Creating a New Imaginary for Cultural Heritage

The Institute for Global Civic Culture was launched this May and our pilot program Global Civ is proving to be one of the most inspiring projects I have ever worked on.  Global Civ is a wall-less learning ecology featuring a socially relevant project based curricula designed around the concepts of Society, Environment, and Economy in place based and international studies.  Our 2010-2011 pilot program features one high school aged “fellow” and  is truly a redefinition of education.  Critical literacy across the knowledge territories, experiential learning, service learning and eLearning provide a framework for Global Civ and the results have been amazing. This year the projects are focus on the North American Experience (NAE).  An integrated  study of North America, “place”, and the international interconnectedness of humanity, NAE has already proved a success. I was recently reminded of this success as the project fellow exhibited his ePortfolio artifact for a current project. The ePortfolio artifact focused on indigenous North Americans and the ramifications of contact with Europeans. The  project fellow found, vaildated and leveraged a TED talk from the Canadian Anthropologist Wade Davis:

Wade Davis: Cultures at the far edge of the world

In the TED talk Davis chronicles the need for a new imaginary for the conservation of cultural heritage around the world and the  understanding of our shared “ethnosphere” essential for the 21st century.

This ePortfolio struck me deep in the heart and inspired me beyond my expectations for our project.  At the Institute for Global Civic Culture we are committed to providing a framework for creating a new imaginary for cultural heritage conservation around the world.  We applaud our first Global Civ fellow and his construction of meaning to this end.  His is critical work shows a careful and enduring understanding of the world and a passion for the world.  This is the mission of the Institute for Global Civic Culture and Global Civ.

Please look for more information about Global Civ and our announcement of program expansion for the 2011-2012 year.

Wade Davis has a Massey Lecture on Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World.

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