RECOMMENDED PROCESS FOR ICEE EDUCATION WORKSHOPS
TO DISCUSS/RECOMMEND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
IN EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

ICEE conferences are held in different regions around the world, usually in August. Occasionally, the international community has used these events to hold international education workshops for the purpose of initiating or furthering regional alliances for cooperation in education and research endeavors. Here, the phrase ”education and research” is used to denote the broad range of activities that typify the work of a 21st Century engineering educator, in which there is a tendency to create a closer linkage between the classroom and the laboratory.

Official delegates to these workshops represent not only themselves and their own institutions, but also their countries. Delegates are selected based on their ability to assume this broad role, and hence are recognized for their stature, broad interests and experience, and accomplishments and familiarity with the state of international development in education and research.

Workshops usually are held in conjunction with an ICEE either during, just before or after the conference. A workshop usually lasts two days, with the second day reserved for finalizing a draft report.

If it is envisioned that future cooperative activities will require new funding, it is recommended that the funding agencies be contacted in the planning process; however, this is not a requisite for organizing an ICEE Education Workshop.

Sample reports on past ICEE Education Workshops are posted on the iNEER website. From the website main page (www.ineer.org), go to ”Reports/Talks” and scroll down to the items.

For the purpose of planning and execution efficiency, the iNEER Board and the ICEE-ISC recommend the following procedure and guidelines for the consideration of anyone interested in organizing an ICEE Education Workshop. It is assumed that the workshop is held in August. If the workshop takes place at other time, the dates below need to be adjusted accordingly.

  1. After the final decision to go ahead with the workshop is in place, say by about April 1, the Coordinator/Team Leader for each delegation begins canvassing each member of his/her delegation to receive input on topics for discussion at the workshops.
  2. Based on the input received from delegates and from other sources, the coordinator/team leader for each workshop agree on a final, limited set of topics, broadly defined, that are of mutual interest to the countries involved. These topics are selected based on their potential to lead to a meaningful dialog between/among the countries involved, and which will lead to development of specific ideas/proposals for international cooperation.
  3. Following that, by about May 1, each Coordinator/Team Leader requests each member of his/her delegation to prepare a brief position paper of about 2 single-spaced pages on the topics selected. Each position paper includes a concluding section on "Recommendations for Future Cooperative Activities." The Coordinators/Team Leaders then collect these write-ups and compile them, and jointly write a "Executive Summary" section and a "Workshop Summary Recommendations" section that serves as the final recommendation for the workshop. Together with the position papers of the delegates, these then form the first draft of the workshop proceedings, which should be completed and sent to all delegates by July 10.
  4. At the workshop, each delegate briefly summarizes his/her position papers but the bulk of the time is devoted to fine-tuning the Executive Summary and the Workshop Summary Recommendations. Coordinators/Team Leaders bring along their notebook computers for completing a final draft before the end of the workshop.
  5. The final report is issued by October 1 and is posted on the iNEER website immediately thereafter.

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