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 .