came from outside of India, for example Germany, Japan, Denmark, Korea, 
Philippines, the US, Australia, Pakistan, and Spain.

The World Social Forum (WSF) was organized for the first time in 2001, as 
a counterpoint to the World Economic Forum.  WSF is an annual event that, 
until 2004, had been held in the city of Porto Alegre, in the state of Rio 
Grande do Sul in Brazil.  WSF is a forum for civil society actors--NGOs, 
activists, funders, etc--to address gaps in the development of southern 
countries, gaps organizers believe are a direct result of a globalization 
paradigm that rushes over cultures, economies, people in the pursuit of 
maximizing profit.  This year the WSF was held in Mumbai, India and 
attracted an estimated 100,000 "delegates" from around the world.  Notable 
speakers at the plenary sessions included Arundhati Roy, Joseph Steiglitz, 
AB Narayanan, and many other voices for "another world is possible."

Part 2:  M2M Basics
Who: 11 Central Vermont high schoolers from two schools, ranging in age 
from 14-18.  10 young women, 1 young man.  6 students traveled, all of 
whom were seniors.  M2M was staffed by 4 volunteers, three of whom 
traveled to India as chaperones.  M2M also benefited from guest lecturers 
who were paid a $100 honorarium.

Where: Students met for 3 hours on weekends at a local education 
not-for-profit (which also provided accounting services for 10% of gross 
receipts), the Institute for Social Ecology.

How long: Recruitment took place in September, 2003 and 10 weekend 
workshops began in October, 2003, running through January 10, 2004.  We 
plan to have several follow-up sessions in February and March.

Resources: M2M drew upon expertise on issues within our community, 
photocopied text from magazines, newspapers, books, and other published 
sources, as well as videos and the internet.  On a weekly basis M2M used 
flipcharts, notepads, a laptop, and digital photography to document 
activities.

Fundraising: a combination of a foundation approach, a community-based 
strategy, and income-generating activities such as bake sales, a community 
dinner, and raffle.  Generous community support also made in-kind 
contributions available in the form of meeting space, raffle items, and 
food donations.

Travel: 13-day trip to Mumbai, India where students camped with 5,000 
young people from around the world at the Don Bosco School in Matunga, a 
suburb of Mumbai.  Students stayed the last night in a local, no frills 
hotel where they could shower and prepare for home.

Cost: Total program budget $14,800, 2/3 of which are travel-related 
expenses.

Part 3 :: The M2M Experience
I went to the World Social Forum in 2003 for my work with AmericaSpeaks. 
Among my many lasting impressions was that this, and the Intercontinental 
Youth Camp, are vital conversations for Americans to be engaged in, 
regardless of our predisposition on the issues.  Not only is there a 
tremendous amount of anger and anti-Americanism present at these forums, 
but there is an incredible opportunity for dialogue and citizen 
"ambassadorship."  To infrequently, we have the spokespersons for our most 
strategic interests out there giving the impression of what America is all 
about.  I was impressed with how interested delegates were in my 
perspective as an American (it really seemed to matter; people wanted to 
understand unilateralism, preemptive first strike, etc -- again, this is 
January, 2003 we're talking about).  And yet people there were clear that 
their ire was toward the practices of our government, and not, generally, 
at Americans themselves (although, at times, there were undercurrents of 
surprise at complacency).

In any event, I came away from WSF03 with several ideas, and one of them 
was to find a way to bring students from my state of Vermont to the next 
event, which would be in Mumbai, 2004.

There seemed to be three central pieces around which I could organize a 
trip to India as a out-of school program: globalization, cross-cultural 
exchange, and technology skills.  At the same time, there would be a 
number of "leadership skills" that I thought would be enhanced on a 
case-by-case basis, so I threw that into the mix as well.

­ Globalization
There are several dimensions to globalization that I thought it would be 
important to introduce.  Most students, and these were all high school, 
had only a cursory introduction to the idea of globalization and "trends" 
at play in the world today.  So I identified, using JF Rischard's "High 
Noon" as a starting point, the trends as: population growth, technological 
innovation, and the growth of markets.  From these, many of the ills and 
the benefits of globalization and be deduced.

At the same time, we could identify some issues right away that students 
had a particular interest, and were only covered in a cursory way in 
Rischard's work.  So we supplemented his "broad brush" picture with data 
from the World Banks annual report and the UNDPs Human Development Index. 
At the same time, there were chapters lifted from writers like Vandana 
Shiva and numerous publications.  The goal, in all of this, was to paint 
an accurate, fairly balanced account of the forces and trade-offs at lay 
in the world today.  In addition to workshop discussions, we had several 
informal sessions where we screened films like "Life + Debt," "Baraka," 
and "War Photographer."

­ Cross Cultural
For a number of our "trekkers," their trip to India would be the first 
time outside of the country.  For a couple, it was their first time away 
from New England.  With that extraordinary background, I knew we'd have 
some work to do to prepare them for a new set of customs, a different way 
of organizing day to day life, as well as basic differences in food, 
hygiene, transportation, and housing.

I actually did not spend a tremendous amount of time on this area, at 
least not as much as I would have liked at the outset.  However, this area 
became subverted by the high level of substance on globalization that I 
was trying to cover to prepare the students to engage other young people 
and delegates at the WSF.  In general, our "cross cultural" preparation 
consisted of classroom discussions with people who had traveled to India 
before, and they covered topics from basic geography, demographics, and 
politics to the origins of the caste system and religious life today.  We 
also saw several films which I thought would paint an accurate description 
of several aspects of Indian life today, and these included "Salaam 
Bombay," "The Terrorist," and "Monsoon Wedding."

- Technology Skills
I wanted to students to learn a core set of technology skills for two 
reasons: first so that they could use the internet to communicate their 
experience in India "from the field," and second to enable students to 
document and communicate their experience in a lasting way.  The two 
primary tools that we used were: 1) moveable type, a free blogging tool, 
and 2) digital video.  We also used several other tools on an individual 
basis, including a digital camera and digital audio recorder for 
interviews, etc.

While students generally seemed pretty web-savvy, in-so-far as google and 
chat constitute web savvy, none of them had used a blog before. 
MovableType offers a clean interface, where students post in a secure 
back-end location, and can read and post comments in a public area.  While 
students were not getting the whole blog thing while we were in Vermont, 
once we hit Mumbai they really enjoyed the reflective activity and the 
easy way to communicate, personally, with lots of their friends and 
family.

On the DV front, we had a training session with a production assistant 
from a local film production company who ran us through the basics of 
setting up a shot, gathering and syncing sound, how to keep a shot log, 
and basic interviewing techniques.  It was amazing how much of this stuck 
in India, and how serious students were about "slating" their shots for 
interviews. We are now in the stages of using FinalCut to edit the video 
and produce a documentary DVD.

- Leadership Development
Students were able to develop or refine a range of skills that will be 
useful to them as they continue to grow and encounter new learning, work, 
and social experiences.  Among the kinds of activities that fall in this 
category are:
* Team building, through games and team-based learning projects and 
activities
* Communication, interpersonal and public speaking opportunities abound in 
the M2M program.  Examples include community presentations as part of 
fundraising activities, radio and newspaper interviews, and in their 
activity and learning teams. Students also gained invaluable 
cross-cultural communication experiences on the ground in Mumbai
* Fundraising activities included identification and solicitation of funds 
from local businesses, planning and execution of a community fundraising 
dinner, and oral presentation of requests to a range of community 
organizations

Well, these are the basics of the program, and I'd love to hear back from 
folks around whether or not this kind of experience would be valuable to 
your community, and if there is a way we can plan to have a significant 
delegation of American students to the World Social Forum and 
Intercontinental Youth Camp in Porto Alegre in 2005.

* Note: as far as I could tell, M2M students were the only "western" high 
school students present, clearly setting the bar for engaged young 
ambassadors for learning, cooperation, and a better future for all.

Very best regards,

lars


-- 
Lars Hasselblad Torres
Program Coordinator
M2M :: A Global Affairs Knowledge Trek
http://tagstudio.net/mumbai

802.223.4288

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