At this point, my sole focus will have to be on gaining personal skills to conduct classes in this platform. This will take some time, as my professional standards as a college teacher have long been somewhat perfectionist.

General curriculum development, technical needs analysis, and Afghan contact outreach lie in the purview of others.

Where do other people stand at this point?

We passed a Google Document around at one point saying what we could teach. Should we pass one around about other capabilities — outreach, technical etc. ? Perhaps we should break the tasks down into baby steps and state what we think we can do.

I think baby steps is the place to start…. any ideas?

Well, I think we define maybe five or six main categories of (for want of a better word) hurdles…. things that need to be figured out before we can actually implement a program. We figure out if one of us actually has the needed information. If not, we take ‘baby steps’ in reading about solutions, digesting them, and reporting back to the group. Another type of ‘baby step’ might be getting in touch with some potential contact.

One hurdle: How do we reach the people we need to reach in a land of limited internet access? (I think my commitment right now might be digesting that 50 page article I linked to.)

Anyway, maybe another Google document for organizational purposes…. We could post the hurdles, list the information we have that might move us past the hurdles (in condensed form!), and make some tiny commitment about what we will read and report on, or who we will contact.

Tell me what you want from me.

The next step is probably to create a curriculum of what we plan to offer in what order and then for each instructor to supply a syllabus of those courses that they are offering…
After that we could look at offering those courses probably free here on edufire to see if we flow well and if there are any bugs that need to be worked out.
Then it needs to be put together as a program that can be packaged and then we can market it by approaching those who can help spread the word.
The next step after that is that someone who is good with research to find out what subjects are necessary for entry level either for Afganistan or any developing country. We might even look at parts of the US that students don’t have resources.
The people will create their own way of getting the information,Our job is to create it and have it available. It is not necessary nor economical timewise or financially for us to try to provide internet connections and computers to these people or countries let’s stick with what we know and work with what we have, Otherwise it becomes overwhelmingly complicated and goes nowhere because we get bogged down in details we have no resources for solving.
@Dave – What subject will you be teaching and can you submit a syllabus of that course on the google docs page?
@william – forget general subject development.. just develope your own offering.. I look forward to seeing your classes on the boards soon and in the meantime.. you could put up a syllabus of what you purpose to teach.. It can always change . The longest journey starts with a single step ;-)

I’ll get something up tomorrow. I was just thinking that once this is ironed-out I would like to attack the Ozarks- the backwaters my family came from.

That’s easy, Alaia: “Introd. to Business” and “Management” are the two most basic courses in my inventory (tho many others, more specialized, are there as well.) My need is to develop the technical ability to offer these on this platform, something VERY different from what I did for 33 years in the traditional classroom.
Dave: Excellent idea, tho you’d have to honcho us all on that one, since you know the culture and its needs.

Is this one still simmering…. could someone… (Agnes) I think you’re the only one who can because you created the group…. please contact the members of the group and ask for a beginning outline of a syllabus of their proposed offering that could be posted on the google docs site. Once they are all up we can put them in order and see if we could set a schedule to try them out on live bodies….
I am working on the life skills syllabus it’s a mini siminar but i thought i would create a sample offering as an intro wich would be two 1 hour sessions with homework….
What about everyone else.

Glad you’re working on that, Alaia! Yes, we all need to get in gear. I didn’t create the group :). I did create the Google document and I think everyone who sent me their email address has full rights to edit it. I got started on mine, but got side-tracked.