This pilot project on international environmental issues is a collaboration among faculty and students at Stanford and three universities in Africa - the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, Mweka College of African Wildlife Management in Tanzania and Makerere University in Uganda. The project offers students the opportunity to learn from leading experts in environmental sciences from several countries and to debate issues through Internet and
mobile technology interactions.

The project is structured so students can learn first-hand from faculty and each other about environmental issues concerning Africa and the world. Although the environmental challenges facing our world are deeply globally intertwined, our communities experience these challenges and often design solutions for them in specific local contexts. This project will allow students to share their local experiences, and to understand their global connections.

As part of an initiative by the Stanford University International Outreach Program (IOP), the pilot project investigates global environmental issues and their impact on the African continent and in the United States while bringing local perspectives and viewpoints to bear on the course topics. Faculty and students from the four participating institutions will share course materials, exchange information, contribute course content and have an opportunity to help design collaborative activities.

The project will use mobile technologies to increase communications and access to course materials, to allow study and assignment completion from the “field”, and to experiment with using various media to share local environmental research with the global project cooperative.

This project has been made possible by the generous support of the following organizations and program:

1. •Stanford University: Office of the President and Provost, Dean of Research, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Woods Institute for the Environment
   

2. •The Whitehead Foundation
   

3. •The Communication for All Program at Ericsson
   

© Stanford University, 2008