The Global Seminar and Institute for Global Learning

The Institute is held in the fall semester to provide the professional development to participate in the Global Seminar on the Environment and Sustainable Systems during spring. The Global Seminar began as an idea approximately seven years ago with a group of core partner institutions and identified resources. The original consortium included a wide range of institutions from Sweden, the Netherlands, Costa Rica, and Honduras along with Cornell. Since then the Global Seminar network has expanded to include institutions in Australia, Asia, South America and Africa, and also within the US. The extension of our online learning community to multiple consortia of universities, community colleges, and high schools provides yet another level of experimentation and development.

Our vision is to invent a new paradigm for education, one that aims at the globalization of the curriculum. In the Global Seminar we achieve this by networking students and faculty in an interactive technology-mediated learning environment combined with proven traditional educational strategies. Using real-world case studies the seminar engages teams of international students to examine key issues pertaining to the sustainability of our environment and food system.

The Institute for Global Learning provides a thorough explanation of the Global Seminar class in preparation for your institutionŐs involvement during the Spring semester. Various panels discuss the components of the Global Seminar, its philosophy, administrations procedures, and teaching methodology. Cornell Information Technologies, CIT, discusses the use of educational technologies in an interactive learning community. The Institute also serves as an opportunity for networking in an intimate, international environment.