For my blog of choice, I would like to tell everyone about the cognate class I am involved in this semester. Primarily, I was intrigued by this course because of the topic of content. It is a course on the Arab-Israeli Conflict (AIC). As I grew up going to a private Jewish school, I thought I would be extremely well-versed on this topic but I acknowledged that there would be areas in which my knowledge would be lacking. To my surprise, I was lacking an EXTREME amount of knowledge and I was shocked at how little I actually knew. So far, this course has opened my mind to new thoughts and emotions regarding this conflict, because I have been enlightened by new knowledge and points of view. I realized I had previously held very biased beliefs, and I am thrilled to find out that I feel like I am understanding "the whole story."
I don't think this feeling of relief would come if AIC were a typical class. If I were to sit in a classroom for 3 hours a week being lectured on various historical events, different points of view, and sometimes engaged in debates, I think I would find myself even more deeply embedded in my biased views and feelings. However, this is not a typical class. I do not get lectured for three hours a week. In the beginning, I had to do a lot of reading and research to make sure I was on top of my knowledge. Once I crossed the very beginning of that long bridge of knowledge, which would take the entirety of my life to completely sort out, I entered the world of classroom simulation.
AIC is a class where graduate students at the University of Michigan partner with high school and middle school classrooms from all over the country (and Canada) to engage in a simulation to deeper the knowledge and understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict for all students involved. Students are each given the role of a diplomat to "act in" for the remainder of the semester. There are 18 countries per "world" with up to five members acting for one country (3 diplomats and 2 overseeing governmental figures). Graduate students are paired together, and each pair govern a world. The pair of graduate students act as the NSA, Game Mentor, and Ban Ki-Moon for their world of diplomats.
First, diplomats are required to complete a Strategic Goals Statement (SGS) for their country to be edited with and approved by the NSA, or in this case, me. The SGS will note a countries main goals, countries of importance to goals, and unwanted outcomes for the duration of the game. Once approved, diplomats can begin to interact with diplomats of other countries. In some cases, those diplomats may be their best friend who shares a classroom with them. In other cases, those diplomats may be unknown students who live across the country. These diplomats can communicate by way of private message. Just last week, I found a private message from Fatah to Hamas titled "Happy To Be Bros." ... Obviously, some students are still learning the premise of the simulation. Diplomats are also encouraged to write press releases, which once approved are visible by all other diplomats, and action forms. An action form details what the problem the country would like to act on is, and four actions the country could take to solve that problem (invasion of another country, impeachment of an officer, UN vote, etc.). Once the action form is submitted, the game mentor chooses one of the provided four actions, and makes it happen.
Nothing is, however, as it seems. A country could call for a vote to the UN and end up with a giant backlash of an UN vote failure and shame smeared across the media. Each week, the game mentor sends out an "in the news" update (which summarizes three press releases published that week) and sometimes a "news flash" update (which lets diplomats know when an action has been taken). These updates are written from a slanted media angle, which examines what a diplomat was thinking when they wrote certain things, and sometimes accuses diplomats of certain ways of thinking that may never have crossed their mind though they are consistent with the press release.
Needless to say, this is one of the most unique classes, both for the high school/middle school students and myself. As a future teacher, I love knowing that I am having an impact on the learning taking place in classrooms right now! I think this class is a great way for students to get involved with real-world events, while interacting with others and using technology. Students have already become very active within our world, and I can tell that things are just cooking up. I would love to hear responses from other classmates who are involved in AIC or the oddysey simulation course (i think?) to hear about your experiences so far. If you are not in one of these courses, please reply back with your initial thoughts/comments and/or questions and I would love to read them and get back to you.
As always, neither my AIC class nor this blog would be possible without the help of a wonderful faculty member, Jeff Stanzler. So happy to be in two of your classes this term. Thank you for teaching me about technology, teaching, and the world at large! Happy to be bros.
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