Dear Joyce,
I enjoyed your presentation at Palo Alto Friends Meeting on Sunday a lot in many ways, and it was very nice to meet you as well. Thank you too for your card. I'm emailing to follow up for a number of reasons. I'd like to explore possible collaboration potentials between Friendly-informed World University and School and Ramallah Friends School in a variety of ways.
Here's the beginning Arabic language World University and School - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Arabic_language - which is the beginning of an online best STEM-centric university and school planned in Arabic.
I've added the Ramallah Friends School to WUaS here - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Arabic_language#Select_Schools.2C_Universities.2C_etc. - for example. Please check out the Arabic language Wikipedia in Arabic part way down too, as a model for developing WUaS as a wiki (editable web pages). Have you by chance edited an Arabic Wikipedia page - http://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/الصفحة_الرئيسية ? (And here are MIT OpenCourseWare in Persian -
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/translated-courses/persian - and Turkish, - http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/translated-courses/turkish/ - but not yet in Arabic, that I know of).
Do you know of contacts at FUM, Joyce, who might be involved in Ramallah Friends' School's International Baccalaureate accreditation and especially vis-a-vis the Bethesda, Maryland, address on your RFS business card? Bethesda is where a IB program headquarters is, and it may also be where the IB Pamoja online program is based. Friendly-informed World University and School would like to
a) collaborate with Quaker schools for the I.B.,
b) but uniquely online,
c) in English and United Nations' languages first (IB exams are already in French and Spanish, besides English, I think, but not in Russian, Arabic or Mandarin Chinese),
d) in Arabic online particularly, and
e) for engaging MIT OCW highlights for High School (http://ocw.mit.edu/high-school/index.htm) eventually in Arabic, -
and Ramallah Friends School and even your potential delegation to a RFS or FUM staff member here seems potentially ideal, and especially from the "inside" in that RFS is an IB school. In what ways might we explore this further?
World University and School is also a potential online college opportunity for Ramallah Friends School student graduates as we accredit first in California - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Admissions_at_World_University_and_School#World_University_and_School_Links.
I wish you all the best in your Ramallah Friends School fundraising goals, and in a challenging context - you're great at what you do as the Director of RFS, and a good example for me as founder, president and presiding clerk of WUaS. I put a small contribution in the mail to RFS to FUM on Monday.
I'm also going to put you in touch with David Deeds, and educational technologist who has worked at many IB schools internationally, and could be a candidate for the academic dean position at RFS - and worth Skyping with, if only to learn some interesting ideas about online IB education.
Looking forward to further communication and seeing you at a next Friendly Meeting. :)
Friendly greetings,
Scott
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Dear Joyce and David,
I'd like to introduce you to one another via email. Joyce Ajlouny is the Director of Ramallah Friends School (http://fum.org/staff/joyce-ajlouny/), and International Baccalaureate school, and David Deeds (https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=7916995) is the educational technologist at an IB school, I think, in Guatemala currently, and knows much about IT and virtual worlds for learning as well. David has worked at many IB schools internationally, and could be a candidate for the academic dean position at RFS - and with whom together it might be worth Skyping together, if only to share some interesting ideas about online IB education.
David, here's Ramallah Friends School Academic Dean position with a focus on information technology: http://palfriends.org/view_announc.php?id=211 (http://www.palfriends.org/rfsdean.pdf). As I wrote earlier, I met and heard Joyce at Palo Alto Friends Meeting on Sunday, when she gave a presentation about RFS after Meeting.
I think it would be a learning opportunity, again, for both of you to talk in Skype or similar, since you've lived, David, in so many different countries working with IB schools, and know virtual worlds and online learning technologies very well, and Joyce has been Director at RFS for 11 years. (I'd be interested in hearing the IT and curriculum part of this conversation as well even ... in a Google + group video Hangout? :).
Also, here are some questions for both of you as International Baccalaureate professionals:
Does an IB diploma at the high school level involve basically taking 3 lower level courses and 3 upper level courses over 2 years, and then sitting the IB exams? Would you say it's an important and helpful international, inter-lingually even, academic standard?
I met an IB online math teacher (and former teacher / former near head of Quaker high schools in Maryland), E.L., after sharing during Quaker Meeting about World University and School in Berkeley (BFM) some months ago, and we met later for a coffee, where she shared some information about teaching math IB online, and showed the technologies they were using. She and the IB Pamoja also weren't engaging online spaces very dynamically. (Here's WUaS's International Baccalaureate Diploma and Programme - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/WUaS_International_Baccalaureate_Diploma_and_Programme - beginning online school).
That you, Joyce, are the Director of RFS and that it's significantly taught in Arabic and as both an IB and a Friends School in K-8 - and which is both not yet online (and also not MIT OCW-centric) - and which could become an online Friends' IB school (with WUaS?) in Arabic is exciting.
All the best if you find time for conversation.
With F/friendly greetings,
Scott
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- Scott MacLeod - Founder & President
- http://worlduniversityandschool.org
- 415 480 4577
- PO Box 442, (86 Ridgecrest Road), Canyon, CA 94516
- World University and School - like Wikipedia with best STEM-centric OpenCourseWare - incorporated as a nonprofit university and school in California, and is a U.S. 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt educational organization, both effective April 2010.
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