Oxford
Development
Education Centre
EOCC Princes St. Oxford OX4 1DD Tel: 01865 790490 e-mail odec@gn.apc.org
ODEC is a voluntary organisation that promotes positive social change through education.
Development education means learning about how people are improving their quality of
life, in Britain and other countries. It also means taking action - to develop your own
community and support other people doing the same in their own countries. ODEC
supports teachers by providing resource packs and helping with curriculum development.
We also do some youth work and community education. For details of our work, have a
look at ODEC projects.
There are over forty centres like ODEC around the country. Contact the Development
Education Association on 0171 4908108 to find your local DEC. Other DECs with Web
pages:
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- NEW Global Learning On-line
GLO now has news about Montserrat and links to relevant sites, including volcano
world. Go to the Global Express section of the site for details.
Black Umfolosi
Black Umfolosi is an exhuberant A Capella group from Zimbabwe. This summer
they took part in a very successful series of schools workshops and performances
in Oxford.
"Black Umfolosi walked in and that was it. During the performance on
Tuesday, the children got really excited. They couldn't wait to see what
they were doing. That was a good start to the week."
Sue Hawker, Head, Bladon School
If you would be interested in a visit from the group in June 1998, contact
ODEC.
- Calling all single parents!
Are you fed up with the press that single parents get? Check out this new ODEC
project and share what life is really like for you!
- ODEC is helping to write Global Learning On-line (GLO), a new education
service for the IFL site. Visit GLO for activities, information and guidelines for
teaching about global issues.
- Visitors from overseas
TUIREG (the Trade Union International Research and Education Group) can put
you in touch with overseas visitors who can give talks on Union issues. Visit the
visitor page for details of people currently available.
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Here are links to sites we think are genuinely global, because they include contacts and
information from outside Europe and North America.
- One World Online A busy site including schools resources for development
education and links to non-governmental organisations involved in international
development, like Oxfam. A member of the BBC Networking Club, the site also
has good media resources, including PANOS, a group specialising in articles from
Southern journalists.
- GreenNet GreenNet is the only computer network specifically designed for
development, environment, peace and human rights groups. This site gives more
information about GreenNet and links to groups from a range of countries and
cultures. A good jumping off point for African links.
- Global Schoolnet Foundation This site is designed for the US education system,
but it provides some very useful guidelines for international schools projects using
the Internet. Lots of opportunities to contact teachers who have specific projects in
mind.
- Fourth World Indigenous people in countries all around the world are still fighting
to be heard and respected. This site links to lots of information about indigenous
peoples in Africa, Europe and Asia, North, Central and South America,
Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia.
- International news The Omnivore project is based at Kansas University and aims
to get up to date news from all over the world and from all sorts of points of view.
It is revised daily and has both a quick news section and information in more depth.
- African National Congress Lets you e-mail Nelson Mandela and other ANC
leaders and access lots of information about the ANC. Has links to other sites on
South Africa and other political sites.
- IGC ConflictNet This site says it is about the Internet for people, not for profit.
Links to a range of voluntary organisations, including the conflict resolution
community.
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If you enjoy thinking about educational alternatives and radical approaches, we think
these sites may interest you.
- Kildlink Kidlink specialises in putting young people from different countries in touch
electronically. It gives a structure to help make these contacts useful. Includes a
section for classroom exchanges.
- Home schooling "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." Mark
Twain. A site that students can use to explore the internet's educational resources
for themselves, plus lots of links to other home schooling pages and some
refreshing ideas about education.
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We feel that underdevelopment is not confined to Southern countries, Britain has its social
problems too. Visit these sites to find out more.
- Homelessness Includes projects tackling homelessness, background information on
the issues, a chance to assess benefit levels and international links.
- National Youth Association The best bit of this site is the Youth Information
Database. Lots of useful information here on life for young people in Britain,
including housing, health, justice and international issues.
- Anti-Nazi League/Anti-Facist Action An easy to read homepage with good links to
other anti-racist sites. It urges visitors to think about the issues for themselves, and
even lists two racist newsgroups that you could subscribe to to find out more about
the views of the people involved. In school we suggest you only use these with
extreme caution, and definitely only as part of a piece of extended work on
challenging racism.
- Anti-racism: A gopher site with texts on a range of issues, including racism in
Britain and Europe.
- Charter 88 A pressure group for the reform of the UK's system of government.
You can tell them what you think, enter competitions and find out more about their
campaigns.
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If you are worried that everyone is getting carried away about the possibilities of the
Internet and ignoring its limitations, these links may interest you.
- Chatback: A world-wide electronic school for children who have some mental or
physical difficulty in communicating. The site explains how Chatback works and
links to some of the exciting projects students are involved in.
- The Internet and the South Exactly who can get access to the internet and who
can't? What problems does this raise for people in Southern countries? Read this
article if you are interested in answering these kinds of questions.
ODEC's site is part of a project to learn how to use the Internet as a development
education resource, funded by DGVIII of the European Commission. These pages were
written by Alison Norris and Thaddeus Lipinski. Comments and suggestions are very
welcome, click here to contact us at odec@gn.apc.org
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