Skype Discussion on the Topic of Higher Education in the USA.

The U.S.-Ukraine Foundation, a member of the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy (USCCD), helped launch a pilot project, a series of monthly discussions between Americans and Ukrainians via the Window on America Centers in Lutsk, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Embassy in Kyiv and USCCD.

In the framework of that pilot project on July 19, 2012 at 10:00 am (DC time) - 5:00 pm (Ukraine time) the sixth discussion with Lutsk Window on America Center was held and it covered the topic of Higher Education in the USA. New Methods of Teaching English. Using New Technologies in Education.

The format of discussion was a Skype video conference call: 20-30 minutes speaker's presentation, and 50 minutes - Q&A. The working  language was Ukrainian.

There was invited a speaker on the topic of Higher Education - Peter Voitsekhovsky who have lived and worked in three different political and social environments: a communist dictatorship — USSR, a liberal democracy — United States, and a ‘hybrid’ system of the post-Soviet Ukraine. It nourished his interest in studies of inter-cultural contact, especially the broad issue of ‘democracy in translation.’ Peter Voitsekhovsky tried to parallel the study of academic theory with practical work in the ‘real world.’ The latter included service in projects of the USAID, OSCE, international NGOs such as the Krieble Institute of the Free Congress Foundation, as well as journalistic reporting for the BBC and Radio Liberty and political commentaries for the Voice of America.

11 people - Svitlana Horbatch the English language teacher from Volyn National University, former English language teacher Kovalchyk Volodumur, the director of the Research Scientific Library Liudmyla Stasiuk, former students from Volyn National University, a journalist from Internet publication http://p-p.com.ua («Під прицілом») and others gathered at the Window on America Center in Lutsk to talk over the topic of High Education.

 The speaker Peter Voitsekhovsky started by sharing his knowledge on education systems in Ukraine and the US. The profound and interesting presentation helped the audience to share their thoughts about Ukrainian  exchange student life abroad, philosophies of each system, etc.

The next part of the Skype discussion was of great success as it was dedicated to A&Q. During it everyone could ask questions on the topic of education and get profound answers on them.

The conference was videotaped so everyone can visit WOA Center Blog http://woalutsk5.blogspot.com/ the Video Bar and learn more about Education in the United States of America.

Business Trip to Uzhgorod!

On July 10-14, 2012 the Window on America Center in Lutsk coordinator Olena Pyshniuk took part in seminar in Uzhgorod.

«Window on America Centers: Using New Technologies to Reach a Wider Audience Through Mobile «Drive-Up Windows» was the topic of the workshop that gathered 29 Window on America Center coordinators throughout Ukraine.

The program was designed by Valentyna Pashkova, IRC Director, Natalka Yasko, IRC Assistant, Oleksiy Vasylyev, “Informatio Consortium” NGO Director, Douglas Morrow, ACAO,Peg Walter, IRO and others.

The schedule of the workshop was full with presentations. We could learn more about:

• Student Programming and Youth

             Douglas Morrow

             Uzhgorod WOA: Maya Tarasova

             Ternopil WOA: Iryna Drach

• Panel Presentation: USCCD program: pilot projects

            Vinnytsia WOA: Yulia Kashpruk

            Lutsk WOA: Olena Pyshniuk

            Donetsk WOA: Halyna Chupryna

• Skype based web conferences and web chats

            Luhansk WOA: Iryna Shestopal

           Dnipropetrovsk WOA: Svitlana Usenko

To speak on the topic Education in the USA was invited Victoria Mykhaylenko, Manager of the Kyiv EducationUSA Advising Center/Alumni Resource Center. During the presentation the present audience learned more about Kyiv EducationUSA Advising Center/Alumni Resource Center and its support for WOA centers in Ukraine About Successes and Challenges of EducationUSA Advising Center at WOA centers shared their knowledge Olena Pyshniuk, Lutsk WOA Center coordinator and Tetyana Luchkina Sumy WOA Center coordinator.

Moderators: Valentyna Pashkova, Oleksiy Vasyliev and Peg Walther helped the members of the workshop to receive information on the topic eLibraryUSA, a collection of 30 authoritative databases on a wide range of topics and for users of all ages, learned a strategy for self-learning the resources, ways to find the full-text, and ideas for using eLibraryUSA for programming.

The second part of the seminar was devoted to exploring ways Kindle e-Readers may be used to extend the collection of the WOA Center and for programming.

It was a great surprise for us when Lutsk WOA Center received 4 Kindles so now the WOA readers could use the

already downloaded materials on Kindles.

This new modern technologies in the work are very useful but not always easy and we thank the organizers of the seminar for being so patient and professional.

The seminar in Uzhgorod is our next step in building bridges of knowledge and understanding between two countries – Ukraine and the United States of America.